Do you need to escape the daily grind? Every so often, I just seek quiet. Period.
Enter the Eagle View Motel in peaceful Guttenberg, Iowa.
I should disclose at the outset that Eagle View is not for everyone.
Those who need a fancy website, an active front desk, a restaurant, spa, swimming pool or cutting-edge furnishings won’t be happy here.
All I wanted: a quiet place to relax, maybe do some work and catch up on reading. On this trip, I proclaimed myself “low maintenance.” All I needed was a clean, safe room.
Eagle View offers only six rooms on two floors, and there was at least one night during my late-September stay when I think I was the only guest.
There is no front desk. You make a reservation by phone or email, and the proprietors call with a room number and code to unlock the door on the day of arrival. Pretty simple.
One amenity not lacking here is a view. Eagle View, as the name implies, is perched atop a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Each room is facing nearly due east, so I made a point to set my alarm for sunrise each morning. I stumbled to the window and grabbed my camera. If the atmosphere is favorable, you will photograph some spectacular sunrises.
For those who think the Midwest is completely flat, visit this place. The region is known as the Driftless Area. Glacial movements that created prairie land in so much of the corn belt never took place in portions of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, which means there are some steep, rocky cliffs and high bluffs.
Immediately below the bluff and to the south is the town of Guttenberg, named in honor of Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the movable-type printing press. A replica of the Gutenberg Bible is on display in the local library. The town is basking in the glow of being named Iowa’s “River Town of the Year” for 2019.
It is a stop on the Great River Road, and its modest downtown sits right along the river, with a beautiful tree-lined park to accent the charm of a place that also is home to the workings of a lock system for ships moving downstream. From town or from Eagle View, one can observe huge barges making their way to bigger cities and an assortment of wildlife enjoying the river habitat. Sadly, I did not see an eagle during my stay.
But I did manage some relaxation. One bright afternoon, I took a cooler and lawn chair to the grassy area immediately in front of the motel. The only sounds came from an occasional truck making the steep grade on U.S. 52, or a distant freight train hugging the shoreline tracks over on the Wisconsin side, which seems several miles away as the crow flies. If you bring small children here, keep them close to you. The drop-off in front of the motel is steep and dangerous.
Eagle View does offer some larger rooms, and a small group could probably book the entire hotel for a retreat. It’s a middle ground between a rustic cabin and a full-service hotel. Rooms are furnished with comfortable beds, a flat-screen TV, free Wi-Fi, and a tub or shower. My room had a mini-refrigerator and coffee maker, too.
Room rates vary by season but are quite modest, as perhaps you would expect. Extended stay rates (more than seven days) also are available. If you like to golf, the nicely maintained Guttenberg Golf Course is open to the public and just more than a mile northwest of the Eagle View. I played nine holes. The course provided clubs and use of a golf cart for under $30. I nearly had the course to myself on a picture-perfect fall weekday. At the fifth hole, there are more views of the river and the bluffs surrounding it.
Quaint, well-preserved towns are within a short drive of Eagle View: Dyersville, Elkader and McGregor are fun places to take a casual walk and imagine life here a century ago. Wyalusing State Park and Effigy Mounds National Monument are roughly a 30-minute drive from here, as is the shooting location for Field of Dreams, the classic 1989 motion picture starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones that captured the attention of baseball fans around the world.
But Eagle View is also a place where you can sit back, do little, and simply enjoy the vantage point it affords. Sometimes a surprising travel find makes it possible for you to relax in a unique setting.
If You Go