A GORP Content Partner
Adapted from
Scenic Driving Wisconsin
by Aaron Cieslicki
Driving America's Dairyland
Kettle Moraine and Lake Michigan
Kettle Moraine General description: This 115-mile drive follows the Kettle Moraine, a long ridge of forested hills not far from Chicago that mark where two great arms of the last glacier butted up against each other. The route follows the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive developed and maintained by the Kettle Moraine State Forest staff. Along the way you're likely to learn more about glacial geology than you ever thought you'd know. You will travel many unmarked back roads on this route (peek at the drive route numbers below), wandering all over hell and creation in search of yet more glacial formations to gawk at. It is likely to fill an enjoyable day of driving.
Special attractions: Kettle Moraine State Forest, glacial geology, hiking, biking, camping, cross-country skiing, fishing.
Location: Southeastern Wisconsin, starting west of Sheboygan and ending southwest of Milwaukee.
Drive route numbers: Wisconsin Highways 23, 33, 59, 60, 67, 144, 167, U.S. Highway 45, Sheboygan County Highways A, F, G, S, U, V, SS, GGG, Jefferson County Highway H, Washington County Highways E and K, Waukesha County Highways C, E, G, K, GG, VV, Kettle Moraine Drive, Clover Valley Road, Engle Road.
Travel season: Year-round.
Camping: Mauthe Lake Recreation Area, Long Lake Recreation Area, Pine Woods Campground, Ottawa Lake Recreation Area, Whitewater Lake Recreation Area.
Services: Limited services along the entire route.The Drive
Around twenty-five thousand years ago, the last great wave of the Ice Age glaciers was storming south from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with a good head of steam (for a glacier) when it ran into Door County, north of the start of this drive. A glacier is fairly sensitive to the topography it runs up against, and when the last glacier hit the rocky peninsula we know as Door County, it split into two arms (called lobes by glaciologists), and each continued south. The Kettle Moraine (properly called an interlobate moraine) is the line of hills made up of piled-up glacial sediment that was deposited where these two lobes abutted, and contains some of the best examples of glacial landforms from the last Ice Age to be found in the world.It seems like many of the roads on this route wouldn't have been paved if the state forest hadn't developed the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive route. Many of the intersections and roads are unmarked, so watch for the green Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive signs that mark most of the route.
The drive begins at the intersection of Wisconsin Highway 23 and Sheboygan County A, in the town of Greenbush. From WI 23, turn south onto County A. You'll soon find the Wade House, which, when completed in 1853 by Sylvanus Wade, became the most important stagecoach stop on the plank road running from Sheboygan to Fond du Lac. The historical complex here includes a blacksmith shop where horses were shod and stages repaired, as well as the Butternut House, home to Wade's eldest daughter and son-in-law.
At the stop sign with the Wade House on the right, turn right. One block later, turn left, and then right after another block. After a short distance, take another left, following the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive signs. The road here is winding and narrow, and the trees close in on either side as you bump over the moraine. You'll pass the Greenbush Recreation Area and Greenbush Picnic Area (great spots for hiking and mountain biking) before you come to the second stop on this tour, Greenbush Kettle.
The parking area for Greenbush Kettle is on the left, just past a sign that says "Shelter 5." Park and walk back along the entrance road to a trail and a wooden stairway leading down into a big hole in the earth—Greenbush Kettle. Standing at the lip of the kettle, imagine being here ten thousand years ago, at the end of the Ice Age. The glacier has mostly retreated to north of here, and there is no hole before you, just a treeless space covered with sand and boulders. Beneath the sand at this spot is a huge piece of ice left behind in the glacier's retreat. As time passed, the ice melted and the land dropped, finally leaving this depression. You can best appreciate the immensity of the stranded ice chunk from the bottom of the stairs.
Just past Greenbush Kettle, the road forks. Follow Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive to the right. At the stop sign and junction with Wisconsin Highway 67, turn left onto WI 67. Travel approximately 0.5 mile to County A and turn right. The mixed pine and hardwood forest here is dense, and the road rolls up and down through the moraine. At the junction with Sheboygan County U, turn right and travel approximately 0.25 mile to the parking area for Parnell Tower, a 50-foot observation tower built atop a high ridge of the moraine. The tower is about an eighth of a mile up the trail leading from the parking lot. The view from the tower is well worth the climb. To the west, in the distance, you'll see a series of bumps that rise above the relatively flat land around them. These are drumlins, glacial debris composed mainly of silt and clay with some small pebbles. The long axis of the drumlin is arranged in the direction of the ice's forward movement, roughly north-south here.
