This Quiet Wisconsin Town Is An Underrated Gem For Nature Lovers
It is easy to overlook Baraboo when passing through Wisconsin. This little community has a storied circus past, but its real draw is the outdoors. Few towns in the Midwest pack in as many natural attractions. Baraboo is ringed by glacial lakes, sandstone gorges, and quartzite bluffs. Families willing to skip the nearby waterpark resorts will find something more memorable here.
Much Older Than It Looks
Baraboo's landscape is older than almost anything a visitor will stand on anywhere in the Midwest. The quartzite of the Baraboo Range was forged an estimated 1.6 billion years ago, making it some of the oldest exposed rock in North America, laid down more than a billion years before the first dinosaurs. When the Wisconsin Glacier reached this area near the close of the last ice age, roughly 12,000 years ago, it dammed an ancient river gorge with moraines and left behind a 360-acre lake. Today that is the site of Devil's Lake State Park, where quartzite walls tower 500 feet above the water and one-of-a-kind formations like the Devil's Doorway and Balanced Rock perch along the bluffs.
The state park spans more than 9,000 acres and draws millions of visitors a year, making it Wisconsin's most popular and its largest. Camping, hiking, swimming, and wildlife watching all happen here, and the trails range across skill levels, so families and serious hikers find routes that suit them. The exposed quartzite of the Baraboo Hills also makes this one of the Midwest's premier rock-climbing destinations, with hundreds of established routes on the East and West Bluffs. Less obvious among the park's better-known sights are its Native American effigy mounds, burial earthworks that predate any permanent settlement here.
Baraboo Is Set Apart
What really sets Baraboo apart for nature lovers is how many protected places sit within reach of its center. Within a thirty-minute drive are roughly two dozen parks, a mix of state parks, state natural areas, and county grounds. Each offers something different. Natural Bridge State Park holds Wisconsin's largest natural arch, a sandstone span whose top stands 35 feet above the forest floor, with a rock shelter beneath it that sheltered people more than 10,000 years ago.
Parfrey's Glen, Wisconsin's first designated state natural area, is a deep, cool gorge cut into sandstone studded with quartzite pebbles at the southern edge of the Baraboo Hills. Set against the open bluffs of Devil's Lake, it gives the active visitor something genuinely new with each outing.
Water Recreation and Wildlife
Where Devil's Lake can get busy, Mirror Lake State Park is the quieter counterpart. A few miles to the northwest of town, this narrow impoundment of Dell Creek sits between steep sandstone walls, and its calm, no-wake water is made for paddling, kayaking, and canoeing. Anglers do well here too, with a fishery that includes largemouth bass, walleye, northern pike, and panfish. For those after the species that need moving water, sauger, channel catfish, smallmouth bass, the Baraboo River itself runs right through town and offers easy access.
The hills around Baraboo support a wide range of wildlife, starting with bald eagles and peregrine falcons that nest on the bluffs. White-tailed deer, beaver, wild turkeys, and great blue herons are all common. Birders looking for more should head to Baxter's Hollow, a large preserve west of Devil's Lake, where rare and breeding species such as the Acadian flycatcher and the hooded warbler turn up during migration.
Planning Your Trip to Baraboo
Baraboo is not hard to reach. Madison sits about thirty-five miles away, and Chicago is a manageable 2.5-hour drive. There is plenty to do beyond the trails and bluffs, beginning with the Circus World Museum, which stands on the original winter quarters of the Ringling Brothers Circus and preserves the legacy the town is proud to share. The Ringlings launched their show in Baraboo in 1884 and headquartered it here until 1918, and Al Ringling built the ornate Al. Ringling Theatre downtown in 1915 as a gift to the town.
Any season is worth the trip, though summer is the most active and the most forgiving weather for exploring. Fall runs a close second, when the quartzite bluffs stand against the reds and oranges of the turning leaves. Winter has its own appeal, with snowshoeing and cross-country skiing throughout the park and downhill runs at Devil's Head Resort, about 15 minutes to the south.
A Nature Lover's Pick in Wisconsin
Baraboo sits at the center of one of Wisconsin's densest clusters of natural attractions, with roughly two dozen parks within a thirty-minute drive. Devil's Lake and its towering bluffs anchor the area, Mirror Lake offers the calmer alternative, and the town's circus roots at places like the Circus World Museum give a rainy afternoon somewhere to go. For Wisconsinites who want dark skies and quartzite within a couple of hours of Milwaukee or Madison, Baraboo answers the call.
