Top fall hikes in southwest Wisconsin, Part I

Nelson Dewey State Park

There’s no better way

to experience autumn colors in southwest 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 across southwest Wisconsin to hike. Some are right out your back door, while some are a day trip that you can do in an afternoon.

Buffalo County
Day hikers can see ancient fossils on a spectacular vista that one time sat at the bottom of the sea. The 0.22-miles round trip Buena Vista Overlook Trail marks a must-see for anyone traveling the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River. Located in Alma’s Buena Vista County Park, it’s an easy walk and a spectacular one in autumn. From the vista, a rainbow of leaf colors lead downhill to large swaths of gold around the Mississippi River. From Wis. Hwy. 35 in Alma, turn east onto County Road E; known as North Street in town, it curves and becomes Second Street then curls again as ascending the bluff. Near the top, turn left/north onto Buena Vista Road. The road dead ends at the park entrance.

Crawford County
Day hikers can head through a wooded blufftop that ends at a goat prairie offering fantastic views of the Mississippi River below on the Sugar Creek Bluff Nature Trail. The 1.5-mile round trip trail sits in the Sugar Creek Bluff State Natural Area. After passing through a small prairie, the trail enters a dry-mesic forest of red and white oak, shagbark hickory, white ash, and basswood. About 0.7 miles in, the trail reaches a goat prairie with the Mississippi below. During autumn, the land surrounding the river below turns into a sea of yellow as silver maple, green ash and river birch rule the sloughs and river valley. From Ferryville, go south on Wis. Hwy. 35. Turn left/northeast on North Buck Creek Road. In about a mile is a small parking area with a Mississippi Valley Conservancy kiosk.

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Hikers can enjoy autumn colors at La Riviere Park in Prairie du Chien. Covering 300-acres, the park sits in the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers. The 1-mile A-Dan La Riviere Trail loops through the park’s woods, where each autumn leaves turn yellow, tan and russet. From downtown Prairie du Chien, head south on U.S. Hwy. 18/Wis. Hwy. 35. Turn left/northeast onto Vineyard Road. Go Left on Public Road to the parking lot. The trail is shared with mountain bikers.

Grant County
Day hikers can see effigy mounds towering above a vast sea of yellow leaves during autumn in southwest Wisconsin. The 1.2-mile round trip Mound Point Trail sits in Nelson Dewey State Park overlooking the Mississippi River. Though the trail crosses a blufftop prairie, whose grasses turn amber then brown each autumn, that’s just the opening act for the hike’s real star: Unobstructed views of the sparkling Mississippi River from 500 feet up. Every autumn, across the horizon stretches a sea of yellow with spots of orange at the bluff’s base, on the islands amid the river’s backwaters, and along the opposite shore in Iowa. From Wis. Hwy. 133 in Cassville, drive northwest on County Road VV. In about a mile, the park entrance is on the right with the Stonefield Village Historic Site on the left. Follow the park road to its intersection with the road leading to the Family Campground. Go straight/west past the campground and park in the small lot where the road loops back on itself. The trail heads southwest from the parking lot across North Ridge.

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Day hikers can explore an oak savanna that’s nearly 300 feet above the Wisconsin River at the Boscobel Bluffs State Natural Area. In autumn, the bluffside lights up in an array of colors. The 3-mile round trip trail climbs 400 feet on an old logging road along the Lower Wisconsin River valley’s south flank. After passing through a globally rare dry prairie, the trail reaches a savanna offering the yellow to brown leaves of bur oak, the rich gold of shagbark hickory, and the maroon of American hazelnut. From U.S. Hwy. 61/Elm Street in Boscobel, turn east onto Mary Street, which becomes Freemont Street and then County Road MS. Just past Oakes Street, a parking lot is on the left/north.

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Yellow, orange and russet leaves await hikers at the 45-acre Oakwood Nature Park. Of the four trails there, try the 1.25-mile Oak Valley Trail, which weaves in and out of a small oak-dominated woods. From downtown Fennimore, take U.S. Hwy. 18 east. Turn left/northeast onto County Road Q. Immediately after south on Bronson Boulevard, go right/south into the parking lot. Walk south across the lawn and head east on the paved path.

Jackson County
Fantastic views of a surrounding hardwood-pine forest awaits on the Castle Mound Lookout Trail at Black River State Forest. A dry pine forest lines the southeast side of the 2-mile loop while a wet boreal forest full of gold birch and aspen and orange to brown oak dominates the northeast side. A spur trail heads to the top of Castle Mound, which rises 180 feet about the surrounding sand plain. From Black River Falls, take U.S. Hwy 12 east. Turn left/south to the Black Forest State Forest headquarters.

Hike heads through important bat cave

During winter, Kickapoo Indian Caverns is a major center of bat hibernation.

Day hikers can explore a cave that is a vital home for rare bats at Kickapoo Indian Caverns in southwest Wisconsin.

Closed for several years, the Mississippi Valley Conservancy recently purchased the 83-acre site, opening it to hiking and other outdoor activities. Cave tours run from May 16-Aug. 14.

To reach the cave, from Prairie du Chien take U.S. Hwy 18 south. In Bridgeport, turn left/east onto Wis. Hwy 60. Next, go left/north onto Dutch Ridge Road. Turn right-straight/northwest onto Rhein Hollow Road. The entrance road to the caverns is on the right/north side of the road.

