
Exploring Iowa’s Island Town and Illinois’ Mississippi Palisades
This past Sunday, February 2nd, 2025, my wife Ashley, our son Bennett, and I took advantage of an unseasonably warm winter day to explore Mississippi Palisades State Park in northwestern Illinois. Our adventure began with a scenic drive through Iowa's only island town, Sabula, before crossing into Savanna, IL. From there, we began our almost five-mile hike through this stunning park. Hiking along it's towering limestone cliffs, historic nature trails, and taking in several breathtaking views of the Mississippi River and it's backwaters.
My wife and son at our first overlook of the day along sunset trail.
Mississippi Palisades State Park is a National Landmark, covering 2,500 acres of fairly rugged terrain. The park’s network of trails follows paths that Native Americans once used, weaving through wooded ravines, caves, and impressive rock formations like Indian Head and Twin Sisters (which we visited).

A trip here in the summer offers bursts of color, featuring wildflowers such as trillium and bluebells. A visit in the fall transforms the cliffs into a vibrant canvas of reds, oranges, and yellows. Wildlife is abundant here, with everything from eagles soaring overhead to white-tailed deer, foxes, and pileated woodpeckers making their home in the park. On the day we spotted several deer in the prairie view section, loads of woodpeckers, and several eagles along the roadway from Sabula into the park
A map of our hike from the day. Red dots are places you should stop to take photos, which you can see in the gallery below.
On our hike, we ended up tackling what is considered the more strenuous sections of the trails in the Southern portion of the park. First, we tackled Sunset Trail, followed by Sentinel Trail, and wrapped up with Prairie View Trail and the main section of Pine Trail. The scenic overlooks of the Mississippi River and its backwaters are truly stunning, but the trails themselves proved to be quite the challenge.
The recent warm weather had turned the once-frozen ground into a muddy, slippery mess, making the steep climbs and descents even trickier. Navigating the cliffs in these conditions was no easy feat, but nothing we couldn't, or hadn't, handled before.
For those adventurers who aren't fans of intense elevation changes, the park offers several easily accessible overlooks with their road system. Some of the highlights we visited included Lookout Point, Twin Sisters, Oak Point, Louis’ Point, and Ozzie’s Point. Unfortunately, the road to the Indian Head trail was closed off for the winter, and we ran out of daylight to hike there, so a return trip is definitely in our future!
Of course, we had to get a selfie at the first overlook of the day!
Check out the photos below for a closer look at our adventure through Mississippi Palisades State Park!
Photos: Mississippi Palisades State Park - Savanna, IL
Gallery Credit: Tom Ehlers / Ashley Ehlers
Mississippi Palisades State Park proved to be both a beautiful and challenging adventure, offering a mix of history, nature, and stunning views. We’ll definitely be back to explore more—maybe next time in the fall when the colors are at their peak! Before heading for home, we stopped at Driscoll's Island outside the town of Sabula and captured the beauty of several swans swimming on the frozen lake at sunset.
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Gallery Credit: Tom Drake
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Gallery Credit: Tom Ehlers