Devou Park City Overlook

The land that is now Devou Park was a hillside farm belonging to William P. Devou and his family. In 1910, following the wishes of their parents, the Devou brothers deeded the property to the city of Covington to be kept as a public park in the family's memory. It was a large and generous gift for its time, and it set aside some of the best high ground overlooking the Ohio River as green space that would never be built over.

Over the following decades the park was shaped into what visitors see today, with winding drives, a golf course, ballfields, a band shell, and the overlook that has become its signature. The Behringer-Crawford Museum, housed in a historic home within the park, tells the story of Northern Kentucky's natural history and heritage. The overlook remains the park's most photographed spot, a place that belongs to everyone thanks to one family's decision more than a century ago.

The overlook looks out over the Ohio River, the wide waterway that has shaped this corner of Kentucky since long before the cities grew up along it. The river marks the boundary between Kentucky and Ohio here, and from the bluff you can trace its bend and count the bridges that stitch Covington and Newport to Cincinnati on the far shore.

The land you stand on is part of the hills that rise steeply back from the river valley. That elevation is what makes the view work, lifting you above the rooftops of Covington so the skyline reads clean across the water. The vantage has been prized for so long that early visitors came by carriage to take in the same scene travelers photograph today.

The Ohio River valley was for centuries a shared homeland and hunting ground for many Native nations, among them the Shawnee, and it lay within the wider range of peoples including the Cherokee and others who moved through and hunted the region. The river itself was a great travel corridor, its valleys and licks drawing people and game alike.

Through treaties and forced removals in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these nations were pushed from their Kentucky and Ohio homelands, and descendant communities of the Shawnee and others continue today, largely in Oklahoma. The view from Devou Park takes in country that carries that long human history beneath its skyline.

The overlook rewards a visit in any season. Spring and summer bring green hills and long evenings ideal for watching the light fade over the skyline. Fall turns the wooded slopes of the park gold and rust, a fine backdrop to the river view. Winter strips the trees and can open even wider sightlines, and a clear cold night shows the city lights at their sharpest.

Because the overlook sits inside a large park, it pairs easily with more time outdoors. Roads and trails wind through the woods below, there are lawns for picnics and a band shell that hosts summer music, and the Behringer-Crawford Museum sits nearby for a look at local history. Many visitors make the overlook the finish of a longer afternoon in the park rather than a quick stop.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.