Southern Wisconsin

Being that most of our favorite venues were closed because of the pandemic; Sandra and I have been forced to find other means to entertain ourselves. Since March, our main activity has been enjoying the local outdoors on nature hikes. You might find it hard to believe, but in the past, we would do just a few local hikes a month. On previous summers, I would spend most of my free time bicycling, and Sandra would keep herself busy with other activities. Unfortunately, Sandra does not bicycle, and I am finding it more difficult every year to negotiate our local rolling hills. To make our months of Covid sheltering in place not only bearable but enjoyable, we have been doing at least three hikes a week, at least till it gets too cold.

You might think that our choices of trails would be limited. I was surprised to find that there are well over a hundred trails within a 20 minute drive from our house to explore. It was exciting every week discovering new routes to take. And we are still not finished with our explorations. Most of these trails were just OK, and we would probably do them only once, but we found others that we come back to over and over again. The type of trails we enjoy the most are the ones taking us to either bodies of water, panoramic viewpoints, interesting rock formations, or canyons. These types of trails are not the norm in Wisconsin, but there are enough of them to make things interesting.

The following is a sampling of some of our most favorite trails within a 20 minute drive from our home.

Steven's Pond - UW Arboretum

Fredrick's Hill - Pheasant Branch Conservancy

Picnic Point - Lake Mendota

Longenecker Gardens - UW Arboretum

Pheasant Branch Trail

Tiederman's Pond

Ferry Bluff State Nature Area

35 Minutes From Home

Ferry Bluff has an impressive panoramic view of the Wisconsin River 300 feet below. The Wisconsin River is the best place in the area to experience a true wilderness camping trip. There is a 92 mile stretch of river, lined with massive sandbars and beaches that. except for a few spots, is void of any signs of civilization. On a typical weekend, even if there were dozens of groups looking for the perfect sandbar to camp on, everyone could find their private spot to claim as their own. For a number of years my local returned peace corps group would do an annual one night camping trip down the river. Those trips were great fun.

There is one beach in the wilderness area that is accessible by car at the end of a dirt road. You can see this beach in the picture below, along the far side of the river. This became the most popular spot for nudist for hundreds of miles. People would camp out for a single night or a couple of weeks. They created a community, where many of the people knew each other. A couple times a summer, I would load up my bicycle with camping gear and head out to the beach. There was a designated non-nudist portion of the beach where I would set up camp.

The fun came to an end when local evangelicals strong armed the Department of Natural Resources, who owns the beach, to try to put an end to all of that sinfulness. In response, the DNR enacted strict rules, including banning overnight camping on that particular beach. I miss those days camping on the Wisconsin River.

Gibraltar Rock State Natural Area

37 Minute From Home

Gibraltar Rock is a series of bluffs rising 200 feet above farmland. However, being that the far more exciting bluffs of Devil’s Lake (see below) are only 11 minutes farther down the road, we never visited this spot before this summer. An interesting fact about this park, is that it was the location for the very first Earth Day celebrations. Earth Day was founded by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson.

Governor Dodge State Park

43 Minutes From Home

Governor Dodge is one of the biggest park in Wisconsin. The most interesting spot in this park is Pine Cliff soaring 400 feet straight up out of a beautiful pristine lake. It was fun climbing and watching the boats glide by almost under our feet.

Parfrey’s Glen State Natural Area

44 Minutes From Home

Parfrey’s Glen, Wisconsin's first designated nature area, is a true gem of a place to visit. In the past we were able to hike through a short, lovely canyon to an observation platform resting in front of a waterfall. Over the years the trail through the canyon has washed away,. Now if you are not properly dressed for splashing through the water it would be difficult continuing past the entrance of the canyon.

An extra bonus to visiting Parfrey’s Glen is a ride on the Merrimac ferry, a free seven-minute cruise. By taking the ferry, we actually only shave a few minutes off our driving time. But I love taking boat rides.

