Walk the path along Scott Avenue near Principal Park this week and you'll see it: a finished whitewater feature, concrete and steel shaped into waves, sitting behind a chain-link fence with nobody on the water. The construction crews packed up weeks ago. The signage says next spring. For now, the newest and most expensive piece of the Des Moines River's downtown makeover is a spectator sport, not a paddling destination.
That gap between funded and finished is the story of this river right now, and it's easy to miss if you only catch the headlines. Three weeks ago, Iowa Confluence Water Trails, known locally as ICON, landed another $2 million in federal money for two more river parks. That sounds like six sites' worth of new recreation opening up along the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers this fall. It isn't. If you actually want to get a kayak in the water downtown before winter, your real options are narrower than the funding announcements suggest, and knowing which stretch of river is usable now versus which is still a construction zone is the difference between a good Saturday and a wasted drive.
Six Sites, Different Clocks
ICON's downtown run strings together access points along roughly a mile and a half of river through the heart of the city, part of a broader network that its leaders say will eventually connect 150 miles of central Iowa creeks and rivers. The initiative launched in 2016, and by this year local, state, federal, philanthropic and private partners had already committed more than $103 million to it.
That money hasn't landed all at once, and it hasn't landed on every site at the same time. Here's where each piece of the downtown run actually stands as of this fall:
- Harriet Street — Complete. This is the primary takeout for paddlers running the downtown stretch, with a gravel lot and motorized boat access already in place.
- Principal Point, near Principal Park at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers — Construction wrapped this summer on the roughly $60 million whitewater feature, but the site stays closed to the public while crews test the waves. ICON has set a target grand opening for spring 2027.
- Birdland Park and Marina — Existing infrastructure, including boat slips and the Des Moines Rowing Club's home base, is already in use. The resort-style overhaul the city has envisioned for years, complete with a new boathouse, kayak rentals and a river overlook, is still ahead of the improvements funded this August.
- Prospect Park — Same story. The city has already put more than $6 million into the park, and the new federal award will fund the site improvements that make it, in ICON's words, the future starting point of the downtown run. That work hasn't broken ground yet.
- Hubbell Trailhead, near Gray's Lake — A second, more beginner-friendly whitewater site is under construction here, distinct from the aggressive waves at Principal Point. It won't be finished until 2028.
- Fleur Drive Dam — Improvements funded by a separate $1 million grant in 2024 focused on dam remediation and new river access for kayakers and anglers.
Line those up and the pattern is obvious once you see it: the sites furthest along, Harriet Street and the existing Birdland docks, are the oldest infrastructure on the list. The newest money is chasing the sites that still need years of construction. Funding announcements and usable river access are two different timelines, and this fall you're living inside the gap between them.
Why the Marquee Sites Are Still Behind the Fence
The mechanism here isn't mysterious once you know how the money moves. U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn secured this August's $2 million through the Community Project Funding process, a federal program that caps members of Congress at 15 requested projects a year on behalf of local governments and nonprofits. Nunn has now put $3 million total into ICON through this route, first with the 2024 Fleur Drive award and now with Birdland and Prospect Park. Each grant funds a specific, discrete scope of work rather than the network as a whole, which is why one site can be paddle-ready while another, a few hundred yards downstream, is still waiting on its turn in the funding queue.
Des Moines Mayor Connie Boesen and ICON's leadership announced the latest award at a press conference held, fittingly, at Birdland Marina itself, standing on the dock that already works while describing the improvements that don't exist yet. ICON Executive Director Stephanie Oppel framed the Prospect Park investment as the piece that lets the site serve as the actual starting line for the downtown run, which tells you the current starting point is more improvised than official. Rep. Nunn's own comments at the announcement leaned on the same idea from a different angle: a riverfront people actually use is what fills the restaurants and shops around it, an argument that only holds once the sites in question are open.
What's Actually Worth Doing on the River This Fall
None of this means the river is off limits. It means the smart move is picking from what's finished rather than chasing what's promised.
Harriet Street remains the reliable takeout for anyone running the stretch from farther upstream, and it's the one piece of new-build infrastructure on this list that carries zero asterisks. Birdland Marina is open for its full moorage season, which runs from mid-March through mid-November, and the docks there already serve the Des Moines Rowing Club alongside recreational boaters. If you'd rather watch the river than paddle it, Captain Roy's, the riverfront bar and restaurant that anchors Birdland Park, is still the spot to grab a seat and see the marina traffic firsthand while the bigger renovation waits its turn.
For anyone curious about the Gray's Lake side of things, the Hubbell Trailhead construction is visible if you walk the area, though the whitewater feature itself won't be swimmable or paddleable until 2028. That timeline lines up with changes already underway near the lake this year, including the newer upland bypass trail that's altered how regulars move around the water on foot.
Principal Point is worth a visit even closed. Standing at the fence line and watching a $60 million public investment sit finished but empty is its own kind of only-in-Des-Moines fall activity, and it gives you a preview of what the confluence will look like once the gates open next spring.
The Longer Arc
ICON's broader network has already added completed access points at Clive Greenbelt Landing, Merle Hay in Johnston and Colby Park in Windsor Heights, proof that the funding-to-completion pipeline does eventually deliver. The Des Moines River sites are simply earlier in that pipeline right now, with the oldest infrastructure carrying the weight until the newer investments catch up.
If you're the kind of resident who tracks this stuff, the thing to watch isn't the next funding announcement. It's the next completion date. Principal Point in spring 2027 is the one to circle, because it will be the first marquee downtown site to move from fenced-off to fully open, and it'll tell you a lot about how quickly Birdland and Prospect Park might follow.
For more on how the riverfront connects to daily life around Gray's Lake, see our earlier look at the trail changes that reshaped that side of the park this summer. And if you're exploring what makes this stretch of the city work day to day, our Des Moines neighborhood guide has more on the area beyond the river.
If a move to this side of the metro is somewhere on your horizon and you want a guide who tracks this kind of local detail closely, Erika Hansen would be glad to help. Schedule a free consultation whenever you're ready to talk next steps.
