Along Wisconsinâs Ice Age Trail

The Ice Age National Scenic Trail is a thousand-mile footpath—entirely within the state of Wisconsin—that courses like a river through a varied landscape. Walk the Ice Age Trail to witness hundreds of crystal lakes, thriving prairies and farmlands, towering white pines and diverse wetlands, ancient Native American effigy mounds, remnant oak savannas, charming villages and cities, and many of the world’s finest examples of the effects of continental glaciation. More than twelve thousand years ago, an immense flow of glacial ice, as much as two miles deep, sculpted a landscape of remarkable beauty. Geologic features along the trail include kames, kettles, drumlins, ice-walled-lake plains, eskers, tunnel channels, basalt bluffs, dells, and rock-strewn terminal moraines. Here too, is the ancient landscape of the Driftless Area, notably devoid of glacial evidence. Photographer Bart Smith hiked the Ice Age Trail in four seasons, capturing stunning images for this book. Adding depth to his images are essays by notable and knowledgeable writers, telling us more about the natural history of this remarkable landscape and their personal engagement with it. Along Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail contains essays by: Mike Dombeck, former chief of the U.S. Forest Service and biologist, UW–Stevens Point; Robert Freckmann, botanist, UW–Stevens Point; Paul G. Hayes, retired journalist for Milwaukee Journal; Randy Hoffman, conservation biologist; Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Ellen Kort, former poet laureate of Wisconsin; David Mickelson, Emeritus Professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics, UW–Madison; and Sarah Mittlefehldt, environmental historian, UW–Madison.