Europe Bay Woods is the second of two SNA’s found within Newport State Park, along with Newport Conifer-Hardwoods as previously discussed here. It features a mixed forest located on an isthmus between Europe Lake and a mile of Lake Michigan shoreline. Access is available via the Hotz and Europe Bay trails with trailheads on Europe…
Tag: Wisconsin
Newport Conifer-Hardwoods, SNA #90 (107/675)
Newport Conifer-Hardwoods features a mixture of forest types in a parcel embedded within Newport State Park. Put your hiking shoes on because this one will require a bit of a walk from the nearest parking area. Newport State Park is a “wilderness” state park so amenities are limited and the campsite are all a couple…
Ellison Bluff, SNA #378 (106/675)
Ellison Bluff features nice view from atop a 200-foot bluff overlooking the Green Bay side of Lake Michigan. The site is easily reached via Ellison Bluff Park Road to its end, a large parking area and trailhead. Ellison Bluff is formed by the Niagara Escarpment, a rock formation that forms the spine of Door County…
Meridian Park, SNA #544 (105/675)
Meridian Park features an interesting collection of natural communities approximately equidistant between the equator and the North Pole (hence the name). It is accessible from a wayside on the west side of Hwy 57. It is an official Door County Park, though there is little more than you’d find at a smaller wayside and scant…
Kangaroo Lake, SNA #355 (104/675)
Kangaroo Lake features forest and wetland communities surrounding the north end of Kangaroo Lake. The site is owned partly by the Door County Land Trust and by The Nature Conservancy. The bulk of the SNA land is owned by TNC with a smaller portion owned by the DCLT. Both organizations give the Kangaroo Lake name…
White Cliff Fen & Forest, SNA #383 (103/675)
White Cliff Fen & Forest features a calcareous fen and mixed forest between the Niagara Escarpment and Green Bay. The trailhead is found on White Cliff Road with limited parking available on the roadside there. Additional parking can be found just east of the trailhead at a public boat launch. This was my first visit…
Thorp Pond, SNA #403 (102/675)
Thorp Pond contains several wetland communities centered around a bog lake, though the most interesting portions of the site are not publicly accessible. To reach the site, park at dead-end on Quarterline Road East and walk southeast. You will pass though a shrubbery-covered landscape grading into a pine forest and finally into a wet-mesic forest….
Peninsula Park Beech Forest, SNA #12 (101/675)
Peninsula Park Beech Forest is the second of two SNA’s found with Peninsula State Park (the other being Peninsula Park White Cedar Forest). Several parking areas are found near the observation tower (which is closed indefinitely) and from there, the Sentinel trail leads across the road toward the northern edge of the SNA. The Eagle…
Peninsula Park White Cedar Forest, SNA #13 (100/675)
100th blog post!
Midway Railroad Prairie, SNA #18 (99/674)
Midway Railroad Prairie is, as its name implies, a prairie along a former railroad right-of-way. What makes this site different is that it encompasses substantially more land away from the trail compared to most other former railroad prairies which tend to be thin strips of land. The Great River State Trail runs along the site’s…
Holland Sand Prairie (98/674)
Holland Sand Prairie features, of course, a sand prairie that was once part of a massive sand terrace above the Mississippi River. Now, Holland Sand Prairie is the only sizable remnant. The site can be accessed from CTH Mh (McHugh Road). A parking area and information kiosk are present. Informal trails lead throughout the site….
Great River Trail Prairies, SNA #357 (97/674)
Great River Trail Prairies consists of two sand prairie parcels located approximately 7 miles apart in La Crosse and Trempealeau Counties. The Trempealeau County unit is adjacent to Perot State Park and can be accessed via Prairie Road. The La Crosse County unit is best reached from a canoe landing parking area at the end…
Brady’s Bluff (96/674)
Brady’s Bluff features a dry prairie and oak woodland on a bluff with stunning views overlooking the Mississippi River. Found within Perot State Park, this is definitely in my top 10 SNA’s visited. The SNA can be reached from several trailheads, though the most common are the East Brady’s and West Brady’s parking areas. From…
Tiffany Bottoms, SNA #30 (95/674)
Tiffany Bottoms features a floodplain forest as part of one of the largest river deltas in the Midwest. There are 3 parking areas on the east side of the SNA, reached via short access lanes off of Hwy 25 north of Nelson. I visited Tiffany Bottoms and the encompassing Tiffany Wildlife Area as part of…
Kewaskum Maple-Oak Woods, SNA #135 (94/674)
Kewaskum Maple-Oak Woods features southern mesic and southern dry-mesic forests split between two parcels located southeast of Kewaskum. A parking area is located on South Mill Road from which a snowmobile trail heads west and bisects the non-SNA land between the two parcels. I have visited Kewaskum Maple-Oak Woods twice and am not very happy…
State Natural Areas of Wisconsin 