Yellow River State Forest IA Hike - Luster Heights Unit

South Overlook Luster Heights

In my quest to avoid hiking in MN and WI during the two November weeks of deer gun hunting season, hiking buddies and I headed an hour down the river road to Iowa. There we started exploring the gorgeous Yellow River State Forest near Harper's Ferry along the Great River Road.

The forest lies right along the Mississippi River and features rolling hills and high bluffs. It has a number of units with lots of interesting landforms.  We started our exploration in the Luster Heights unit, a blufftop set of trails that offer easy hiking and great overlooks.

Luster Heights unit trail map

Many of trails are on old logging roads and well mapped. The forest is managed for multiple uses including recreation, logging and forest research. There are many areas of pine plantations. The oak and hickory trees tower over many areas creating a huge canopy that shades the understory.  

From the early 60s until 2017,  a prison camp was established at Luster Heights and inmate labor was used to create/maintain trails, campgrounds, waysides, overlooks and picnic areas. The trails in the Luster Height unit are wide, well marked and traverse some beautiful forestlands. The 3 miles of mostly connecting trails are easy enough for a gentle hike or Amble and great for general hiking, biking and cross country skiing or snowshoeing.

Leaf-covered ravines

We hiked the trails of this oak, hickory and pine plantation forested area over two separate days. The wider trails were easy to follow even with a bushel of oak leaves covering the trails through many parts of the forest. The overlooks give a fabulous view of the Mississippi river, its sloughs and floodplain forests and the Wisconsin bluffs. The views along the trail deep into the woods and ravines are also pretty spectacular. This is a mature forest with towering trees which would make a fantastic shaded hike during hot summer days.

THE HIKE

A rare driftless area in Iowa that hugs the Mississippi River features towering bluffs, deep ravines and lovely rim and forest trails. The hiking at the Luster Heights unit  (770 acres) is easy with very moderate to little elevation. Two overlooks give wide views of the river, floodplain forests, sloughs and bluffs of neighboring WI's driftless area. Many connecting trail give options for shorter or longer hikes on the 3 miles of trails. Trails are well-marked (maps can be downloaded from the Yellow River State Forest website).

Location

The Luster Heights Unit of the Yellow River State Forest is located off the Great River Road (Hwy 364/X52) about 5 miles south of Harper's Ferry, IA. Turn easy on Luster Heights Rd and head up the gravel road about a mile to a small parking lot and trailhead on the left. In winter, the trails are groomed for cross-country skiing.