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| Prickly pear cactus blooms in Wisconsin around mid-June. |
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| Spring Green Preserve Trail topo map. Click map for larger version. |
The 3.2-mile round trip heads through the prairie and to a blufftop vista. The 480-acre preserve is owned by The Nature Conservancy and was designated a state natural area in 1972.
To reach the trailhead, from Spring Green take Wis. Hwy. 23 north. Turn right/east onto Jones Road then left/north onto Angelo Lane. A parking lot is on the lane’s left/west side.
The first portion of trail heads across the sand prairie, a former Wisconsin River terrace that at one time was part of the original floodplain. Thanks to the dry sandy soils left behind, moisture seeps quickly into the ground, and with a southern exposure gets a lot of sun so dries out quickly.
The result is almost desert-like conditions with open sand and shifting dunes. A unique environment for Wisconsin, plants and animals rare in other parts of the state have adapted to it.
Wildflowers
Most noticeable on the sand prairie is prickly pear cactus. Common in the American Southwest, the cactus grows about 10 inches high with a spread of around three feet. Mid-June is the best time to spot its satin yellow blossoms with their orange to red centers. Flowers can reach up to three inches in width. Though each individual flower lasts but a day, a number of other buds will bloom over the course of a month.
False heather, more of a dry prairie plant than a denizen of the desert, also thrives here. Its yellow, five-parted flower measures a quarter to a third of an inch wide and blooms May-July. The narrow leaves can be scale-like with dense hairs. The shrub grows up to two feet high and is found in sandy areas of the state’s western half.
Venus’ looking-glass blossoms from May to August. Its wheel-shaped, blue-violet flowers are but a third to half of an inch wide. Though found in southwestern Wisconsin, it also grows in Mexico.
The plains snake-cotton, also known as common cotton-weed, blooms from July to September. Its white (and sometimes pink-white) flowers are tiny, growing on a woolly, branched spike with flowers in five-rowed spirals. Snake-cotton prefers dry, sun-exposed prairies and roadsides in sandy soil across much of the western half of state.
Dwarf dandelion blooms a bit earlier, from April to June. The yellow ray flower is about three-eighths of an inch wide and sits at the end of a long stalk. The plant can grow up to 16 inches tall and has a milky juice. In the state, it is found mostly in counties along the southern portion of the Wisconsin River.
While not a flower, watch for three-awn grass. It s common in dry, sandy prairies and dominates here.
Lizards, bugs and birds
Running amid these flowers, which appear more at home in the western prairie and Southwest deserts, is a lizard, the six-lined racerunner. Usually dark green, black or brown in color, it has six yellow or green-yellow stripes running from head to tail.
One of many species of whiptail lizards, the racerunner is active during the day and dines on insects. It’ll dart for cover if you approach and can reach speeds of up to 18 mph.
Several creepy-crawlies that look like they belong in the desert also reside in the sand prairie. Most of them can’t be found anywhere else in Wisconsin. Among them are the black widow, various wolf spiders, five cicada species, and eight tiger beetle species.
More akin to the prairie are the many pocket gophers. If you see a patch of open ground, blame the gopher. A few open country birds also reside here, including the dickcissel and the lark sparrow.
At about a mile, the trail ascends the bluff. This can be steep at times, as you leave the “desert” for the “mountain” forest. Once at the top, the trail curls through a woods to a vista about 24 stories above Wisconsin River Valley, which sits to the south.
After taking in the views, retrace your steps back to the parking lot. Be sure to not go off the path chasing mirages!