Turn right onto County U out of the Parnell Tower parking area, travel just over 1 mile and turn left onto Woodside Road/Kettle Moraine Drive. After traveling 0.25 mile, turn left onto Shamrock Road; go 0.25 mile further and turn left onto the Scenic Drive. At the next stop sign you come to, turn left onto Sheboygan County V (though the road isn't marked at the intersection), and then after a short distance on County V, turn left (following the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive sign) onto Butler Lake Road. The long sinuous ridge on the left side of the road is the Parnell Esker, one of the longer eskers in the state forest. Eskers mark the path of meltwater streams that flowed underneath the ice and consist of the glacial sediment deposited along the bed of the sub-glacial stream.
At the stop sign, turn left, and at the next stop sign and the junction with Sheboygan County F, turn right. At the next stop sign and the intersection with WI 67 in downtown Dundee, go forward, following WI 67 south. Dundee is home to the world-famous (among geology buffs, anyway) Dundee Kame, known locally as Dundee Mountain, a 250-foot pile of sand, pebbles, and boulders that formed at the bottom of a hole in the retreating glacier. Glacial meltwater streams running along the glacier's surface washed the debris into the hole, and the debris accumulated at the bottom of the hole. The perimeter of the base of the Kame will give you an idea of the size of the hole in the ice.
For a good view of Dundee Kame and more glacial geology, head for the Henry S. Reuss Ice Age Visitor Center up a hill just outside of Dundee on WI 67. As you're headed up the hill, you'll notice that the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive veers off to the left on Sheboygan County G. If you want to skip the interpretive center, follow it left here. Otherwise, continue up the hill to the top and turn left into the center's driveway. The center features a large mural depicting the surrounding area roughly ten to twelve thousand years ago, at the time of the glacier's final retreat. The center shows a twenty minute film, and signs outside the center interpret several glacial features visible nearby.
When you leave the center, turn right onto WI 67 and then right again onto County G and the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive route. After rolling through the forest a bit, the road drops down to run alongside a glacial outwash terrace. A restored prairie now covers the outwash terrace. The terrace formed when sand and gravel were washed by meltwater streams from the retreating glacier's surface and deposited here, forming this broad, flat plain. At the intersection with Sheboygan County SS, turn left and cross the outwash terrace. There is a wildlife viewing area on the left side of the road not far from the intersection. When you've crossed to the other side of the terrace, turn right onto Sheboygan County GGG.
This paragraph is devoted entirely to directions to get you through an extremely poorly marked section of this route. Stay sharp. Here goes. When county GGG meets Sheboygan County S, turn right, and at the stop sign in New Fane, turn left. After going forward through a couple of intersections, turn right at the T-intersection (which was completely devoid of signs or markings when I was here). At the next stop sign, turn right and cross the Milwaukee River. At the stop sign across the river, go forward, and at the stop sign and intersection with U.S. Highway 45, turn right onto US 45 south. You'll go up a big hill, and at the top of the hill turn left. Go forward at the next stop sign, and at the stop sign after that turn right.
If all is well, the next intersection you come to should be Glacier Drive, where you turn right. At the intersection with Wisconsin Highways 33 and 144, follow WI 144 south. You have now left the North Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. WI 144 runs along the top of the moraine, with wooded hills all around. At the stop sign in the town of Slinger, go forward. Turn right at the junction with Wisconsin Highway 60 onto WI 60 west, and after approximately 2 miles turn left into Pike Lake State Park on Kettle Moraine Road. Pike Lake State Park has twenty-five well-spaced campsites, as well as hiking, biking, fishing, and swimming. The park office is on the left at the WI 60/Kettle Moraine Drive intersection, and Pike Lake is just over the hill on the left.
Continue on Kettle Moraine Drive past the intersection with Washington County E, and at the intersection with Waterford Road, turn right. At the junction with Washington County K, turn left. On your left, just after you turn onto County K, is Holy Hill (a kame, actually), the highest point in the Kettle Moraine and the site of a Catholic monastery. An observation deck at the top of the hill provides spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. To get to Holy Hill, turn left onto WI 167 and follow it up the hill. Otherwise, keep headed south on County K, which, when it reaches the county line, changes (in name only) to Waukesha County E.
The next town you come to is Moonches, named for an Indian chief who lived near here. Just after Moonches, County E turns right at a stop sign. Follow it, and then at the intersection with Waukesha County VV, turn right. In the town of North Lake, turn left onto Wisconsin Highway 83 at the stop sign. At the intersection with Waukesha County K, turn right onto County K. After a few miles, turn left onto Waukesha County C. You'll cross over Wisconsin Highway 16 at Neshota, one of the far outposts of the Milwaukee metro area. Continue on County C to Delafield, home of the Fox Inn, once an important stopping point on the stagecoach route that ran between Madison and Milwaukee. In Delafield, turn right onto Wells Street/County C, and you'll see the Fox Inn from the road.
