The Dells and Baraboo offer an outdoor getaway for every kind of traveler

The Dells and the Baraboo area are like a bull's-eye for outdoor activities for every kind of traveler.

At the center are the sandstone-lined bluffs along the Wisconsin River that have fed a booming tourism industry since the 19th century (now known for its colossal water parks) and Devil's Lake, the state's most popular park featuring dramatic quartzite cliffs in the Baraboo Hills. 

Radiating out from that bull's-eye are popular natural areas like Parfrey's Glen and stunning segments of the Ice Age Trail including Gibraltar Rock. Then there are nature preserves: John Muir Memorial Park, the boyhood home of the father of the national parks; the Aldo Leopold Foundation, which protects Aldo Leopold's shack and legacy; and the International Crane Foundation, the only place in the world you can see all 15 species of cranes.  

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"Most people come here because the Baraboo Range is very unique to this part of our little world, Wisconsin. Everything's kind of flat, and then you hit this area and all of a sudden you have the big, beautiful hills, so that brings a lot of people here," said Derrick Mayoleth, who owns Skillet Creek Media and for more than two decades has run devilslakewisconsin.com, a tourism website dedicated to the park.  

"Plus, it's sort of a combination. We have Wisconsin Dells and that offers one world, and then we have the Baraboo Hills area, which offers a completely different way to spend time, and I think what a lot of people do is they split it up. They'll come here and chill, and then they'll go to the Dells." 

Mayoleth's website includes a map of more than 50 hiking spots within about 40 miles of Baraboo, ranging from spots like Baxter's Hollow to the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area.

Mix those with the wet-and-wild water parks and tourist attractions in the Dells and you've got multiple personalities for a diverse getaway in south-central Wisconsin.  

Muir and more 

I started my road trip on the edge of the target.

About 12 miles north of Portage is John Muir Memorial Park, which protects the land that was the boyhood home of John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club and the father of our national parks.  

A 1.7-mile segment of the Ice Age Trail loops around Ennis Lake, which was known as Fountain Lake when the Muir family lived on its northwest side.  

The family farm is gone, but the lake where Muir learned to swim, and the flora and fauna he writes of exploring are still there.  

“Even if I should never see it again, the beauty of its lilies and orchids is so pressed into my mind, I shall always enjoy looking back at them in imagination, even across the seas and continents and perhaps after I am dead,” Muir writes in his autobiography, "The Story of My Boyhood and Youth." 

After a walk with Muir I headed north to one of the area's less-visited sites: Quincy Bluff and Wetlands State Natural Area south of Adams. The property, which is a mix of landscapes from wetlands to oak barrens, was once owned by the Nature Conservancy but is now entirely owned by the state. A highlight of the site is the 200-foot Quincy Bluff, which extends for nearly two miles through the natural area.  

Access is not easy, but I found a small, grassy parking lot off 16th Drive on the west side of the 6,523-acre property. 

I had hoped to follow old logging roads through the property to a trail that leads to the top of the bluff, but an onslaught of ticks turned me around after less than half a mile. Mark this down as a natural area to explore in cold-weather months, which also allows for better views of the property's three major rock formations: Quincy Bluff, Rattlesnake Mound and Lone Rock. 

De-ticked and back on the road, I drove west past Castle Rock Lake, a man-made lake created by the Castle Rock Dam on the Wisconsin River. It's the state's fourth-largest lake and is connected to Petenwell Lake, the state's second largest, also created by a dam to the north. 

Two worthy stops in the area if you have time: Buckhorn State Park, with waterfront campsites on the Castle Rock Flowage, and Petenwell Bluff, where a rustic trail leads up to and around a bluff with views of the lake and the Wisconsin River. Find a rustic parking lot for the latter off 19th Ave. south of Highway 21. 

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With daylight dwindling I headed south to sneak in a hike at Rocky Arbor State Park.

