Council Point

Council Point is a quieter, more intimate bluff-top overlook at Wyalusing State Park, where you stand on the edge of a grassy clearing and look out over a broad sweep of the Wisconsin River valley and the distant line of Iowa’s bluffs. From here, the view feels a bit more sheltered than the nearby main overlooks: the river bends away in a wide curve, tree-covered slopes drop steeply below, and the sky seems to open just enough to frame the changing light at sunrise or sunset.

Getting to Council Point is simple and, for most visitors, quite manageable. From the parking area and Peterson Shelter near the heart of the Wisconsin Ridge campground, you follow a somewhat steep mowed lawn behind the shelter that may present accessibility challenges for some visitors, while hikers on the Bluff Trail can reach it via a gentle connector that leaves the main path and climbs only slightly through open woods before emerging at the edge. Most of the route from the shelter area is fairly short and open, making it easy for many families and hikers who want a memorable view without tackling a long or rugged hike. 

Historically, Council Point and the surrounding bluffs sit within a landscape that Indigenous peoples used for thousands of years as hunting grounds, travel corridors, and sacred spaces, as shown by the many nearby effigy and burial mounds preserved in the park. Later, the high ridgetops above the Wisconsin–Mississippi confluence guided explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and early settlers moving through the region, and today Council Point carries that legacy forward as a quiet place for reflection where visitors can look out over the same rivers and valleys that have anchored human stories here for countless generations