Parfrey's Glen

Last Sunday we spent the morning hiking through Parfrey's Glen near Baraboo Wisconsin.

It is an ancient place where you can see evidence the glaciers left behind.

Click on each picture and you can see the "wheels" of the glacier. Sandstone with aggregate layers containing granite boulders and pebbles.

A stream runs though the 100 foot high sandstone bluffs and exposes the granite bedrock below.

For a little perspective, find the hiker in the distance in the next photo.

This place is full of magic.

Best to be visited on a quiet day when you can hear the wind in the trees above,

the bird song in the woods

and the secret whispers of ancient times.

Greetings From Devil's Lake

Greetings from Devils Lake! On Easter Sunday my husband and I took a trip to Devil's Lake State Park located near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Devil's Lake was originally a gorge of the Wisconsin River prior to the last ice age. During the ice age, a portion of the glacier passed to the east of the Baraboo Hills and came up the river valley. It deposited materials and then melted, leaving a terminal moraine blocking the river, forming an earthen dam. Another moraine was deposited at the north end of the lake. The river eventually found a new course to the east of the Baraboo Hills, where the glacier had been, leaving a portion of the river gorge between the moraines filled with water. This body of water is Devil's Lake. (source: Keith Montgomery)

Most of the terrain in our area is formed by limestone and sandstone bluffs. The Baraboo Range, as these hills are known, is the ridge of an ancient and highly eroded, exposed mountain range. It extends for 25 miles and is 5-10 miles wide in places. The hills are composed of metamorphic rock: Baraboo pink quartzite and red rhyolite. The rocks are said to be as much as 1.6 billion years old. They are some of the oldest exposed rock in North American. This quartzite was formed by heated compressed sand an estimated 5 miles below the earth's surface.You can see evidence of ancient sand dunes in the metamorphic rock located through out the park.

This area also holds the largest stand of decidous forest in the Midwest.

This is a place we will visit again and again. There are so many places to explore.