Rocky Arbor gets overshadowed by the bigger and more developed Mirror Lake and Devil's Lake to the south, but the 244-acre state park has a short nature trail worth a quick visit.  

A one-mile trail loops along the top and bottom of a rocky sandstone gorge formed when the Wisconsin River flowed through here, cutting into the soft sandstone. The river follows a different course today, and the small creek through the gorge actually flows in the opposite direction.  

The park has a wooded campground that is a good option if the two big boys to the south are full, but you'll have to endure some traffic noise from the interstate, which snakes along the park's western end.  

Since it was the middle of the week, I was confident I could nab a site at Mirror Lake and continued my circle south to there.  

Mirror Lake is one of my favorite state parks for both its amenities — a placid lake perfect for canoeing and kayaking; a developed campground that isn't as rowdy as some other popular parks; hiking trails for exploring fern-filled gorges and pine-tree-topped bluffs — and the memories I've made there, including on a camping trip with my parents a few years ago.  

For this trip I sight-unseen picked a nearly perfect campsite perched on a bluff above the river, with peek-a-boo views of the lake through the trees and a trail leading down to the boat launch.

The Dells 

You can't visit the Dells without visiting the actual Dells, so on day two I set out to the Dells of the Wisconsin River, a state natural area that protects five miles of the Wisconsin River and its spectacular shoreline.  

The Dells was among the first areas recommended for state park status when the new State Park Board hired landscape architect John Nolen to develop a plan for the system in 1909. But the area would not receive protection as a natural area until 1994, with an expansion in 1997. 

The best way to see the Dells is by boat, but there are a few access points by foot. 

On the east side of the river north of downtown, a 1.5-mile hiking trail travels through hardwoods and down one of the bluffs to a sandy beach along the river.  

I spent some time watching tour boats putter into the gorge to the right of the beach before climbing out and heading to the west side of the river.  

The Cambrian Overlook on 61st St. north of Wisconsin Dells features a higher overlook of a wide spot in the Wisconsin River, where the creamy bluffs are more pronounced above the lake-like river. 

A portion of the overlook is accessible via a paved walkway, and other viewpoints can be accessed by a wide, grassy trail.  

Seeing the bluffs from above is not enough, though, so I made my way back downtown to see about a boat.  

While you can kayak or canoe the Wisconsin River, boat traffic in the summer make it a less-than-tranquil paddle.  

The Original Wisconsin Ducks are of course a classic way to see the Dells by land and water, with college-age guides providing a sing-songy, well-rehearsed tour of the area.  

Since I'd already done the Ducks thing (with a prime front-seat view), as well as a standard Dells Boat Tour, I decided to go for a wilder ride on one of the Dells' jet boats.  

A jet boat experience offers a good taste of the natural beauty and history of the Dells along with its newer personality as an adrenaline-inducing water park.  

After a rain delay — a rare occurrence for the boats, which go out in most weather — Captain Brook Klitzke took me and a family of five from Michigan on a fast ride through the Upper Dells, the area upriver from the Wisconsin Dells dam.  

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The jet boats can hit speeds of 40 miles per hour, and can quickly stop, start and slide in whipping circles.  

Klitzke did it all on our 50-minute tour, interspersing wild tricks with quieter moments through areas like the narrows.  

The river is so deep and swift there that some say the river stands on its end, Klitzke told us as we slowly made our way through.  

Halfway through the tour, we docked at Witches Gulch, a narrow slot canyon that photographer H.H. Bennett first discovered in the 1870s. Bennett named the area Witches Gulch for its dark and mystical rock formations, and put in boardwalks so tourists could walk through it.  

We followed modern boardwalks through the skinny canyon, water rushing under our feet and mist rising from the moss-covered sandstone. A concession stand anchors the end of the gulch, which is only accessible via an Upper Dells boat tour. 

Back on dry land, I ditched my car at my campsite and hiked through Mirror Lake to Ishnala Supper Club, a Mirror Lake staple since 1953.  

