Hiking Club Route

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Fishing · Lake · River/Creek · Swimming · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

This route combines the Mound Trail and the Upper Cliffline Trail with the Mound Creek Trail for a complete tour of this park. The Mound and Upper Cliffline trails are the most popular ones in the park passing, as they do, the bison range and the historic quarry (near where rock climbing is allowed). Adding the Mound Creek Trail provides a look a the lush land along the creek and of Upper Mound Lake.

From the parking lot at the end of the park's main road (near the nature play areas), go south on the Mound Trail (along which you may or may not see bison) to the Rock Alignment and return past the historic quarry via the Upper Cliffline Trail. It is suggested you do these trails early in the day, as they offer little shade and it can get quite hot out on the open prairie.
Once back at the parking lot, follow a short paved section of the Mound Creek Trail across the creek and then continue of a turf trail up the valley, out on to the prairie, and around the north end of Upper Mound Lake to the campground. Return to where you parked by running south on the park's main road to the ranger station and the along a turf trail from there. Along the way, you can take a short side trail to see another example of a small dam built out of red Sioux quartzite.

The park is named for a mile-long cliff of red Sioux Quartzite. The cliff appeared blue to settlers going west in the 1860s and 1870s, and they named the landmark "the Blue Mound." Which became Blue Mounds when the park was created in 1961.