Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Fall Hiking Week One: The Ice Age Trail and Brunet Island State Park

Hiking in the fall is one of my husband and mine favorite activities.  Every weekend from the sign of the first turn of color till the last leaf drops we are hiking in our beautiful state of Wisconsin enjoying the fall colors.  For the next few weeks, I will be filling my blog with the beautiful colors of fall in Wisconsin and sharing information on the hikes we took.

For our first week of hiking, we decided to go north.  The colors up north always turn first, so it made the most sense to go north then gradually work our way south down the state.  We made plans to spend the day in Brunet Island State Park, but after attending church services in the area, a congregant told us about the Ice Age Trail nearby.  Now, you can't live in Wisconsin without hearing about the Ice Age Trail as it covers pretty much half the state, but we had no idea that we could hike a portion of this trail only about an hour and a half from our home.


The Ice Age Trail

If you look at the map below, the green line is the Ice Age Trail.  We live in the area south of Chippewa Falls, so we caught a portion of the trail in New Auburn.  The Ice Age Trail is 1200 miles long.  If you were tempted to hike the entire trail, it typically takes 7 to 12 weeks.  The record is 22 days and was set by Jason Dorgan in 2007.  

The trail is named the Ice Age Trail, because many years ago an immense flow of glacial ice sculpted a landscape of remarkable beauty across Wisconsin.  The Ice Age National Scenic Trail is one of America’s eleven National Scenic Trails. It is predominantly an off-road hiking trail, similar to the Appalachian Trail. The route generally follows the edges of the last continental glacier in North America, a time known as the Wisconsin glaciation. Besides providing an excellent opportunity for hiking, the trail preserves some of the finest features of Wisconsin’s glacial landscape as well as other scenic and natural resources (source).



Now because we weren't planning on hiking this trail today, we decided to just explore a very short loop behind the parking lot of the Chippewa Moraine Ice Age Center and return and hike a 4.5 mile loop the following weekend (which you will see in next week's travel post).  


This trail is very easy!  Even when we returned the following weekend and did the 4.5 loop I thought it was very easy.  It is mostly a flat, level walk with small inclines here and there.  It is well marked with trail markings high on the trees so you won't get lost when all the leaves cover the trail path. 


The trail has many rustic bridges making perfect photo opportunities!  


I think the thing that struck us the most about this trail was how many lakes there were!  I couldn't copy and paste a map of the trail to my blog to save my life, but if you look at this map HERE, there are more lakes than you can possibly count.  The trail winds around all these lakes so you almost constantly have a view of water somewhere on this trail.


The fall foliage was so incredible both weekends we were there.  It was mostly yellows with a few oranges here and there, but then we ran into another hiker and she said just the week before the forest was all red.  I will have to remember that for next year, to go even earlier in the season and see the red colors!


My favorite part of the lakes was seeing the mirror image of the fall tree foliage in the water.



Birch trees are always one of my favorite fall trees.  I love the contrast of the white park against all the beautiful colors.



Is this a magical photo or what?  I am literally engulfed by a sea of color!



We took the Dry Ice Age Trail back to our car to finish the loop.  It provided a different change of scenery looking out into open land, gorgeous grasses, and scenic vistas of changing leaves.


Brunet Island State Park

Our next stop was Brunet Island State Park.  We were only here for a very short time and only hiked one very small trail call the Jean Brunet Nature Trail, but boy was it worth it!


This trail is absolutely stunning in the fall.  I felt I was in a magical fairly land the entire time I was there!


Most of the park is essentially an Island and the Jean Brunet Nature Trail takes the hiker along the shore line of the peaks of the island with views of two other islands (see map HERE).


Because you're seeing two other islands from the peak of the one you're standing on, the views are absolutely breath taking!


On this trail is the cutest rustic bridge with a very unusually steep ramp.


The water view on this trail was so beautiful!


So many gorgeous colors, especially the yellows!












I loved this little spot in the trail where the forest trees were closing in on us.  It felt we were entering a magical spot in the forest.






I hope you enjoyed my fall pictures and that you also are getting out and enjoying the fall colors if they have them where you live.  I will back next week with more fall hiking experiences, and in many weeks to follow.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!
 



33 comments:

  1. All your photos show a very beautiful area. I can see why you enjoyed hiking it, and plan to go back for more.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What beautiful areas to hike in! I just love hiking near water and seeing all the tree colors and reflections is just amazing this time of year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes it was. And I know you love to hike because I've read so many of your own hiking posts through the years.

      Delete
  3. What a gorgeous place! Breathtaking pics!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a beautiful and wonderful area. What a lovely place to hike.

    ReplyDelete
  5. These pictures are absolutely amazing and fall trees reflecting in a body of water are always stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  6. impressive trail. your portion is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gosh, it's such amazing views Amy. Of course, don't you live in the state known as the state of 10,000 lakes??
    XOOX
    Jodie
    www.jtouchofstyle.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Actually Minnesota is known as the state of 10,000 lakes but I read something recently that said Wisconsin actually has more lakes but the two states differ in what is defined as a "Lake".

      Delete
  8. Hi, Amy. It was so much fun to see our old stomping grounds. We are UW Stout grads and also lived in chippewa Falls for 7 years. The scenery was always beautiful and the fishing great. Canoeing and boating almost everywhere! Lovely photos, and a perfect outing this time of year. Thanks for the tour!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh wow! How fun! UW Stout isn't that far from me. Such a small world isn't it?

      Delete
  9. That is such a fabulous part of the country for autumn colors! Gorgeous images.

    Your link at 'My Corner of the World' this week is greatly appreciated!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we definitely have gorgeous fall color here. Thanks so much!

      Delete
  10. These are beautiful photos Amy! The foliage and scenery are just fabulous. It's so cool that you were able to hike a portion of the trail but it looked like everywhere you turn was a stunning view. It's still too hot where I live so we haven't experienced changing of the colors yet. I hope all is well and happy weekend!

    Maureen | www.littlemisscasual.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much! Oh, I hope you can enjoy fall soon in your neck of the woods.

      Delete
  11. What a lovely place for a walk! the trees are such beautiful colours with the leaves turning, and the bridges are cute! :)

    Hope you are having a nice weekend! :)

    Away From Blue

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a beautiful trail! Growing up, my family spent a week or two every summer in Wisconsin and so it holds a special place in my heart - love seeing the fall colors!
    Thank you for sharing at last week's Encouraging Hearts & Home blog hop!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it certainly was. It seems Wisconsin is a huge travel place for people from Illinois and Minnesota. I've lived here my entire life so it surprises me when so many people come here. Illinois, I can understand as they don't have a lot of forests there, but Minnesota is very similar to Wisconsin.

      Delete
  13. Thank you for sharing these pictures. It is beautiful!!
    www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. Enjoyed seeing the pics! Thanks so much for linking up with me at my #UnlimitedMonthlyLinkParty 17. Shared.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Amy, your photos are stunning and I loved reading about our hikes on your local trails.
    Wisconsin is gorgeous. Wish I was out on the trails with my hubby! :-)
    Your photos are share-worthy so I HAD to feature you at Friendship Friday at Create With Joy this week. CONGRATS for being our Friend of the Week! Can't wait to see where your next adventure leads you! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh thanks so much! I just read your post and it was amazing! Thanks for doing that. I just shared it to FB.

      Delete

Thank you for leaving a comment. I love feedback from my readers. If you have a blog, I always return the love by visiting within a week whoever leaves a comment.