Jackson Counties. Dubuque is the only metropolitan area. The region is distinct from the "Iowan Erosion Surface to the west and the Southern Iowa Drift Plain to the south." A line east of the most easterly tributaries of the Wapsipinicon River defines the western boundary of the landform region, with the catchment of the Maquoketa River south of Bellevue serving as a southern boundary. The most western tributaries of the Upper Iowa, Yellow and Turkey Rivers flow east and south from the vicinity of this moraine. Outside of Dubuque, this region of Iowa is thinly populated. In the western section, agriculture and livestock raising are the norm. As one travels east, and as the valleys tumble down to the Mississippi, much of the land is virtually wild, with a great deal of it publicly owned. The state maintains an extensive number of wildlife management areas, along with state forests and state parks. The most impressive area is on the Mississippi, between Pikes Peak State Park, opposite the Wisconsin River down to Guttenberg, where bluffs lining the river reach their maximum height. This is apparently an Iowa continuation of Military Ridge, a catchment-defining divide in Wisconsin that was used for the Military Ridge Road, a portion of which is included in Military Ridge State Trail, both across the River in Wisconsin. Effigy Mounds National Monument is at the heart of a network of adjacent parks, state forests, preserves, as well as national wildlife refuges, all of which preserve and illustrate the features of the Driftless, where "patchy remnants of Pre-Illinoian glacial drift more than 500,000 years old recently have been discovered in the area." Additional protected areas are Cold Water Spring State Preserve near Decorah, Maquoketa Caves State Park northwest of Maquoketa, Bellevue State Park adjacent to Bellevue, White Pine Hollow State Forest (which protects Iowa's only remaining groves of old-growth white pine trees) near Dubuque, and the Yellow River State Forest in the southeastern corner of Allamakee County, Iowa. Illinois The Illinois portion of the Driftless Area is confined mainly to Jo Daviess County; western parts of Carroll County (the Mississippi River bluffs characteristic of the Driftless terminate around Savanna) and a tiny portion of northwest Whiteside County are also included. The region contains the highest points in the state, of which "the most notable are Charles Mound and Benton Mound, rising to heights of and respectively." The region "has