Nodaway Valley Park, Clarinda IA
Camped at Nodaway Valley Park, Clarinda IA, May 10, 2011
This older 164 acre park, located 2 miles north of Clarinda on Highway 71, is on a hill overlooking the Nodaway and East Nodaway Rivers. It has an extensive trail system, 14 electrical campsites, picnic areas and a playing field in upland timber and open fields.
Nodaway Valley Park, Clarinda IA
- Verizon cell phone and EVDO service - slow extended service
- Locate Nodaway Valley Park on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Nights I've camped here
Sweet, Rich Hickory Milk
Hickory was another favorite. Rambling through the Southeast in the 1770s, the naturalist William Bartram observed Creek families storing a hundred bushels of hickory nuts at a time. "They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid" to make a thick milk, "as sweet as fresh cream, an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially hominy and corncakes." Years ago a friend and I were served hickory milk in rural Georgia by an eccentric backwoods artist named St. EOM who claimed Creek descent. Despite the unsanitary presentation, the milk was ambrosial - fragrantly nutty, delightfully heavy on the tongue, unlike anything I had encountered before.