Old Fashioneds are so popular that bartenders at the Arrowhead Bar had them muddled and lined up for brandy or whiskey upon order.  

I sipped a brandy sweet on one of the decks overlooking the lake and chatted with the Morrisons from Madison, who told me they had been coming to Ishnala almost yearly for more than 40 years, since their first date at age 17.

The restaurant inside buzzed with laughter and chatter from couples, families and groups of friends. I got one of the best seats in the house, along windows at the far end of the dining room with a view of the main windows along the lake. The large restaurant melds with the surrounding natural landscape — log walls, Norway pines growing through the roof, a flagstone floor. 

The food is as good as the view, and I enjoyed salmon with a touch of lemon and butter followed by a miniature cinnamon roll from the bread basket. I had my fill of classic Wisconsin in every way. 

Baraboo's greats 

I couldn't leave the area without visiting another conservation great: Aldo Leopold. 

On the sandy banks of the Wisconsin River, Leopold and his family turned an old chicken coop into a shack where they would spend summers restoring the land that had been decimated by farming. Those experiences inspired Leopold's seminal work, "A Sand County Almanac." 

Today that shack still stands and is protected by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, which offers guided and self-guided tours of the building and the land. 

As I walked through stands of pines and hardwoods and past a welcome mat of blooming prairie flowers, I compared it to the photo in the brochure I'd grabbed at the visitors center.  

The black-and-white photo, taken in 1935 when the family purchased the land, shows a barren landscape, dotted by a few scraggly trees in a row and scrub-brush grasses.  

Leopold never got to see what the land became. He died of a heart attack while fighting a fire on a neighbor's farm in 1948. 

Leopold never even saw his book published. Like a great artist, his work wasn't fully appreciated until after his death. His first masterpiece, the land around the shack, is now a living testament to his work. 

After lunch at Driftless Glen, a handsome distillery and restaurant with a patio overlooking the Baraboo River, I stopped by Circus World. The complex, which includes actual circus performances and exhibits at the former winter headquarters of the Ringling Bros. Circus, is an especially significant historical site since the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus gave its final performance on May 21 this year. 

Having more than my fill of clowns, I continued on to the second part of the area's bull's-eye, Devil's Lake State Park.   

I didn't have time to hike the bluffs, so I sat near the beach on the North Shore taking in the bustling scene on a warm summer afternoon.

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When European settlers first stumbled on the lake, they saw it from the opposite side, Mayoleth said. The South Bluff is one of the few spots in the park that don’t have developed trails or roads, so not many people get that same perspective.  

This year Mayoleth launched Devil's Lake Adventure Hikes, guided hikes of that and other areas in the park people don't usually see.  

"In Wisconsin, you don't often think of it as back country, you don't look at that option, and there really is. Within the park there are waterfalls that nobody knew existed, the whole of the South Bluff, there's no trails, the only people who ever are in that area are basically hunters," he said. 

It's hard to imagine finding back country, or even slices of nature away from the throngs at Devil's Lake, especially on a summer day. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources put attendance at the park at nearly 2.6 million for the fiscal year 2016, but Mayoleth said he thinks it's closer to 3 million or more.  

"You're looking at about the same numbers, give or take a few thousand, at Glacier National Park," Mayoleth said. "And those parks are doing millions of acres. Devil's Lake has 10,000, so you're squishing them into this one little place. That's extraordinary." 

But, he noted, a large percentage of those visitors don't explore the full range of the park. 

"Seventy to 80% of people I bet you never leave that campground and day-use area. They'll never see most of the park. We talk to people all the time who've never been up on a bluff trail," he said. "That's very common, because they look at it as a difficult hike to get up the bluff, and that's not what they're into anyway, they like sitting on the beach. Everyone gets their own piece of what they want." 

In the Dells and Baraboo area, that's a pretty accurate slogan. 

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