Adel is the county seat of Dallas County, a small town of about 6,000 people sitting just west of Des Moines along the Raccoon River. The historic courthouse square anchors a compact downtown with a handful of independent shops, a couple of restaurants, and the kind of unhurried pace that makes a real contrast with the state capital twenty minutes down the road.
The town's biggest draw is the Annual Sweet Corn Festival in August — over seven tonnes of free sweet corn, a parade that is the largest in the county, and a craft fair that takes over the square. If you happen to be in central Iowa in late summer, it is worth timing a visit around it. Outside of festival season, the Raccoon River Valley Trail is the main attraction: a 90-mile paved trail for cycling and walking that passes through Adel and connects several small towns across Dallas County.
The Dallas County Courthouse itself is a handsome Romanesque Revival building from 1902, one of the more photogenic courthouses in Iowa. The Raccoon River runs just south of downtown and has a pleasant park along its banks. Adel is not a destination in itself, but if you are cycling the trail or passing through on your way west from Des Moines, it makes a good stop for lunch and a stretch of the legs.