Outside of Delafield, County C crosses I-94, and on the left after you cross the interstate is Lapham Peak, birthplace of the National Weather Service. Increase A. Lapham, a conservationist and scientist who lived here in the 1800s (also winner of the Goofy Name Award and the peak's namesake), worked with the U.S. Army Signal Corps to set up a series of signal stations between Pike's Peak in Colorado and Lapham Peak to transmit weather data from west to east. Blue Mound State Park (Drive 19) west of Madison was the site of one of the stations. The meteorological data was transmitted to Lapham's office in Chicago, and Lapham then warned Great Lakes ports of impending storms. The view from the peak is excellent, showing sixteen of the surrounding lakes.
At the stop sign after Lapham Peak, follow County C to the right. After approximately 1 mile, follow County C when it turns left. At the intersection with Waukesha County G, you'll cross what was once an important Indian trail running from Lake Koshkonng (west of Whitewater) to Milwaukee. Don't worry if you don't actually see the trail; it's not marked. Turn right here and follow County C.
At the intersection with Waukesha County D, cross County D and immediately turn left onto Town G/Waterville Road. At the fork in the road and the sign for County GG, bear right. At the next intersection, turn right to enter the South Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. At the junction with WI 67, turn left onto WI 67, and in a few miles you come to Eagle, where the first diamond found in Wisconsin was discovered in 1876. Eagle is also home to Old World Wisconsin, a collection of more than 50 historic farmhouses, barns, and merchant shops on 600 acres of wooded hills. If you'd like to see it, follow WI 67 approximately 3 miles south of town. If not, take Wisconsin Highway 59, the right-most road at the funky six-way intersection in Eagle.
In Palmyra, approximately 6 miles out of Eagle, go forward onto Jefferson County H where WI 59 turns right. On your right, a short way down County H, you'll see cropland in a shallow valley. The land surrounding the valley is a glacial outwash plain, created when fine glacial particles were washed out of the glacier by running water. The valley itself is called a spillway, where a smaller meltwater stream cut through the already-deposited sandy plain. Turn right onto Kettle Moraine Drive, cross the spillway, and roll through the outwash plain. The wooded ridge on your right is the moraine you've been following this whole drive. On the left side of the road you can see (provided the corn isn't too high) the Elkhorn Recessional Moraine in the far distance. The glacier's progress, both advancing and retreating, was erratic; in the major advance of the last wave of glaciation from twenty-five thousand to fifteen thousand years ago, there were many retreats. This moraine marks the spot of a significant pause in the final retreat of the Lake Michigan Lobe of the glacier.
Go forward at the next stop sign, and the stop sign after that, and you come to the Whitewater Recreation Area, with sixty-four campsites, a picnic area, a beach, and a boat landing. Drive 0.75 mile past the recreation area and turn right onto Clover Valley Road. At the intersection with Engle Road a mile later, turn right and travel 0.2 mile to the end of this drive, where there is a hand-dug artesian well that has been flowing steadily since 1895. The water is clear, clean, cold, and extremely refreshing for weary travelers on a hot day.
To get back to civilization, travel back to Kettle Moraine Drive, turn right, and follow it to Wisconsin Highway 89. A right onto WI 89 will take you to Whitewater and U.S. Highway 12.
Lake Michigan
Sand Dunes and Submarines
General description: This drive tours the Lake Michigan shore from Sheboygan to Algoma, passing sand dunes, high bluffs, lighthouses, farms, and museums. The area's flavor and history are closely tied to the lake through fishing, sailing, and ship building.
Special attractions: Kohler-Andrae State Park, Point Beach State Forest, the USS Cobia, lighthouses, museums, hiking, swimming, fishing, camping, wildlife watching.
Location: Southeastern Wisconsin. The drive begins at Kohler-Andrae State Park and ends in Algoma.
Drive route numbers: Interstate Highway 43, Sheboygan County V, Wisconsin Highways 23 and 42, Sheboygan and Manitowoc County Highway LS, Manitowoc County Highways O and V.
Travel season: Year-round.
Camping: Kohler-Andrae State Park and Point Beach State Forest.
