Visit Prairiewoods | Prairiewoods

The Center

The Center is the heart of Prairiewoods’ activities, where most of our programs and retreats take place. It is also where you check in for an overnight stay, gather for meetings large and small, enjoy a healthy meal with friends or get a massage.

In this building, you’ll also find staff offices, meeting rooms, a media center, massage and meditation rooms, a relaxing lounge, a Gift Shop, a fully-staffed kitchen, a well-stocked art room, and a light-filled Atrium for dining and special events.

The Center is always open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. However, depending on our programming schedule, it’s also open many evenings and weekends

Media Center

Prairiewoods’ media center is home to more than four thousand books, videos and audio materials. All are available to guests and the public. Included are materials on spiritual, theological and personal growth topics. The media center is a full lending library, so materials can be checked out and returned a month later.

Meditation Room

The architectural design of the meditation room, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, draws you into the life and beauty of the nearby woods. This room is meant to help you connect with the magnificence of God’s creation in each season. Like the media center, it is free and open to the public.

Our Outdoor Spaces & Gardens

Woods & Prairie

Prairiewoods’ 67 acres of woods and prairie offer a haven for those in search of solitude and a connection with the natural world. Many guests who come to Prairiewoods talk of receiving an instant sense of peace or of experiencing healing energy as they enter the grounds. The noise and activity of the city seem to fade in this contemplative environment! Guests have opportunities to enjoy the woods with its network of trails and meditation areas. Because the woods are home to many species of plant and animal life, walkers may be rewarded with sightings of deer, fox, wild turkeys, and a variety of birds and butterflies.

Walking Trails

Prairiewoods has over two-and-a-half miles of walking trails crisscrossing the woods and prairie. Our trails are open from sunrise to sunset, whether we are here or not. The Center is also about a half-mile from the trailhead of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, a 50-mile trail system that extends through Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha and continues north to Waterloo.

Cosmic Walk

A walk in the woods can become a walk through time. Prairiewoods offers a Cosmic Walk, a symbolic journey representing the Story of the Universe and its emergence through 15 billion years of evolutionary history. Beginning with the Great Flaring Forth—sometimes called The Big Bang—this journey to the emergence of Planet Earth and all life as we know it is mysterious and intriguing. The thirteen stations on the Cosmic Walk will help you to reflect on this journey.

Four Winds Food Forest

Prairiewoods worked with Backyard Abundance, Iowa BIG students and some very dedicated volunteers to convert our existing fruit orchard into the Four Winds Food Forest on the north end of our property. It is a place for fun and foraging that provides food for human and animal guests alike. This space includes a diverse variety of native species that are edible for both humans and animals. It even includes a Nature Playscape with climbing and play equipment made from natural elements, a mud and water kitchen, music walls, climbing logs, seesaws, chalkboards, table games, a theatre and seating areas for parents. Bring the whole family for a fun time in the Four Winds Food Forest, picking fruit, playing and enjoying being in nature!

Natural Playscape

Visit the Nature Playscape made from reclaimed building materials and found objects. It is an outdoor creative space that includes a mud and water kitchen, music wall, climbing logs, seesaws, and more. The Prairiewoods Nature Playscape is located adjacent to the Four Winds Food Forest on the Northwest edge of the land.

Garden of Eat’n

The Center is surrounded by a Garden of Eat’n. This edible landscaping invites you to eat your way through a beautiful walk along stone pathways. You are encouraged to interact with the plants, munching on red currants and oregano, gooseberries and sage. Then take a moment to sit and reflect on a covered bench in the Healing Garden, a peaceful place for meditation or just a quiet moment. The Garden of Eat’n combines form, function and practicality, offering beauty, landscaping, food and habitat for Prairiewoods’ visitors and residents. Come help yourself to all this beautiful garden has to offer!

Green Community Gardens

In the spring of 2022, Prairiewoods in partnership with Linn County Master Gardeners launched our Green Community Gardens. Thirty plots, affordably priced, allow community members to grow their own food. We also offer ongoing education throughout the growing season to everyone renting a garden plot, so gardening experience is not necessary. This is a great opportunity for anyone who doesn’t have their own outdoor space to grow their own produce! To apply to rent a garden plot or to learn more, email ecospirit@prairiewoods.org or call 319-395-6700.

Green Prairie Garden

Our Green Prairie Garden is an expansive vegetable garden that grows about 4,000 pounds of produce each year. The vast majority of this produce is shared with those facing food insecurity in our community through area food pantries. In season, people in our community who don’t have enough to eat are now getting fresh greens, squash, tomatoes and a wide variety of other veggies.

Labyrinth

Prairiewoods has both an outdoor labyrinth, which is always available, and an indoor one, which is available on special occasions or for rent. The symbol of the labyrinth can be found in ancient cultures and has become well known in recent years as a meditative tool. Though there are different designs for labyrinths; those at Prairiewoods are the same pattern as the one embedded in the floor of the Chartres Cathedral. Pilgrims once walked that labyrinth as their individual pilgrimage seeking the sacred