Mississippi Palisades State Park
Hiking in Mississippi Palisades State Park | Savanna, IL | March 2024
For our time in the Quad Cities, one of our main goals was to go out and find a park or place to hike along the Mississippi River. When we think of the best/most scenic areas to hike in Iowa, they mostly revolve around either side of the state, such as the Loess Hills in Western Iowa or the Driftless region in Northeast Iowa. Northeast Iowa was a bit too far away from Davenport for a day trip, but we were sure we could find something closer. We ended up settling on Mississippi Palisades State Park, which is on the Illinois side of the river but promised good views of Illinois, Iowa, and the river, and had plenty of trails to make it worth our trip.
It was a little over an hour’s drive from Davenport, and to make the trip more interesting we decided to drive up the Iowa side and then back on the Illinois side of the river. We crossed into Illinois on US-52, and agreed that this is one of the most interesting Mississippi River crossings we’ve driven (we also drove this route in 2017). It goes through the small river town of Sabula on the Iowa side, through a National Wildlife Refuge, and the actual crossing of the Mississippi makes the Great River seem so much smaller. Once in Illinois, we drove a little further North to the Southern entrance of Mississippi Palisades State Park, and parked at the first lot on the right.
We started our hike by heading North on the trail up to Lookout Point. It seemed like a good idea to prioritize the hike that would provide the best views, and the name “Lookout Point” sounded promising. The trail began as a pretty steep and narrow path up the bluff, and it wasn’t long before we were at the top. The trail became easier and wider at that point, and we could already tell through the trees that this would indeed be a great vista. There were several clearings on the way to Lookout Point where we stopped to enjoy the different angles of the river, bluffs on the Illinois side, and wide open views of Iowa farmland across the river.
The actual Lookout Point has a small stairway leading down to a platform to overlook the river, and we also found that there’s a road that leads up to this point, just for those who want to enjoy the view without the steep climb. From here, we decided to continue following the trail that lead further North. This trail went downhill, followed a contour around the bluff, then made its way back up to the road. Curtis attempted some letterboxes while Charlotte led me through the entire trail — she did a great job, considering how many roots and rocks there were in the way.
Once we made it back to the road, we decided to follow it down instead of returning to the first trail. It was definitely easier, though it had a pretty steep grade the whole way down. When we came to the intersection with another road, we decided to walk it up to the Sentinel Trailhead, then take that trail to another lookout and then back to the car. This road was also very steep going up, but it was closed to vehicles so at least we had it to ourselves. The Sentinel Trail from here to the lookout was wide and very easy, and we enjoyed the view here, though it wasn’t as wide as Lookout Point. Finally, we followed the Sentinel Trail back to the parking lot — it was also a steeper decline back down to the valley floor.
Altogether, this hike was 3 miles long, and it turned out to be a good workout with all the ups and downs. We would definitely add this park to our growing list of Illinois State Parks with hikes we’ve enjoyed. If you’re interested, check out our Alltrails recording here. After that, we wrapped up our day with driving back to Davenport, taking the scenic route through Illinois, which included driving passed the plant where Curtis was working.
