Get away to Wisconsin's Driftless in fall for coffee, beer and unmatched beauty and quiet

The sun had barely risen at the Kickapoo Valley Ranch near La Farge, and I was already tempted to abandon my plans for the day and instead spend it rocking away on my cabin’s porch.

I cradled a cup of coffee and watched the sun slowly cover the hills to the north in golden light, the only sound a couple of birds in trees nearby and horses in the stables below.

It was why I had come back to the Driftless and the ranch, and why I brought my mom this time: the lush, undeveloped hills that had begun to show pops of fall color; the feeling of peace from the near-absolute-silence; the sense that it would be fine to just sit there and not do a darn thing all day.

Most of my getaways are filled with activities as I try to make the most of my time in a place, but the Driftless Area moves at its own quiet pace — one defined by Amish buggies and narrow, winding roads that conspire to slow what little automobile traffic there is. One defined by the country’s largest concentration of organic farms and the nation’s first solar-powered village. One defined by silent sports like canoeing and fly fishing.

One that almost wasn’t. If things had gone according to plan in the ‘70s, the beautiful, largely undeveloped area I surveyed on that early fall morning might have looked more like the bustling Wisconsin Dells.

Dammed if you do

The area lends itself to peace and quiet. Covering roughly the southwestern quarter of the state, it's known as the Driftless because the glaciers did not flatten it and leave behind glacial drift (rocks, sand and other sediment) like the rest of Wisconsin. 

Without the glaciers, winding rivers like the 125-mile Kickapoo were left to carve deep but narrow valleys into the soft sandstone. It makes for a beautiful but dangerous landscape. 

As settlers began clearing more of the land along rivers for farming, the area became more prone to flooding. The Kickapoo in particular, and villages along it including Soldiers Grove and La Farge, flooded every few years. 

As early as the 1930s, residents looked for ways to protect their homes and villages. A dam project, complete with a reservoir touted to boost tourism and development in the area, was proposed in the ‘60s. Work was well underway on the project, and costs were rising, before an environmental impact statement showed the water quality would be terrible and the project would harm some endangered species. The project was killed, and the land the government had bought for the project, from 149 local families, sat in limbo for two decades. In the '90s, the Kickapoo Reserve Management Board, made up of local residents and members of the Ho-Chunk nation, took over management of the land and the Kickapoo Valley Reserve was born.

Today the 8,600-acre reserve is a popular spot for paddling the Kickapoo River, hiking, fishing and hunting — a different kind of recreation than the dam-project supporters had intended, but one that draws tourists nonetheless.

It was what first drew me to the area, and I had explored plenty of the reserve on past visits.

So on this fall getaway, I decided to explore some new spots against the backdrop of that timeless Driftless beauty.

Solar-powered beer

First up: Driftless Brewing Co. in Soldiers Grove.

The village touts itself as the country's first solar village — a return-to-the earth theme that’s common in the Driftless Area.

Soldiers Grove earned its title in the ‘80s, when they decided to stop fighting the Kickapoo and moved the entire downtown out of the river's floodplain and closer to Highway 61. They got a federal grant to do so by mandating any new buildings be energy-efficient and solar-heated.

Driftless Brewing is one of those solar-powered buildings. It began in 2013 as a one-barrel facility, recently expanded to a 15-barrel system and opened a tap room earlier this year.

The tap room was busy on a recent Friday with out-of-towners — including another group from Milwaukee — and locals looking to fill growlers and taste from the 10 offerings on tap. Among them was Peach Grisette, a Belgian farmhouse ale that bartender Eli Mandel said was made with organic peaches grown just down the road.

Local, organic ingredients are common in Driftless beers. Cow Cult, a milk stout, is made with locally sourced organic malt and lactose. The Rolling Ground IPA is made with Midwest-grown Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops.

Mandel asked what our weekend plans were — it was a popular festival weekend in the Driftless, with the Apple Festival in Gays Mills less than 10 miles south, La Crosse’s Oktoberfest happening about 45 miles northwest and the Warrens Cranberry Festival about 70 miles northeast.

But we had come for fall colors, which I told him I was disappointed to see hadn't popped much yet.

He said whatever color they had they had lost to rain, which he said had happened last fall, too.

Green, yellow, red or no leaves at all, however, the Driftless hills are always gorgeous, and we got an up-close view as we left the brewery and headed north toward Viroqua.

This area of the Driftless, its most rugged and scenic, is known as the Ocooch Mountains. The hills do resemble mini mountains, rising steeply to 500-foot peaks in some spots.

Viroqua, the area’s largest city and the Vernon County seat, has a population of less than 5,000 and sits in a flatter valley with one of the area’s few four-lane roads, Highway 14.