Kickapoo Indian Caverns is one of Wisconsin’s longest cave systems at 1400 feet. It boasts an underground river, stalactites and onyx. The opening part of the tour requires crouching for a few feet, but the low passageway opens up to a room with a 60-foot-high ceiling. The caves remains a constant 40 degrees year around.

Hibernaculum
The caverns also are a winter hibernating grounds – called a hibernaculum – for three threatened bat species: the northern long-eared bat; the little brown bat; and the eastern pipistrelle.

Bats migrate along river corridors, so the cave is an ideal location for them. Just outside the cave entrance is the Kickapoo River, which drains a few miles to the south into the Wisconsin River, which meets the Mississippi River less than 10 miles to the west. All of that water also makes for ideal feeding grounds; bats eat about 1200 mosquitoes an hour.

In Wisconsin, bats hibernate at 150 known locations. About 90 percent of the state’s bat population hibernates at just three of those sites, however, and Kickapoo Indian Caves is one of them.

Unfortunately, White Nose Syndrome, a deadly fungus, has struck some of the cave’s bat population. The fungus forces bats to use up their energy reserves while hibernating so that they wake up early. They then die from the cold or the lack of insects to eat. Humans can spread the fungus on the soles of their shoes when walking through caves.

Warblers and Indian relics
Aboveground are great habitats for other threatened species. Cerulean warblers nest in the giant, mature oaks, hickory and dogwood on the property. Blue-winged warblers, ovenbirds, scarlet tanagers, wood thrushes, and yellow-billed cuckoos all inhabit the property and surrounding woods. Meanwhile, the prairie ring-necked snake can be found in the property’s prairie and savanna.

The prairie is one of the few areas in Wisconsin that a grasslands looks like it did some 200 years ago before Europeans arrived in large numbers. Several colorful wildflowers bloom in it from spring through autumn.

Kickapoo Indian Caverns gets its name because Native Americans have long used it for shelter and other purposes. Relics as old as 500 years have been found there and are displayed at the the building where cave tour tickets are purchased.

European-Americans discovered the cave in the mid-1800s when soldiers from nearby Fort Crawford stumbled across it. For decades after, it was known as Goblin Cave. On the Fourth of July in 1947, the cave was opened to public tours.

Day hike historic site of first U.S. Army battle in Wisconsin

British surrounded fort,
gunship at Prairie du Chien

In southwest Wisconsin this Veterans Day, hikers can pay tribute to the first American soldiers to defend the region from foreign powers at The Battle of Prairie Du Chien site.

The battle, fought in 1814 during the United States’ war with Great Britain, marks the first battle fought by the U.S. Army in what would become Wisconsin. Today, the Villa Louis dominates the beautiful site, and though lacking any formal trails, there are plenty of pathways perfect for families with young children or older kids with an interest in history.

To reach the former battle site, from U.S. Hwy. 18 in downtown Prairie du Chien, head north on South Main Street (aka County Road K). Turn left/west at West Blackhawk Avenue and cross the bridge onto St. Feriole Island. Take a right/north turn onto North Villa Louis Road. Villa Louis is in four blocks. Parking is on the left in front of the visitor center; admission is required to enter the site.

During the War of 1812, the United States constructed a number of forts along the Mississippi River in an effort to dominate what then was known as the Northwest Territory. The northernmost of the outposts was Fort Shelby, constructed on the island in June 1814 by about 60 U.S. troops arriving from St. Louis. A gunboat, the Governor Clark, made anchor in the Mississippi to the fort’s west.

Locals seek help
Not everyone in the small village of Prairie du Chien took kindly to the Americans building a fort on their land. A party of villagers and traders headed to the British army’s Fort Michilimackinac, where they sought help.

The British certainly viewed the forts as a threat to their fur trade. A British-Canadian militia, with the support of Native American allies, set off to take the fort.

Upon arrival on Sunday, July 17, the British-Canadian-Native American expedition positioned itself on the prairie surrounding Fort Shelby and at noon presented their terms of surrender to the Americans. The fort’s commander, U.S. Army Lieutenant Joseph Perkins, refused.

The Brits summarily attacked the gunboat with their brass cannons. As the three-pound cannons were quite accurate and deadly, to avoid being sunk, the gunboat that afternoon cut its lines, leaving the troops inside Fort Shelby with very little ammunition and food.

Flag of truce
Still the besieged Americans held out for two days. Growing weary of the stalemate, the British prepared to fire hot shot from its cannons so that the wooden fort would burn. Low on water and ammo and without any food, Perkins ran up a flag of truce.

After a surrender was negotiated, the morning of July 20 the Americans marched out of the fort and laid down their weapons. The bloodless battle was over, and the U.S. troops were sent back to St. Louis.

British forces then occupied Fort Shelby, renaming it Fort McKay. Despite losing the battle, the Americans won the war, however, and in 1816 constructed Fort Crawford atop an Indian mound on the island. Several years later, the Victorian-era estate Villa Louis was built over part of the battleground.

A marker at Villa Louis commemorates Fort Shelby and battle. Each July, re-enactors hold a living history camp and narrate the battle for a weekend.

Find out about trail guidebooks available in the Hittin’ the Trail series.