Mississippi Palisades State Park (4.0 miles; d=5.20)
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Mississippi Palisades State Park Hike Route Map
An approximate track of my hike at Mississippi Palisades State Park, as depicted a la Google Earth...
Mississippi Palisades State Park Hike Route Map
An approximate track of my hike at Mississippi Palisades State Park...
Mississippi Palisades State Park - South Entrance
I've been to this state park three times in the past four years and there is always road construction going on...this is where I wanted to enter the park but I was forced to detour to the north entrance by a bunch of orange signs...
Mississippi Palisades State Park - North Entrance
Entering the park...
Mississippi Palisades - Ozzie's View
Entering at the north entrance allowed me to stop by a few nice overlooks before starting out on my hike...this is the first one, known as Ozzie's View...
Mississippi Palisades - Louis Point
The second drive-in overlook, this one was called Louis Point...I wonder if there's an interesting story behind these names...
Mississippi Palisades - Louis Point
There were a number of well-placed benches at Louis Point inviting me to stay longer...
Mississippi Palisades - Oak Point
Oak Point Overlook...this was the third of the three drive-in overlooks I stopped by on my way to the trailhead...you can see the bridge over the Mississippi from Savannah, IL (left) to Sabula, IA (right)...
Mississippi Palisades - Oak Point
Oak Point Overlook...
Mississippi Palisades - Oak Point
There was a decent amount of river traffic...
Mississippi Palisades - Lookout Point
It was fitting that the finest of the four pre-hike overlooks was at the trailhead...looking north along the Mississippi from Lookout Point...
Mississippi Palisades - Lookout Point
I could just make out Dubuque, Iowa to the north...
Mississippi Palisades - Lookout Point
One last look over the shoulder at Lookout Point before hitting the trail...
The Sunset Trail was the first of the three paths on tap for the day...it loops for about a mile around the Lookout Point area...
The trail immediately dropped quite a ways into a deep ravine...
The forest really started crowding in on the trail as I found myself climbing to the halfway point of the Sunset Trail...
It was quickly apparent that the southern half of the trail was much less traveled, the trail was much more overgrown...
First I've ever seen of these ridiculous things...they're slick, and from what I saw almost useless in preventing erosion...
One of the many short bridges that help cross the numerous ravines in the area...
Thrre-quarters of the way around the Sunset Trail I dropped down to the access road to reach the trails to the south...
OK...so, where's the construction...oh well at least there's no traffic...
The entrance to the Sentinel Trail begins next to this old CCC-built picnic pavilion not far from the south entrance to the park...
From the stonework in this bridge I'm guessing it dates back to the CCC as well...
Starting onto the Sentinel Trail...