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(Detailed maps of the
completed sections of the trail can be purchased from the
Ice Age Park & Trail Foundation.)
Route Description
The route of the Ice Age National Scenic
Trail generally follows the end moraines of the most recent glaciation, although it diverges from them in several
areas to include other features of the glacial landscape and a glimpse of the
Driftless Area.
From its eastern end at Potawatomi State
Park on Green Bay, the trail route follows in places the present and
former shorelines of Lake
Michigan, the crest of
eskers, and the edges of bogs in Manitowoc County. The trail continues over the rolling upland of
Kettle Moraine on public and private lands for more than 100 miles through Sheboygan, Washington, and Waukesha Counties. From marshes to hilltop remnants of prairie oak
openings and along waterways through oak, hickory, and maple forests, the
trail threads its way among the many towns and villages of the densely
populated southeast portion of the State.
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In northeastern Rock County, the trail route follows railroad corridors north
of the end moraine. The trail then meanders through Janesville, utilizing its system of parks and greenways. In Green County, a segment of the trail follows the Sugar River
State Trail, affording an opportunity to explore the eroded remnants of
features left by the glaciation prior to the most
recent Wisconsin Glaciation.
The trail route returns to the end moraine
of the recent glaciation in Dane County, skirts
Madison's west edge, and leads to several glacial meltwater
channels cut into the bedrock hills of the Driftless
Area, such as the one in the Cross Plains Unit of the Ice Age National
Scientific Reserve. The resistant quartzite of the
Baraboo Hills halted the glacier's advance in Sauk County and provides the
greatest relief found along the trail - over 800 feet.
Just north of Devil's Lake State Park, the trail divides. The
western branch passes the Dells of the Wisconsin River, which were formed by glacial meltwater,
and crosses the flat bed of glacial Lake Wisconsin in Juneau and Adams Counties, passing sandstone buttes rising among scrub oak
and jack pine. The eastern branch follows the
moraines through Columbia and Marquette Counties and joins together with the western branch in
Chaffee Creek Fishery Area.
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Following the hummocky topography of the
moraine in Waushara County, the trail route winds among numerous kettles and
along the Mecan River and several other trout streams. The
route swings east along moraines deposited as the glacial margin retreated,
passes through drumlin fields and among kettle lakes in Portage and Waupaca
Counties, and continues north across outwash plains and end moraines in
Marathon County. In Langlade County and the counties to the west, long segments of
trail have been established on county forest lands. Amid
the northern forest of spruce, fir, maple, and birch in Langlade County, the trail enters a region full of lakes and bogs
formed by the melting of the glacier. In the lake -
sprinkled Harrison Hills of Lincoln County, the high point of the trail - 1,875 feet - is reached on the
shoulder of Lookout Mountain. Timm's Hill National Trail, a side trail in eastern Taylor County, leads north 10 miles to the highest point in Wisconsin - 1,951.5 feet - in Price County. The segment in Chequamegon National
Forest in
Taylor County offers one of the most primitive hiking experiences
along the trail. While walking the crests of eskers
in the national forest, one gets a hint of what was once the great white pine
and hemlock forest that provided the lumber to build the cities of the
Midwest, and the tanbark for the leather industry in the late 19th and early
20th centuries.
In Chippewa County, the trail again winds among numerous lakes and
bogs in the moraine of Chippewa Lobe. Bearing north,
the trail goes over the high quartzite shoulder of the Blue Hills in Rusk County amid small streams in an ash, birch, and maple
forest. The trail route winds through the dairy
country of Barron and Polk Counties to its western end in the Interstate State Park Ice
Age Reserve Unit at the
Dalles of the St. Croix River.
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