The town’s first permanent European settlers arrived in 1848, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, and the downtown district is on the state and national registers of historic places. The town’s warehouse district, with buildings including a 1906 leaf tobacco warehouse (now Driftless Books and Music, a used bookstore), to a 1904 train depot (now Spoken Wood Design, with furniture made from reclaimed wood), was designated a city historic district in 2018.

But the area has always been about agriculture, which takes center stage at the Driftless Café. The café is co-owned by James Beard-award semifinalist Luke Zahm and his wife, Ruthie. Zahm recently became the host of the “Wisconsin Foodie” TV show, and named Mary Kastman, a graduate of Madison Area Technical College's culinary program, as the restaurant’s executive chef.

The restaurant maintains its terrific flavors and local focus, with a dinner menu that changes daily and the local farms providing ingredients written on a chalkboard in the dining room.

Fully satiated on local food done right, we left Viroqua and followed winding county highways 20 miles northeast to our cozy cabin home for the weekend.

“Welcome home!” “Cowboy Joe” Rogan-Nordstrom, a Milwaukee native, greeted me as I walked up to the main office to check in.

Rogan-Nordstrom started the ranch with his partner, “Cowboy David,” in 2003. They were hoping to create something similar to the ranches of the West: a peaceful sanctuary amid unmatched natural beauty.

The ranch features eight beautiful cabins with square-topped facades that look like they belong out west. Inside, knotty pine walls are lined with photographs and paintings of cowboys and the Ho-Chunk tribe that once called the area home.

But the highlight is each cabin's large porch with rocking chairs for taking in the views, including of the horses that graze below the north-facing cabins like ours. Dangerous views that could convince you to stay put all day.

Kickapoo Coffee

Coffee might have been the only thing that could have lured us away from our porch-induced hypnosis on our second day in the Driftless.

Back in Viroqua awaited the headquarters and roastery of Kickapoo Coffee, which started as a small roastery and now has cafes in Viroqua, Bayfield and Milwaukee.

The roastery offers tours and tastings once a month, at 10 a.m. on the last Saturday, when we happened to be in town.

Despite struggling to find the roastery’s entrance in the large warehouse known as the Food Enterprise Center (it’s on the east side, with a large sign and walkway lined by prairie plants), we were the first to arrive for the tour and coffee tasting, known as “cupping.”

“We thought this might be the first time nobody showed up,” said Jay Skrede, Kickapoo’s roasting lead, as we stumbled into the “cupping lab” where Kickapoo tastes its coffee for quality-control purposes.

Skrede said they’ve had as many as 40 people show up for the free tour and tasting, but only three others would show up for this one.

Skrede and Alex Stoffregen, who works in sourcing and quality control, served as our guides, first giving us an overview of the company that was founded in 2005 by co-owners Caleb Nicholes and TJ Semanchi. The company moved from its 1,500-square-foot railroad depot (the one that’s part of the historic district) to its current 5,000-square-foot space in 2013. In 2015, it became the country’s first roastery powered by on-site solar energy. Sticking with the area’s locavore theme, the company worked with Viroqua’s Ethos Green Power to install a solar array and pay for it with grants and locally financed funding.

The company’s two roasters, including one that dates to the 1930s, are gas-powered, however. Skrede explained the roasting process, which takes about 15 minutes and is done to-order each week. The roastery churns out 7,000 pounds of coffee every week, he said.

Stoffregen then took us into the climate-controlled green room, where green (unroasted) beans are stored. He showed us various beans, including natural ones — where the fruit dries in the sun before the bean is removed — and washed beans, which are dried after the surrounding fruit is removed.

Back in the tasting room, we’d taste that difference. Skrede had prepared seven different coffees for cupping, including a natural one. We moved from light to dark roasts, using a spoon to scoop and slurp a small amount from each. Skrede encouraged us to go around a couple times, since the flavor changes as the coffee cools. The natural process beans had more notes of fruit than the washed ones, but all were delicious.

Before we tasted, Stoffregen talked more about one of the cores values of Kickapoo Coffee: fair farmer compensation. The going international market rate for coffee is about $1 per pound, which barely covers production costs for some farmers, he said. Certified Fair Trade coffee guarantees farmers a higher rate that is supposed to at least cover cost of living and production, $1.60 per pound ($1.90 for organic), but that rate hasn’t changed since Fair Trade set it in the ‘90s.

Three years ago, Kickapoo Coffee decided to set its own minimum price at $2.75 per pound. It has raised that price five cents every year to account for inflation, so the going rate is now $2.90 for coffee they’ll buy next year. They pay a higher rate for premium coffee beans — up to $4.50 per pound.

