Plan with
Confidence
The park is open year-round daily from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. The ranger station is open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. as staff are available (which is more likely during the summer months). A vehicle permit ($7/day, $35/year) is required to enter and park in the park.
Path Type
Loop
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 hiking 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.
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