Mississippi’s Highest Point

Last updated: December 9, 2023

Woodall Mountain, Mississippi’s highest point, is just over an hour away from my house, so it was the perfect day trip when my parents visited one October weekend.

At an elevation of 807 feet above sea level, Mississippi comes in at number 47 on the list of high points, beating Louisiana, Delaware and Florida.

The mountain was originally called Yow Hill, but in 1878, was renamed after the local sheriff at the time, Zephaniah Woodall.

We started out pretty early and stopped for breakfast. We got there around 10am and even though it was a Saturday, we had the whole place to ourselves. I would have loved to hike this but there was no option… this is a drive up. I guess you could walk up the gravel road from the main road if you really wanted to, but it wouldn’t be what I consider a hike. It would just be a mile walk on a road.

When you pull up, you’ll see a mailbox (similar to Indiana’s highpoint) and a large rock with a bench in front of it. On the other side of the rock is a plaque attached to it. The geological benchmark is directly across from the plaque.

First things first: I proudly wrote my name on the register.

This highpoint doesn’t have any viewpoints due to it being surrounded by thick brush and large trees. Here’s the best you’re going to get… it’s honestly kinda ugly with the propane tanks and telephone poles, but this is not owned by the state which is where you’ll see really cool observation decks. This is owned by a hunting club who generously allow public access. They’ve also allowed the Highpointers Club (a group of explorers who endeavor to visit and honor each of the highest points in the 50 states) to install a bench and a summit register.

Of course, here’s the geological benchmark proving it’s the states highest point! we have a photo bomber! This Busters first adventure out and his first highpoint. He’s fitting in just fine. 🐶❤️

While this highpoint isn’t over the top impressive, it does have one thing going for it that the others don’t; it’s an 1862 battlefield site that resulted in over 2,000 men losing their lives, making it America’s bloodied highpoint. This isn’t something to necessarily be proud of, but it does set it apart from the rest of the high points.

I added to this adventure by geocaching with the app on my phone. This has quickly become a new obsession that I’m layering into highpointing and it is proving to be very cool… a world-wide scavenger hunt! Dad and Kris helped me walk around like a crazy person to find this one. It’s so satisfying to mark it on the app as found. This one earned me the Mississippi Geocaching badge… seriously, it’s so addictive. Eventually I will start hiding my own but I have to get through finding so many before I can do that… seriously this is like a whole thing. 😜

When we left, we caught the Alabama and Mississippi state welcome signs. I was pleasantly surprised to find an old welcome to Alabama concrete statue I’m guessing existed prior to the interstate being built. Super cool.

This is actually my second visit to this particular welcome sign. To see more photos and learn more about the state of Mississippi, check out my Mississippi State Line Welcome Sign blog post.

I’ve been to the Alabama State Line Welcome sign that crosses over into Tennessee, but this was my first time at the one crossing over into Mississippi (I guess I missed it the first time I went through and only got the Mississippi sign 🤷🏻‍♀️) At any rate, check out my Alabama State Line Welcome Sign blogpost to see more photos and learn more about the state of Alabama.

Here’s the one hidden behind the trees. I love that we found this!

Once we got back to Alabama, we grabbed something to eat and then went back to the house. All in all, an excellent way to spend a fall Saturday!

So that’s a wrap on the Mississippi highpoint! So many more to go, but I’m loving every minute of it and I’ll be sharing them with you one by one as I continue this adventure! Here’s a photo of me writing this blog post in case you ever wondered how that looks. 😂

As always I’m down to hear your highpointing adventures… drop them in the comments section found at the very bottom of this page!