Two of these stops were great!

And one was not so great but most of that was timing I think.

The bonus was all of them were free and great ways for kids to get some energy out!

The first stop was in Independence, KS at the Riverside Park and Ralph Mitchell Zoo.

They don’t have any big animals but we saw monkeys, birds, raccoons, donkeys, and more!

And the best part was it is free!

It was a great way for the kids to walk around.

And since there were animals to look at none of mine complained about the walk 😉

They also had a fun play area with statues and a castle! The boys liked the castle!

Second stop that was great and free was the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center in Sioux City, IA. The kids loved a little camera in a cave that was an animal on the exhibit!

We stumbled upon this fun play place!

The kids loved this playground!

I liked the short walking path that would give everyone a chance to stretch their legs.

We stopped overnight which is not something we typically do so we got to stop more on the way up.

The next day we stopped at McCrory Gardens in Brookings, SD.

It looks like a beautiful botanical gardens and arboretum but there was a wedding going on so we missed a lot of it.

Still a nice place to walk around though.

No clue what Little Bit is doing here…

But those two always make me laugh.

Do you have some cheap or free must stop places while traveling?