Pewits Nest State Nature Area

46 Minute Drive

Pewits Nest is a pocket canyon with a slow moving stream broken up by the occasional cascade flowing through it. This canyon is very unique for Wisconsin. I have never been here before and was not dressed properly to tour the length of the canyon. Instead I took another trail that followed the rim, and occasional offered a view of the canyon floor. From the trail I could hear the people splashing and having fun below.

A side note regarding Parfrey’s Glen and Pewits Nest. Because of the pandemic, both sites were closed this year with their entrances fenced off and intimidating signs posted stating that cars parked on the adjoining streets will be towed. This of course would not stop me. So, I put my bike in my car and found nice legal parking spaces near to both locations and biked in.

Devil’s Lake State Park

48 Minutes From Home

In my opinion, Devil’s Lake is the most beautiful spot in all of Wisconsin, and my absolute favorite place to go hiking. It is a small lake with beaches on the north and south ends and towering bluffs rising 500 feet above the east and west shores. When I am there, I can almost imagine that I am in some place like Colorado, and not Wisconsin. Most of the people that visit the lake do not venture from the beaches. This is fine with me, because the bluff trails are often more crowded than I would like.

Both bluffs can be accessed from either beach, so a circular lake trip would only take a leisurely afternoon. There is an additional trail hugging the western shore of the lake winding through the rockslides that cover the area. The trails to the western bluff, and the northern entrance to the eastern bluff are gradual climbs through dense woods. The three trails leading to the southern end of the eastern bluff are extremely unique for Wisconsin. These trails, which can be quite steep in parts, wind through fields of rockslides and around massive boulders and cliff faces. These are the trails we like to do the most.

When I was training to trek the Grand Canyon, an elevation gain of nearly 5,000 feet, I would often come to this park and ascend two or three bluffs in a day. This park is the only location in southern Wisconsin with any serious elevation gain. Devil’s Lake is also considered the best spot for rock climbing for hundreds of miles. On the weekends you would see spiderwebs of colorful rock climbing ropes draped over the sides of the most popular bluffs.

Balanced Rock Trail

Balanced Rock

Potholes Trail

Devil's Doorway

CCC Trail

Tumbled Rocks Trail

Rocky Arbor State Park

57 Minutes From Home

Rocky Arbor has only one short trail, but it is jam packed with loads of interesting sandstone rock formations on one side of the path, and a small creek on the other. It is a very beautiful trail.

Lake Geneva

1 Hour 25 Minutes From Home

Lake Geneva is a very different place than all the others listed above. This is where most of the 1%ers from Chicago have their summer/weekend mansions and mega mansions. Considering all the money flowing into the area, the town of Lake Geneva itself is surprisingly uninteresting, . However, what makes Lake Geneva a truly unique and special place to visit is what the forward-thinking city fathers planned for the lakeshore. For the entire lake's circumference of the 21 miles, there is a designated trail hugging the shoreline. This means, as you hike along the trail you literally pass through the backyards of mansion after mansion after mansion. It is an amazing hike, with a vast array of gardens and architectural styles on one side and the beautiful lake lined with private beaches and boat docks on the other. I doubt that there is another hike like it anywhere else in the world.

What the trail looks like, is the responsibility of the individual homeowners. Some really get into the idea of the walkway and construct elaborate gardens with natural stone or clay brick pavers. Others might just create a simple walkway of gravel or mulch. Still others will do nothing more than have a designated dirt path through their backyard. Because of this, the look and feeling of the trail constantly changes with a new surprise around every bend.

It has been on my bucket list for a long time to circumvent the entire lake. If we ever accomplish this, we will want to take a leisurely pace and do it in two days. One of the problems with this hike, is that there are very few public bathrooms. This year we completed seven miles of the lake, so 14 miles round trip. There was only one bathroom at the beginning of the hike and one at the turn around point. This is a challenge for us older hikers. Talking about old hikers, the day after this trip, I woke up in a lot of pain. After a few more days of pain, I went to see a podiatrist who prescribed special walking shoes and stretching exercises for me. A week later, I was almost completely cured. I hope that I still have a lot more hiking left in me and by all means will not call it quits yet.