Afternoon Walk

IAT - Indian Lake Segment

#18: Aztalan State Park (Part 1)

Lunch Run

Made a massive hole in my sock about five miles in but luckily didn't get any blisters. I came across and passed the same guy three different times, so I finally decided to talk to him, and it turns out he was also trying to to complete every trail in the park, and he only had two to go! 

Review: The behemeth of Devil's Lake! This park has some special memories for me as I first visited on a camping trip in late March of my junior year of high school with some friends. I don't know what we were thinking because it was way too cold to be camping, and we ended up sleeping in the heated showers! Regardless, I was able to do some awesome runs there and take in the beauty of the lake and the bluffs which, at the time, was the most scenic thing I had ever seen! I still have yet to witness anything else quite like it in Wisconsin. Devil's Lake, or Spirit Lake as it is roughly translated from the indigenous Ho-Chunk people of the area, is surrounded by 500 foot tall quartzite bluffs to the east and west. The Baraboo Range in which the bluffs are contained are 1.6 billion years old, making them some of the oldest geological features in the world! Ancient river(s) exposed the quartzite, and thawing and freezing cycles buckled away the rock into the piles of talus along the slopes. Then, during the last ice age, the Wisconsin glacier rerouted the ancient river(s) by plugging the north and south ends of the Lake with rock deposits. European settlers immediately recognized the beauty of the area, and tourists came in droves leading to many hotels and other attractions being built. Devil's Lake was proposed as one of four suitable locations to found the Wisconsin State Park System, and it ultimately became Wisconsin's third state park in 1911. It has remained popular since and boasts about 1.5 million visitors each year which exceeds 85% of National Park Service properties! There are so many different landscapes contained within the park including Wisconsin's first state natural area, Parfrey's Glen, which contains a small waterfall and massive rock walls. I am planning to come back to finally visit the Nature Center as it's always been closed by the time I finish hiking, and there may be an unmarked trail I might investigate, but I have definitely experienced enough of the park to give it my final rating of 9 out of 10. The park is Wisconsin's most popular state park for good reason. There are so many different highlights, and the park is beautiful in all seasons. However, a large amount of the park is oak forest which can be rather boring. 

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Adam Nelson

#9: Devil's Lake State Park (Part 3)/IAT - Devil's Lake Segment (Part 2)/IAT - Sauk Point Segment

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Afternoon Walk

IAT - Indian Lake Segment

#18: Aztalan State Park (Part 1)

Lunch Run

Afternoon Walk

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