Rising 200 feet above the Baraboo River, Ableman’s Gorge is a 3/4 mile long gorge cut through quartzite. It contains world-famous erosional impacts of an ancient sea on the Precambrian quartzite and has been well-studied by geologists, especially at UW-Madison, over the years. My visit here predates the installation of a trail and therefore it…
Tag: Wisconsin
Cady’s Marsh, SNA #72 (4/674)
Cady’s Marsh is a bit or a misnomer. Although some marsh is present, the focus of preservation at the site is an interesting mix of prairie types (wet/dry) and sedge meadow. It is a site that I have been to twice and still feel I need to see again to see it at its peak. …
Tower Hill Bottoms, SNA #33 (3/674)
Tower Hill Bottoms is located, appropriately enough, within Tower Hill Sate Park, one of Wisconsin’s lesser known state parks. The park is so named due to its mid-1800’s usage as a lead shot production facility. The trail to reach the top of the hill is quite steep. At the base of the hill, is a…
Natural Bridge & Rockshelter, SNA #105 (1/674)
Natural Bridge & Rockshelter was the first SNA I visited and but I did not know much about the SNA program until I returned home later that Memorial Day weekend in 2009. Located in rural Sauk County, the site is relatively easy to find. The SNA is found within the boundaries of Natural Bridge State…
Bakken’s Pond (15/674)
Finding Bakken’s Pond State Natural Area is easy and not so easy at the same time. The open body of water known as Bakken’s Pond as labelled in Google Maps is not within the boundaries of Bakken’s Pond SNA. My interpretation is that Bakken’s Pond is a larger area including the open water of the…
