Hills of the US midwest

Many people--including myself until relatively recently--have a mental map of the midwestern states that is pretty flat. While there are many flat plains, there are also a lot of low rolling hills. Many are direct or indirect products of the Ice Age. The hills of Wisconsin were under thick ice sheets which smoothed hills and left undulating terrain. The Sandhills and Loess Hills are dunes that were blown in by winds carrying sand from deposits left behind by glaciers to the northwest. Even before the Ice Age, the Midwest was under a large sea.

I definitely need to take Toyota cruise through some of them to discover more of my own country's huge, diverse landscapes.

Some hills of the US midwest:
-The Sandhills of Nebraska
-The Flint Hills of Kansas
-The Black Hills of South Dakota
-The Driftless region of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois
-The Loess Hills of Iowa

Sandhills, Nebraska - home of great Sandhill Crane migration on the Platte River every summer


Flint Hills of Kansas


Black Hills, South Dakota - home of Mount Rushmore


The Driftless region of Wisconsin


Broken Kettle Grasslands in the Loess Hills, Iowa - home of 135 bison


Map of North America during the Last Glacial Maximum i.e. farthest extent of ice during the last Ice Age including many areas of the Midwest under ice. Advancing and retreating ice scoured the region, leaving smoothed hills.


North America during the Late Cretaceous ~75 million years ago. The Western Interior Seaway covered much of the Midwest including lots of prehistoric sea creatures.