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| Observation tower atop Timms Hill, Wisconsin's highest point. |
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| Timms Hill Tower Trail map. Click for larger version. |
The 0.5-mile round trip Timms Hill Trail heads to the summit and a wooden observation tower on Timm’s Hill. The drumlin rises to 1,951.5 feet at Timms Hill County Park.
To reach the trailhead, from Ogema take Wis. Hwy. 87 east. Turn right/south onto County Road C then straight-left/east onto County Road RR. Watch for the signed entrance to the park and turn left/northeast onto that road. Use the parking lot for the Timms Hill Trail.
From the parking lot, go north on the Timms Hill Lake Trail. Then take the first left and head west to the hill. A wide dirt path, the trail is shaded until reaching the summit.
Sugar maples
Northern hardwoods – mostly maples of yellow and red leaves with a few oaks and other trees mixed it, resulting in a cornucopia of harvest colors – cover and surround the hill.
Wisconsin’s official state tree, sugar maples thrive in the Midwest’s and New England’s colder climates. It needs a hard freeze to enter winter dormancy, and seed germination only occurs when the thermometer registers just above freezing. Sugar maples rarely are found any further south than Tennessee, and even there the temperature isn’t cold enough to produce the sap used to make maple syrup.
Global warming is pushing the sugar maple’s range north. It’s disappearing from its southern edges while starting to appear in neighboring Minnesota’s Northwoods. Acid rain and the ensuing soil acidification also has led to the maple’s decline. Meanwhile, the logging off of woodlands allows other tree species to take hold, limiting the maple’s ability to expand. The tree doesn’t do as well in urban areas either, where the Norway maple is displacing it.
Back on the trail, look for signs of the several animals that make the county park its home. You stand a good chance of spotting the tracks of foxes, rabbits, whitetail deer and turkeys and certainly will hear the calls of several varieties of songbirds.
Timms Hill is one of the area’s several drumlins. In this region, drumlins were formed when a lake formed between two glaciers – locally the Laurentide Ice Sheet's Wisconsin Valley and Chippewa lobes – about 20,000 years ago. As lake sediment, till and outwash deposited in the ice-walled lake, it formed a round hill of compacted clay.
A whole line of drumlins shows where the area between the two lobes formed lakes during the last Ice Age. It stretches roughly southwest to northeast from north of Thorp to just north of Wis. Hwy. 86.
View from the tower
A wooden lookout tower sits on the hill. From atop the tower, two nearby lakes reflect the hill’s autumn colors. Timms Lake is to the northwest and Bass Lake to the southeast.
Cedars surround Timms Lake, which can be explored up close via the Timms Lake Trail. The invasive ox-eye daisy, which can grow up to three feet high, blossom there during the summer.
Another drumlin, Pearson Hill, can be seen from atop the tower to the east. It’s a mere eight inches lower than Timms Hill and is Wisconsin’s second highest point.
One a clear day, in the southeast you should be able to spot Rib Mountain, which is 44 miles away by line of sight in Wausau.
Though Rib Mountain is a full 26 feet shorter than Timms Hill, many think the former is Wisconsin’s highest point, especially if they’ve been atop it. Part of the reason might be that Rib Mountain feels higher as it rises 670 feet above the landscape while the elevation change from the base of Timm's Hill to the tower is a mere 151 feet.
Ice Age Trail spur
Timms Hill is named after Timothy Gahan, who owned a logging camp on Timms Lake. Price County purchased the land and turned it into a park during the Carter-Reagan years.
After taking in the sights from the tower, retrace your steps back to the parking lot. If you’ve got some time, cross the road and head over to nearby Bass Lake. A boat launch, swimming area, and fishing pier all are on the bucolic waterbody.
Another option is to continue hiking. The Timm’s Hill National Trail is a spur off the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, which is 9.75 miles away.
The county park is open 7:30 am-dusk May through October; no admission is charged. Pets must be under control or remain on a leash at all times; they are not allowed near the swimming area or in buildings.