“We’ve found a kind of middle ground where we’re paying as much as we possibly can for coffee while still being able to sell it, because people don’t want to pay $25 per pound for coffee yet,” Stoffregen said.

Coffee for sale on Kickapoo’s website starts at $14.50 for a 12-ounce bag.

The company's commitment to fair pay has earned it five Good Food Awards.

Kickapoo Coffee's fairness extends to its name, which in April it announced it would change.

“When we founded Kickapoo Coffee in 2005, we chose our name with the intention of honoring the place where our business has its roots: the Kickapoo River Valley. But Kickapoo is not simply the name given to a river. The Kickapoo are a People,” the co-owners said in a statement, noting that as the company has expanded, that connection between the river valley and the name is lost.

“By using ‘Kickapoo,’ we claimed a name that was never ours to take,” the statement went on to say. “The decision to use their name, and to continue to roast under it, was an act of appropriation. In an effort to right that wrong, we have decided to change our name.”

The company hasn't announced its new name and will continue to operate as Kickapoo Coffee until January 2020.

After walking off our coffee buzz perusing some of the shops in downtown Viroqua, we made our way north to Branches Winery outside Westby.

The winery opened in 2013 and has been growing since. It’s open seasonally, with three outdoor patios overlooking vineyards that grow much of the grapes used to make its wine.

We caught the winery on the last day it was offering its wood-fired pizzas for the season. It was the perfect complement to the Explorer, a summery red made with estate-grown Marquette grapes that we sipped on the patio before heading back to our cozy cabin for the night.

Kickapoo Valley Reserve

It would be a sin to leave the Driftless Area without some kind of outdoor activity, so on our last day we ignored the misty rain and headed to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve Visitor Center for a short hike.

After paying our trail fee ($5 per person), we passed women saddling their horses and made our way west on the grassy Old Harris Road Trail to the Old Highway 131 Trail. That 4.5-mile paved trail follows the tread of Highway 131 before it was moved for the dead dam project. It’s a great accessible hike that includes a beautiful covered bridge (No. 18) over the Kickapoo River. The paved trail and bridge are accessible from a small parking area off Corps Road north of La Farge.

Past the bridge, we followed the gravel Dam Trail east. The trail follows the embankment of the dam that had already been built before the project was halted. It ends at an overlook that includes a view of the surrounding hills and a concrete dam control tower that is still standing.

We could hear some traffic from the new Highway 131 just to the east, but it was otherwise as quiet as our cabin had been. If the project had been completed, the vegetation around us would be part reservoir and part concrete barrier. Powerboats might be buzzing around, and there might be even more traffic on the highway nearby.

But the area isn’t suited to such noise. The Driftless moves at its own, quiet pace, and the Kickapoo Valley Reserve and the recreation it promotes are better suited to that.

If you go

Kickapoo Valley Ranch, E11761 County Road P, La Farge, has eight cabins available for rent starting at $189 per night. The cabins have kitchenettes and Wi-Fi but no television reception. (608) 625-6222, kvranch.com

Driftless Brewing Co.’s taproom, 102 W. Sunbeam Blvd., Soldiers Grove, is open 3-9 p.m. Friday and 1-9 p.m. Saturday. (608) 624-5577, driftlessbrewing.com

Driftless Café, 118 W. Court St., Viroqua, is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday (the kitchen is closed 3-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 4-5 p.m. Saturday). Reservations are accepted and recommended. (608) 637-7778, driftlesscafe.com

Kickapoo Coffee Roastery, 1201 N. Main St., Viroqua, hosts a tour and tasting at 10 a.m. the last Saturday of every month. Tours are free and reservations are not required. The company’s Viroqua café is at 302 S. Main St. and is open 7 a.m.-5 p.m. daily (kitchen closes at 2 p.m.). (608) 637-2022, kickapoocoffee.com 

Branches Winery, E6796 Old Line Road, Westby, is open 1-6 p.m. Thursday and Monday, 1-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1-6 pm Sunday, Memorial Day weekend through September, with wood-fired pizzas served on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Oct. 4 through Dec. 21, the winery is open 1-7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. The winery is usually closed January through March. (608) 634-9463, brancheswinery.com

The Kickapoo Valley Reserve Visitor Center, S3661 Highway 131, La Farge, is open 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Sunday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays and holidays (closed on Sundays Nov. 1 until Memorial Day weekend). The reserve has trails for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking, plus rustic campsites, including many along the Kickapoo River. Day passes are $5 per person or $15 for a family of four or more. (608) 625-2960, http://kvr.state.wi.us/Home 

RELATED:James Beard nominee returned to his roots with Driftless Cafe

Contact Chelsey Lewis at clewis@journalsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter at @chelseylew and @TravelMJS and Facebook at Journal Sentinel Travel.