Lulu Lake is an amazing mosaic of natural communities straddling the Walworth-Waukesha County line. Several parking areas are located around the property including on CTH E, Lulu Lake Road, and Nature Road. Trails lead throughout the site. The SNA is owned approximately 2/3 by the DNR and 1/3 by The Nature Conservancy. Both entities own…
Eagle Oak Opening, SNA #66 (85/674)
Eagle Oak Opening, protects, as does the previous post’s Kettle Moraine Oak Opening, one of the rarest natural communities in Wisconsin, the oak opening. Once covering over 5.5 million acres (~15% of the state), oak openings have all but vanished as fire supression and reduced grazing have allowed the openings to fill in with younger…
Kettle Moraine Oak Opening, SNA #229 (84/674)
Kettle Moraine Oak Opening features oak openings amidst an oak woodland with dry prairie remnants. Access is easy with a large parking area on CTH H. From there, the Bald Bluff hiking trail leads throughout the site and doubles as a segment of the Ice Age Trail (IAT). This is one of 7 SNA’s in…
Bluff Creek, SNA #271 (83/674)
Bluff Creek is another one of my favorite SNA’s and another smorgasboard of natural communities. It consists of two parcels and can be accessed via several points including a pull-off on CTH P, typically populated by fisherman, off of Hi-Lo Road (bring your rubber boots), and off of Esterly Road. The Ice Age Trail (IAT)…
Snow Bottom, SNA #262 (82/674)
Snow Bottom certainly packs a punch in terms of natural community diversity in a small area. Though there are 3 parcels to this site, only 2 are accessible as one is landlocked. The western parcel is accessed off of Cedar Rock Road, while the eastern parcel can be reached from a parking area on Bowers…
Blue River Sand Barrens, SNA #69 (81/674)
Blue River Sand Barrens features oak barrens and sand dunes on an old alluvial plain of the Wisconsin River. The site is easy to reach with parking along Wightman Road, a sandy/gravelly access lane. Blue River Sand Barrens is another of my all-time favorite sites. The presence of moving sand dunes is similar to Spring…
Blue River Bluffs, SNA #316 (80/674)
Blue River Bluffs is one of my favorite sites. Easy to find, easy to access, great views, a wide variety of species; all in all, just a great SNA. There are two parcels for Blue River Bluffs; both can be accessed by parking along the road, either Old County C Road for the west parcel…
Richwood Bottoms, SNA #249 (79/674)
Richwood Bottoms contains an excellent floodplain forest along the Wisconsin River. An access lane heads south from STH 60 and dead-ends at a gate near a bridge that the DNR uses to reach the area. From here, walk across the bridge and then southeast approximately 1/2 mile to the northern edge of the site. I…
Mud Lake Fen & Wet Prairie, SNA #604 (78/674)
Mud Lake Fen & Wet Prairie is exactly what it sounds like, although the fen is much smaller than the wet prairie. It can be reached from a parking area off of Conservation Road south of Lake Mills. One parking area is directly on that road and another is 1/4 mile north on an access…
Grassy Lake, SNA #548 (77/674)
Having explored an SNA or two, one thing I have realized is that when a site is named something like Grassy Lake, sometimes the site is only the lake and sometimes its hundreds of additional acres. This is a case of the former. It is an easy site to find with a parking area on…
Rocky Run Oak Savanna, SNA #220 (76/674)
Diverse topography is the dominant feature at Rocky Run Oak Savanna. Undulating terrain is found on a south-facing slope overlooking Rocky Run Creek. As part of the Rocky Run State Fishery Area, a parking area is located off of Hwy 22, south of Wyocena. A narrow access lane opens up to an old agricultural field…
Pine Cliff, SNA #19 (75/674)
Pine Cliff is a rare pine relict in the southern part of Wisconsin and is unusual for the presence of all three of Wisconsin’s native pine species: red, white, and jack. Located within Governor Dodge State Park in Iowa County, ample parking is available and a leisurely walk around Cox Hollow Lake will lead you…
Hook Lake Bog, SNA #242 (74/674)
Hook Lake Bog is a high quality bog in Dane County featuring a soft water bog lake, rare for this part of the state. Found within Hook Lake Wildlife Area, there are several ways to reach the property, one of which didn’t exist when I visited. The first suggestion from the DNR is to park…
Echo Lake, SNA #445 (73/674)
Echo Lake SNA is composed of several wetland ecosystems: bog, northern wet forest, alder thicket, cedar swamp, and of course, the lake itself. Reaching the site is fairly easy via FR2460 off of which there is a small parking area. Trails emanate from here and lead towards the lake. Visiting Echo Lake was my last…
Pat Shay Lake, SNA #446 (72/674)
Pat Shay Lake protects stands of old-growth hemlock and other mixed forests along with a bog, sedge meadow, and the eponymous lake. Access is available from several points along Butternut Lake and Knapp Roads. The easiest access to the lake is from the latter. The Hidden Lakes Trail within the CNNF skirts the southeastern edge…
State Natural Areas of Wisconsin 