Fall Color Effigy Mounds National Monument
McGregor and Marquette, Iowa
On the Great River Road Scenic Drive
Fire Point Overlook Trail - Effigy Mounds National Park
Other than the Christmas Holiday period, Effigy Mounds is open year round. The Mounds park covers 2500 acres with over 14 miles of hiking trails winding among the hundreds of preserved and historically significant Indian mounds. The Visitor Center offers films, a museum, a bookstore, and organized naturalist programs. In addition to the mounds, the praire restoration, and woodland preserve, the park also offers excellent panoramic views of the Mississippi River valley.
We've enjoy visiting the Mounds National Park in all the seasons. The mounds are easiest to see in late fall and winter with the lack of vegatation and eagle watching is best this time of year. Spring adds a bonus of springtime woodland plants breaking ground and blooming. The mature Oak, Maple, and Ash overstory provides nice shade for summer walks yet also allows a cooling breeze to pass easily through the trees. And as the pictures in this section illustrate, fall foliage time is a great time for a visit to the Mounds.
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The Visitor Center is open year round. Inside is a museum, a library, a small theatre, and a bookstore with information on the natural history of the area . . .  as well as material about the native mounds people who occupied the area a thousand years ago
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The hiking trails provide excellent exercise in a scenic woodland setting. A National Park Service guidebook provides notations on the various mound formations whilst other guides and signs provide information on the flora and fauna of the area.
These mounds are from the Fire Point Grouping. In winter, when these pictures were taken, one can actually see the mound shape a little better because the vegetation is down.
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