View of the Mississippi River from the Fire Point Overlook in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument

Length:  1.7-mile loop
Time:  1.5 hours with time to explore
Difficulty:  Moderate

The huge majority of people who come to Effigy Mounds National Monument only visit the North Unit of the park. This is where the Visitor Center is. This is where Rangers lead most guided tours. And this is where the 1.7-mile loop hike to Fire Point is located, and for most people, hiking this trail is the extent of their park activities. Along the way is a bear effigy mound, multiple conical mounds, and two compound mounds, plus views from two overlooks of the Mississippi River. This is plenty for most people, for as the old adage goes, if you’ve seen one Indian mound, you’ve seen them all.

Types of mounds at Effigy Mounds National Monument

All hikes in the North Unit of the park begin at a trailhead to the left of the Visitor Center. The basic trail layout is one, long trail that extends all the way to the far end of the park at Hanging Rock and shorter trails that branch off of it and lead to other points of interest. There are two such side trails within a half mile of the start, one that leads to Eagle Rock and one to Fire Point. Since they are connected at the far end, the two destinations can be visited on one loop hike. It doesn’t matter which one you see first, but I took a right onto the second trail, which set me off hiking to Fire Point and around the loop in the clockwise manner. The National Park Service also recommends this direction, and I agree, for there are more downhill segments than uphill this way around.

Fire Point Loop Hike Map (click to enlarge)

Trailhead for all North Unit trails in Effigy Mounds National Monument

About two hundred yards from the start of the hike is an observation deck that overlooks three conical mounds, which are typically the oldest type of mounds in the park, dating as far back as 2,500 years ago. Most of them are burial mounds, but contrary to popular belief, there are no remains in the actual dirt hill. The deceased were buried in the ground, and the mound was built on top of the burial site. What the mound represents is unknown, but perhaps it is similar to a tombstone or designed to prevent others from looting or disturbing the graves. Not everyone was buried under a mound, so this practice was most likely reserved for the most important people in the society.

Conical mounds near the start of the North Unit trail at Effigy Mounds National Monument

Anatomy of a burial mound

The North Unit is much more mountainous than the South Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument, and the trails are a little more challenging. From the observation deck, the North Unit trail starts up a very steep hill to the top of a plateau, and it doesn’t taper off until the turn for Eagle Rock, .3 mile away. The average grade of the hill is 13%, and most hikers agree that 15% is where strenuous starts.

Steep hill at the start of the main North Unit trail at Effigy Mounds National Monument

The trail continues uphill for another .2 mile beyond the Eagle Rock turn before reaching the top of the plateau, though the climb is not nearly as steep. At the top is a compound mound made of three conical mounds connected together by linear mounds. Today it looks like one, long grass-covered grave that hasn’t yet been packed down. Whereas conical mounds are as old as 2,500 years, linear mound building in the area began around 300 AD. The compound mound era is thought to have come between the conical and linear mound eras, perhaps as a transition from conical to linear mound building.

Compound mound group near the turnoff for Eagle Rock in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument

From the compound mound it is another .2 mile to the turnoff for Fire Point. Just before the turn is a bear effigy mound known as the Little Bear Mound. While mounds were built by various people in North America since 4000 BC, effigy mounds—mounds in the shape of an animal—were only built by Indians in the upper Midwest: northeastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and southeastern Minnesota. Effigy mounds are the newest mounds, having been built between 600 and 1200 AD. While Indians continued to build mounds up until around 1700, the construction of effigy mounds abruptly stopped, like a fad coming to an end.

Like all mounds in the park, the effigy mounds (bears only in the North Unit) have been so whittled down by erosion that they are barely noticeable. To make visualization easier, the National Park Service mows the grass around the mounds and allows the grass on top of them to grow tall so that the shapes are more defined. Furthermore, the shapes are nearly impossible to discern from ground level due to their size. You really need to be up in a tree or flying overhead in a helicopter. Of course that leads to the question as to why the Indians would have gone to all the trouble to build effigy mounds that can only be seen from the sky. The most obvious guess is so that the gods could see them, but since there is no written record, the answer will never be known. And by the way, archeologists do not know for sure if the effigies are bears. They could just as well be bison or any other animal of similar shape.

In the photo below, the bear shape is outlined in red.

Little Bear Mound in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument

The turn for Fire Point comes at .6 mile into the hike. The terrain around the entire loop is hilly, but it is never strenuous.

Turnoff from the main trail in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument onto the trail to Fire Point

It is a .2-mile hike to Fire Point, and the entire trail from the turnoff to the overlook is lined with conical mounds. They start off small and get larger the closer they get to the cliffs overlooking the Mississippi River (the largest also tend to be the oldest). These are probably the most distinct mounds in Effigy Mounds National Monument, forming a long line of bumps that are just large enough to stand out as abnormal on an otherwise flat landscape. The majority of them are waist high.

Conical mounds along the trail to Fire Point in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument

Conical mounds along the trail to Fire Point in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument

The three largest mounds are at the very end of the trail before the overlook. Keep in mind that some of these were excavated, which means they were torn down completely to get to the artifacts and human remains buried underneath. At least one of the large mounds was rebuilt by the archeologists after it was excavated.

Large conical mound near the Fire Point Overlook in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument

The trail continues past the mounds to the Fire Point Overlook before making a U-turn and heading back towards the main trail, passing the Eagle Rock Overlook on the way.

Fire Point trail in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument runs briefly along the Mississippi River

Fire Point Overlook in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument

A directional sign at Fire Point states that the Eagle Rock Overlook is .3 mile away, but on the trail map in the park brochure it is shown as just around the corner. The map is wrong (the map on this page has been corrected). There is what appears to be an overlook just 100 yards farther down the trail, but it is now overgrown. My guess is that the original overlook was here, but it was eventually moved due to the view being compromised by trees and other brush, and the park brochure was never updated.

Old Eagle Rock Overlook in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument

View of the Mississippi River from the new Eagle Rock Overlook in the North Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument

I saw three large snakes at Effigy Mounds National Monument, and to the best of my recollection, that is more snakes than I saw in any other National Park, and that includes hiking dozens of miles of trails in large parks such as Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Acadia National Park, and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. I saw one just past Fire Point and another one just before arriving back at the parking lot. I saw the third snake in the South Unit of the park.

Snake on the North Unit trail at Effigy Mounds National Monument

Snake on the North Unit trail at Effigy Mounds National Monument

From Eagle Rock it is another .2 mile back to the main trail along relatively level terrain. Of course from there is it downhill all the way back to the Visitor Center. If you stop to take photos and read the various wayside exhibits along the trail, plan to spend anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half for the hike.

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