Services: Full services in Sheboygan and Manitowoc, limited elsewhere.The Drive
This 90-mile drive starts at Kohler-Andrae State Park, a few miles south of Sheboygan. From Interstate Highway 43, turn east onto Sheboygan County Highway V, then right onto Sheboygan County Highway KK, and then left onto Old Park Road to the park entrance. The park's landscape is a mix of river marsh, pine and hardwood forests, beaches, and sand dunes. Creeping Juniper and Woodland Dunes nature trails will take you through the forest and sand dunes near the lakeshore, and the 2.5 mile Kohler Dunes Cordwalk runs parallel to the lakeshore and through a State Natural Area. The 1,000 acre park has 105 campsites, a swimming beach, and a nature center with displays on local flora, fauna, and history.Travel back to I-43 and take it north toward Sheboygan. After 6 miles on I-43, take Wisconsin Highway 23 east into Sheboygan. Jacques Vieau established a Northwest Fur Company post here in 1795, to trade with the Ottawa and Ojibwe Indians who inhabited the area. The first white settlers in the area were David Wilson and his family, who came here from New York in 1840, followed by brothers James and Leonard Osgood who arrived in 1845. The men set up fisheries, and all three drowned in the icy waters of Lake Michigan while plying their trade. From the 1850s to the 1870s, German and Dutch immigrants arrived to farm the land east of the lake. The Sheboygan County Museum, on Erie Avenue, boasts an 1864 log house, antique farm machinery, and an 1867 cheese factory, in addition to a mansion full of late-nineteenth-century items.
At the intersection with Wisconsin Highway 42 in Sheboygan, turn left onto WI 42, and then right onto Sheboygan County Highway LS a mile or so later. Just out of town, LS rolls along near the top of a bluff and past miles of sand dunes from Sheboygan to the Manitowoc County line. Two miles past the county line, near the town of Cleveland, County LS takes a right, and then bends around again to the left to continue along the shoreline. The farms on this stretch are plowed right to the edge of the steep bluff overlooking the lake, and from the right angle it appears the tractors are tilling the waves.
County LS becomes South 10th Street when you enter Manitowoc. Follow South 10th Street, and turn left onto Maritime Drive immediately after you cross the river. Manitowoc was built on shipbuilding. The Wisconsin Maritime Museum at 75 Maritime Drive exhibits one hundred years of Great Lakes history. The USS Cobia, one of twenty-eight U.S. Navy submarines built in Manitowoc during World War II, is moored adjacent to the museum. The Cobia is open for daily tours year-round, and in the museum itself two floors of yachts, freighters, sailboats, steamers, and a seven- thousand-volume library of Upper Midwest history await you.
Maritime Drive is also WI 42, so continue north on it out of Manitowoc to Two Rivers, 6 miles away. The East and West Twin Rivers join up here about a quarter of a mile from Lake Michigan and flow into the lake as one river. Just after you cross the West Twin River, a right on 16th Street will take you to the Washington House Museum, housed in what was once a hotel. It's said that Ed Berners invented the ice cream sundae right here in Two Rivers, in 1881. A replica of his ice cream parlor offers eighteen different sundaes, and you can take in local history displays in the other five rooms of the museum. Back at WI 42, the route turns right on 22nd Street and then crosses the East Twin River. A right at the first street (Jackson Street) across the river, takes you to the Rogers Street Fishing Village Museum and Lighthouse. The museum houses displays on commercial fishing, telling the story of the French-Canadian fishermen who settled here in Deux Rivers. There are also exhibits about Coast Guard history. The museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is open all year; the lighthouse is open from April to November.
On 22nd Street, WI 42 turns left 2.5 blocks from the river. Continue on 22nd Street for 3 blocks and then turn left onto Manitowoc County Highway O. County O (a.k.a. Wisconsin Department of Transportation Rustic Road R-16) is 5 miles of highway bordered on both sides by thick groves of hardwoods and pines, offers great views of sand dunes and local wildlife, and leads to Point Beach State Forest. The forest features beautiful trees, 6 miles of sandy beach, 12 miles of hiking, and 127 campsites. The forest is also home to Rawley Point Lighthouse, which has been operated since 1853 by the U.S. Coast Guard. The lighthouse was a brick tower until 1894, when a 113-foot steel tower was built, and the old tower chopped down, roofed, and used as part of the lighthouse keeper's residence. The light mounted atop the tower is visible up to 19 miles away and operates today from one-half hour before sunset to one-half hour after sunrise.
County O ends just beyond the northern border of the state forest, and the road becomes Manitowoc County Highway V as you follow it to the left. Follow this approximately 3 miles back to WI 42 and turn right. From here to Kewaunee, 15 miles north, the land is sparsely settled, with bluff-hugging farms interspersed with stand of trees. In Kewaunee, architecture lovers will enjoy the variety of house styles from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Queen Anne, Italianate, Second Empire, Craftsman, Prairie and American Foursquare styles. The Kewaunee Chamber of Commerce publishes a walking-tour booklet that provides a map of forty historic homes.
Algoma is the end of this drive, 11 miles north of Kewaunee on WI 42. Algoma is also home to the southern end of the Ahnapee State Trail, the 15-mile state trail running from Algoma to Sturgeon Bay, which forms the first (or last) segment of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. The Ice Age Trail follows the moraines left by the glaciers across Wisconsin.
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