Des Moines area is somewhat bland, especially in comparison with Montana. You would have probably felt more at home around Dyersville or Dubuque, or in the NW part. Sorry, no real mountains around here, though. Southern Missouri is more like what you likely are used to seeing, but I doubt the moneys that great there either. I spent the past 8 years prior to moving here in South Dakota, started at the foothills of the southern Black hills, then north of Highmore, then east of Huron, and I loved all of it, but the hills were my favorite, of course. Alot of people complained that the plains of Eastern SD were boring, but I just say it depends upon what you're looking at, because the landform is constantly changing, but you have to be paying attention.As you head west out of De Smet, you start to go downhill fromm one plateau, and up the next. There is a long hill range there, but you can only see it from a distance, because when you're on it it is quite subtle. The Wessington hills SW of Huron were more dramatic. I had worked in Wessington Springs for a bit, and I could see the grain towers in Huron on a clear day, about 35 miles. Try that in Iowa!!!