Grant Wood Scenic Byway
Grant Wood Scenic Byway is a State Scenic Byway in Iowa. Within Iowa it covers roughly 75 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Grant Wood Scenic Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Grant Wood Scenic Byway runs 80 miles from Stone City to the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa, tracing the landscape that shaped the state's best-known painter. Grant Wood was born in nearby Anamosa in 1891, where the free Grant Wood Art Gallery now covers his life and work, and in 1932 he co-founded the Stone City Art Colony, a short-lived summer school for painters set in a former quarry town along the byway's western end. The route crosses three rivers, the Wapsipinicon, Maquoketa, and Mississippi, and passes through nine towns, including Baldwin, Wyoming, Monmouth, Springbrook, and Maquoketa, before reaching Bellevue State Park on the Mississippi bluffs. Along the way are several wineries, a microbrewery, art galleries in Maquoketa and Bellevue, and the Anamosa State Penitentiary Museum. It's less a single dramatic overlook than a mile-by-mile tour of the ordinary Iowa countryside Wood turned into an American icon.
- 80 miles, Stone City to the Mississippi
- Grant Wood's birthplace, Anamosa
- Stone City Art Colony (founded 1932)
- Wapsipinicon, Maquoketa & Mississippi rivers
- Bellevue State Park
- Anamosa State Penitentiary Museum
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What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along Grant Wood Scenic Byway
No campgrounds are listed close to Grant Wood Scenic Byway yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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