Taking a brief detour off my Natchez Trace Parkway route and making a visit to the highest point in Mississippi at Woodall Mountain near the city of Iuka. According to the Highpointers Foundation sign at the County Road 176 intersection, the “mountain” is a monadnock or hill with a caprock that prevents erosion as compared to the surrounding lands. The access road is one mile long and gains 200 feet of elevation.
Access to the summit is extremely easy, just drive to the top of Woodall Mountain Road and you are there. The road should be accessible to any vehicle and is composed of a solid gravel base. The hills can be steep but if you keep momentum there is no difficulty.
At the summit you will find several interesting features including this plaque commemorating the high point at an elevation of 806 feet above sea level. This ranks 45/49 when looking at all the lower 48 states & D.C. No surprise as this is very close the the Gulf of Mexico and elevations here tend to taper off as land heads towards the ocean. Also according to the plaque, Woodall mountain was called Yow Hill or Yow Mountain before 1878 but doesn’t explain why this was done. Odd…
Embedded in one of the rocks is a US Coast & Geodetic survey marker which are always fun to find and photograph.
There’s also a large radio/cellular tower, some power lines, and a Highpointers bench. Not much of a parking area, just a small loop, so on a busy day this could get a bit congested (though I don’t suspect huge hordes of visitors come here).
Anyone who has visited a high point before should know to look for the Highpointers mailbox that usually contains a visitor log book.
This one is rather tidy and organized, I don’t think I have found one so clean before. As is customary there are small trinkets left by other adventurers as novelties for new visitors to find and trade.
There is a fenced off area with some small utilities likely there to keep the radio tower running. Not worth further investigation.
The best scenery is looking down the power line towards the wooded farmlands below. It’s past peak for leaf peeping but still quite beautiful (even if slightly hazy weather today).
Took a few gratuitous truck photos and realized I didn’t take the towing hitch out of the receiver yet. Need to get something to clean off the grease and pull that thing out at my next stop.
Detour is over, heading back to the Natchez Trace now for more mounds and scenery.
Lat = 34.7878685 , Long = -88.2417068 -- Show at Google Maps