Preparation Canyon State Park, State park in Monona County, United States.
Preparation Canyon State Park covers 344 acres with dense woodlands and creek valleys tucked within the Loess Hills region. The land is bordered by steep ridges and crisscrossed by trails that wind through forest and alongside water features.
Charles B. Thompson and Mormon followers who had left the wagon trains bound for Utah established the town of Preparation in the 1850s. Thompson, whom his followers were told to call "Father Ephraim," fled Iowa after a property dispute that reached the Iowa Supreme Court. The town once held 67 houses, a post office, a skating rink and a blacksmith shop; by 1900 it was deserted, and its stockyard closed in 1946.
The name reflects how settlers prepared for their westward journey from this location. Today visitors can see foundation stones of former buildings and old burial grounds scattered among the trees, connecting them to the people who once lived here.
The park has ten campsites equipped with fire rings and picnic tables accessible from the southeast parking area via hiking trails. Most trails suit hikers of various abilities, though some sections feature steeper terrain that requires more effort.
The park sits on loess soil, a fine sediment that creates steep ridges with distinctive erosion patterns rarely seen elsewhere. This geological foundation gives the landscape its dramatic ridgelines on the northern, southern, and western edges.
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