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| Gibraltar Rock State Natural Area |
There’s no better way to experience autumn colors around southcentral Wisconsin than a hike.
The brilliant yellows, oranges and red
of maples to the scarlet and russets of oaks...the crisp, fresh autumn air and
the last warm rays of sunlight before winter arrives...the crunch of fallen leaves and acorns beneath your boots...stopping to enjoy a warm
mug of apple cider or a caramel apple pulled from your backpack – it all calls for an afternoon on the trail.
Fortunately, there are plenty of great autumn trails around southcentral Wisconsin to hike. Some are right out your back door, while some are a day trip that you can do in an afternoon.
Columbia County
Day hikers can head to the top of a 200-foot butte and enjoy incredible views of the Wisconsin River Valley and Lake Wisconsin at Gibraltar Rock State Natural Area. The 2.2-miles round trip Gibraltar Rock segment of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail climbs the butte’s northeast side. It’s a spectacular hike to take in autumn, when harvest colors abound along the trail and the surrounding countryside. A red oak and basswood forest dominates the butte’s sides. The red oak’s leaves vary from scarlet to orange and light brown while the basswood nicely accents the red oak’s colors with chartreuse to yellow-green leaves. From Portage, take Interstate 39 south then Interstate 90 south/east. Exit onto Wis. Hwy. 60 and go right/west. In Lodi, turn right/north onto Wis. Hwy. 113 then left/west onto County Road V and lastly left/south onto Gibraltar Rock Road. Park off the road at the curve in about 250 feet. The Ice Age National Scenic Trail enters the woods 125 feet to the east on the road’s left side.
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Hikers can learn about how pioneers used trees and climb an observation tower on the Nature Trail Loop at the MacKenzie Center. The 0.4-mile loop runs through a sugarbush, a logging museum, and a forest of oak, hickory and pine. Near the trail’s end, hikers can climb a 40-foot observation tower to see the quilt of farmland and woods surrounding the fairly flat plains surrounding the center. From Poynette, take County Road Q/CS east out of town. Turn south onto Park Road. The center’s main parking lot is on the right/west. The trail is east of the parking lot across Park Road.Dane County
Day hikers can walk through a maple forest and enjoy an impressive view of the Wisconsin River Valley at Brigham County Park west of Madison. Four stacked loops totalling about a mile in length head through the woodlands east of the campground. Each autumn, the maples turn yellow, orange and red in the woods and about the campground, making for a perfect fall day walk. From Mt. Horeb, take County Road ID west. Near Blue Mounds, turn right/north onto Cave of the Mounds Road then right/north onto County Road F. Enter the park with a right/east onto Park Road, park in the lot, and walk the road east to the nature trail trailhead.
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Hikers can stroll through a new deciduous forest past effigy mounds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. A 0.75-mile trail loops through the 52-acre Wingra Woods, which grew in the mid-20th century on what had once been farm fields. Yellow-, orange- and red-leaved sugar maples dominate the woods and are accented with amber-colored basswood, golden-bronze beech, and green hemlock. Yellow birch and hemlock grow on the north slope of a hill near for a sample of the northwoods. In Madison from the intersection of U.S. Hwys. 14 and 18, go north on South Midvale Boulevard. Turn right/east onto Nakoma Road, next right/south onto Seminole Highway, and then left/east onto McCaffrey Drive, using the arboretum's west entrance. At the roundabout, go north onto Arboretum Drive. Park in Wingra Springs Lot on the road's right/north side. ***
Pretty autumn colors await in a small forest at Governor Nelson State Park, located south of Waunakee on the north shores of Lake Mendota. Leaves in the park’s woodlands turn orange, scarlet and olive while the adjoining prairie grass glows a fiery red. The 1.18-mile Woodland Trail also passes a 358-foot panther effigy mound and several conical mounds. From Waunakee, take Wis. Hwy. 113 south. Go right/west onto County Road M then left/east into the park. Leave your vehicle in the last parking lot on the road, just southwest of the boat landing.Dodge County
Hikers can explore the ancient Niagara Escarpment rock formation in wooded Dodge County Ledge Park. The roughly mile-long Ledge Trail circles above and below the 50-foot high escarpment while heading through a small forest of maple-basswood, oak, and lowland hardwoods. A scenic overlook offers a fantastic view of massive Horicon Marsh, which serves as a stopover for tens of thousands of migrating birds and whose grasses glimmer gold in autumn. From Mayville, take County Road V south. Turn right/west onto Raasch Hill Road then right/north onto Park Road. Take the first left/north into the park and leave your vehicle at the first lot on the left/west (across from Campsites 19 and 20).
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Autumn colors add to the impressive beauty of a large effigy mound grouping at Nitschke Mounds County Park east of Beaver Dam. A 1-mile woodchip trail, lit in leaves of yellow and orange with the occasional red, winds through the park and the mound. An estimated 39 animal effigy and conical and linear mounds sit in one corner of the woods. The mounds likely were constructed between 800 CE to 1100 CE, and rank among the best surviving examples of the Mound Builders’ culture in the state. From Beaver Dam, take County Road E (East Burnett Street in town) east. After crossing Wis. Hwy. 26, the park is on the left/north.Green County
A variety of fall colors – including the golds of shagbark hickories, rich yellows of birch, and the bronze of dried prairie grass – await hikers on the Havenridge Nature Trail in New Glarus Woods State Park. The 4.2-mile trail heads through each of the park’s landscapes. Some of the trees here are enormous, as the hilly New Glarus Woods escaped the logger’s ax in the 1800s. Basswood, black walnut, elm and oak also can be found in the park. From New Glarus, head south on Wis. Hwy. 69. enter the park by turning right/west on County Road NN. Park in the first lot on the road’s left/south side.
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Tree leaves along the scenic Sugar River turn gold each autumn, making for a wonderful walk. The 2.5-mile round trip Sugar River Trail West runs on an old jeep trail that hugs the Sugar River between Brodhead and the Decatur Lake dam. Closer to a floodplain forest, this side of the river offers more trees than the Sugar River Trail that travels through farmland east of the waterway. From the junction of Wis. Hwy. 11 and County Road E in Brodhead, go north on the former. Turn left/west on Decatur Road. The parking lot and trailhead is at the Sugar River’s west side. 
