The Walter House at Cedar Rock State Park (Part 3: Twilight)
I decided to take a second trip to the Lowell and Agnes Walter House, located within Cedar Rock State Park, near Quasqueton, Iowa.
On my first trip (which I haven't written about yet, but will, soon), I was just a random member of the public, a resident Iowan, asking the park director if I could take photos. She had no reason to assume I would take any particularly impressive photos, but she was kind enough to allow me to come and do my thing. She liked the photos I ended up giving to her, and we struck up a friendship via our communications. So I wasn't shy about telling her I'd love to come back and photograph the Walter House again, to try and capture fall foliage, as well as try my hand at some twilight photography.
We originally scheduled for me to come in early October, but the trees were still very green. We rescheduled for mid-October, but even then, the trees had only just begun to change. So my dreams of shooting aerial photos with impressive autumn foliage were sort of dashed, but that's okay. An excuse to come back next fall!
I arrived in the late afternoon and started in the house. I had extensive interior photos from my first visit to the Walter House in June, so I tried to shoot new angles that I hadn't attempted previously.
A view from the front entrance that shows the owner's marimba in the closet. I love the idea of the Lowell Walter, inviting people over for a party, and jamming out for them on the marimba.
Also, note those little tables....they were drinks tables, and can be seen being used by Frank Lloyd Wright himself during his visit to the Walter House, in this photo from the Walter House collection
The Walter House reminds me of a magical treehouse, with a beautiful woods everywhere you look
I also took a little quick iphone video footage of the kitchen, which I shared on my TikTok account People responded well to it, it currently has about 186,000 views last I checked.
After shooting the interiors, I could see that the golden hour was upon me, so I went outside to the Frank Lloyd Wright designed boathouse (which I will discuss in depth in another post) to take my aerial photos. No impressive fall foliage, but a beautiful location to photograph nonetheless, right along the banks of the Wapsipinicon River
The sun was very close to setting at this point, so I turned my attention to my twilight photos. Twilight photos are photos of a house taken starting right at sunset, and the 20ish minutes after, until the light is gone. With all the lights on in the house, it glowed like a lantern.
I was absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to photograph the colorful Frank Lloyd Wright designed fountain in its full glory, as it had been shut off for the day on my previous visit. It's absolutely stunning, as you can see:
Absolutely buzzing with excitement over having captured the photos I came for, I headed back to the visitor's center, where the staff was waiting for me to finish up, and offered me the wonderful surprise of dinner!
Closed for the season now, I will ABSOLUTELY be back to the Walter House in the spring. I encourage anyone---Iowans or otherwise---to make a trip to Cedar Rock State Park, to take in the beauty of this incredible architectural creation by Frank Lloyd Wright.
