Cherney Maribel Caves features a limestone bluff indented with what could loosely be described as caves (and more accurately referred to as cracks, crevices, and the like). The natural area is found within the namesake park, located on the east side of CTH Z south of Cooperstown in northern Manitowoc County. A large parking area…
Tag: Wisconsin
Two Creeks Buried Forest (258/679)
Two Creeks Buried Forest features a unique record of Wisconsin’s glacial history in the extreme northeastern corner of Manitowoc County. A parking area is located on the east side of the T-intersection of STH 42 and CTH BB. Walk toward the lake and find a shallow place to amble down and see the profile of…
Wilderness Ridge, SNA (257/679)
Wilderness Ridge is a T-shaped area of forested ridges and wet swales marking former shorelines of Lake Michigan. Located within Point Beach State Forest, the site is easily accessed from the parking area at the entrance station and following the trail south. A GPS is recommended to know exactly when you are within the boundaries…
Point Beach Ridges (256/679)
Point Beach Ridges encompasses a series of 11 ridges and swales representing former shorelines of the Nippissing Great Lakes, a term for Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron which were all connected after the glaciers receeded but with much higher water levels than at present. A small pull-off is located on the east side of CTH…
Woodland Dunes, SNA (255/679)
Woodland Dunes featuers a series of forested ridges and swales that represent former shorelines of Lake Michigan. The site is owned by the Woodland Dunes Nature Center which has a headquarters/nature center building just north of the natural area on STH 310/Hawthorne Avenue. Trails lead from the nature center north, but none head south into the…
VanderBloemen Bog (254/679)
VanderBloemen Bog features an open bog and hardwood swamp in Manitowoc County. Owned by Silver Lake College, this site requires permission from the College for visitation. Its location is not described by the DNR and will not be described here, though it is not difficult to find. My lasting memories of VanderBloemen Bog are the…
Stockbridge Ledge Woods (253/679)
Stockbridge Ledge Woods encompasses a mature forest with a nice groundlayer in central Calumet County. Parking areas are located on either side of Ledge Road approximately 3/4 mile north of CTH F. An informal trail passes through the site more or less in an east-west orientation. The groundlayer was past peak during my visit with…
Rhine Center Bog (252/679)
Rhine Center Bog includes a bog lake surrounded by a southern wet-mesic forest in north-central Sheboygan County. A large gravel parking area is located on the east side of STH 57 just northwest of Rhine Center and just south of the intersection of STH 57 and CTH EH. From the parking area, an informal trail…
Kettle Moraine Red Oaks (251/679)
Kettle Moraine Red Oaks features a southern dry-mesic forest with a significant red oak component on rolling topography in the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest (KMSFN). This natural area is one of 11 found in the KMSFN and one of 18 total in the KMSF. I reached the site by parking on…
Mecan River Pine-Oak Forest (250/679)
Mecan River Pine-Oak Forest features the only pine-oak forest in the Central Sand Plains Ecological Landscape of Wisconsin. This natural area is easily reachable from a parking area on the north side of Dixie Avenue, east of STH 22. A trail leads north a few hundred feet to the southeast corner of the site. Note that…
Wedde Creek Savanna (249/679)
Wedde Creek Savanna features an oak savanna located in northern Marquette County. The site is easily accessed from a parking area on the south side of Deerborn Avenue, just east of CTH Y. There are no trails, but the open landscape is easy to explore. Though the rain had abated by the time I reached…
Bass Lake Fen (248/679)
Bass Lake Fen encompasses an area that is much as it sounds, a fen along the shore of Bass Lake. A parking area is located on the south side of CTH YY east of STH 22. From there, walk approximately 3/4 mile due south to the north shore of the lake. The fen is primarily…
Lunch Creek Wetlands (247/679)
Lunch Creek Wetlands is comprised of a large sedge meadow and areas of calcareous fen straddling the meandering Lunch Creek in Waushara County. This site can be accessed from a DNR parking area on the east side of CTH Y. Alternatively, it appears access is possible from the northeast and southeast corners of the site…
Mecan Springs (246/679)
Mecan Springs’ primary feature is the namesake springs, which are the headwaters for the Mecan River, one of the best trout streams in Wisconsin. The site is easily reachable via a parking area off of 6th Lane between Chicago Road to the north and Cottonville Avenue to the south. From this northeast corner of the…
Upper Fox Headwaters (245/679)
Upper Fox Headwaters is comprised of a wide array of natural communities in 5 parcels of land divided amongst 3 units spanning 9 miles, 2 counties, and a total of 195 acres. The Upper Chaffee Creek Meadow unit (formerly known as the Chaffee Creek unit) is accessible from a wayside off of southbound I-39/USH 51…
State Natural Areas of Wisconsin 