By early May, many of the spring wildflowers have disappeared from southern and central Illinois woodlands, yet sites in northern Illinos are just hitting their peak.
Mississippi Palisades State Park, located near the confluence of the Apple and Mississippi river in northwestern Illinois, is an excellent wildflower-viewing area during May. In fact, it has been said, "Instead of giving your mother flowers for Mother's Day, take her to see the colorful explosion of wildflowers on the Sentinel Trail. Peak bloom is usually on Mother's Day."
Mississippi Palisades State Park, near Savanna, is located in the southern part of the geologic region know as the "Driftless Area." Although much of Illinois' landscape is the result of glacial action, this is not the case with the extreme northwest corner. The Driftless Area was untouched by glaciers during the various Ice Ages. This area, with bitterly cold winters, is slow to warm in the spring, allowing late viewing of spring wildflower assemblages.
The unglaciated topography of Mississippi Palisades State park contains steep limestone bluffs and rock palisades that overlook the Mississippi River. The bluffs are cut by wooded ravines. The name palisades was given to the steep bluffs because of their resemblance to similar geological formations on the Hudson River.
Contained within the park is the Sentinel Nature Preserve, dedicated as the 200th preserve in the state. This preserve is named for a geologic feature called the Sentinel, a free-standing dolomite column rising nearly 200 feet above the talus (rock) slopes. In addition to its geologic features, Sentinel Nature Preserve also contains expanses of wildflowers. On the north-facing slopes and in the ravines are extensive stands of Virginia bluebells, great white trillium, and large flowered bellwort. Here one can also find the state endangered Canada white violet and the ill-scented red trillium, a species that resembles the great white trillium except that its flower is a deep marroon red. On the bluff tops and northern exposures of the preserve's slopes are large concentrations of jeweled shooting star. They clothe the rocky slopes in a blanket of pink that can be seen from the highway far below. Although jeweled shooting star, with its magenta color, may resemble its co! usin, the prairie shooting star, its preference is for growing on north-facing cliffs and bluffs exposed to the northwest wind.
Whether one desires to see a hillside of amethyst-colored shooting stars, expanses of trilliums in deep lush valleys, wild turkeys at dusk, or 400-million-year-old rock palisades, a unique mix of wonders awaits the visitor to Mississippi Palisades State Park.