Hike Location: Wildcat Mountain State Park
Geographic Location: south of Tomah, WI (43.69777, -90.57413)
Length: 2.6 miles
Difficulty: 6/10 (Moderate)
Date Hiked: August 2018
Overview: A loop hike past rock outcrops and several
mountaintop overlooks.
Park Information: https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/parks/wildcat
Directions to the trailhead: Near Tomah, take I-90 to
SR 131 (exit 41). Exit and go south on
SR 131. Drive SR 131 south 20.2 miles to
SR 33 in the town of Ontario. Turn left
on SR 33. Drive SR 33 east 2.6 miles to
the park entrance on the left. Turn sharply
left to enter the park, then pay the park entrance fee at the park office. Park in the parking lot behind (north of) the
park office.
The hike: Occupying
a 24,000 square mile oval shaped region in southwest Wisconsin, southeast
Minnesota, northwest Illinois, and northeast Iowa, the Driftless Area
represents an island of hills surrounded by an ocean of flat plains. The hills exist because, unlike the
surrounding plains, the Driftless Area was never flattened by glaciers during
the last Ice Age. The absence of
glaciers means an absence of dirt/rock glacial deposits or drift, hence the
area’s name. Hiking in the Driftless Area
more closely resembles hiking in other non-glaciated areas such as southern
Ohio or eastern Kentucky than it does hiking in Wisconsin, and the steep hills
and interesting rock outcrops make for excellent scenery.
Located
less than 20 miles into the Driftless Area, 3643-acre Wildcat Mountain State
Park owes its existence to Amos Saunders and Vernon County, who donated 20 and
60 acre tracts of land respectively to establish the park in 1948. The park and mountain got their name in the
1800’s when local farmers killed a livestock-killing bobcat (also called a wildcat)
near what is now the park’s main overlook.
The lumber industry also operated here during the 1800’s, and for 25-30
years logs were floated down the Kickapoo River, which flows through the
present-day park’s western section.
Today rafts
float down the river instead of logs, and Wildcat Mountain State Park is a
major state park that offers many forms of recreation. The park has several campgrounds: a 25-site
developed campground, 20 cart-in campsites, 3 group campgrounds, a horse
campground, and a canoe campground. Most
of the park’s trails are open to horses, but the park does offer some
hiker-only trails, the longest of which is a 2.2 mile loop called the Old
Settler’s Trail. Combining one arm of
the Old Settler’s Trail with some nature trails that pass the park’s main
overlooks allows you to sample both the park’s frontcountry and backcountry
scenery. Such is the hike described
here.
 |
| Access trail for cart-in campground |
This hike’s
first objective is to reach the park’s amphitheater and the nearby trailhead
for the Old Settler’s Trail. From the
east side of the park office, start on the wide gravel cart-in campground trail
as it heads downhill through a prairie.
Where the trail splits to access the various campsites, you can go
either way: both options lead northeast to the amphitheater with the left trail
taking a more level route than the right one.
The cart-in campsites are rather popular: all of them had been reserved
on the warm Friday morning in early August that I hiked here.
At 0.3
miles, you come out at the park road with a parking lot and restroom building
to your left. Turn right and walk along
the park road past some park maintenance buildings. When you reach another parking lot, look to
the left for a large wooden sign that reads “Amphitheater; Old Settlers Hiking
Trail; Taylor Hollow Over Look.” Turn
left and enter the forest on a single-track dirt/gravel trail.
 |
| View behind amphitheater |
Soon you
reach the park amphitheater, which features a nice north-facing overlook behind
its stage. Continue east past the
amphitheater, then angle left to follow signs for Taylor Hollow Overlook. Ignore the south arm of the Old Settler’s
Trail as it exits left. At 0.7 miles,
you reach Taylor Hollow Overlook. This overlook
features a nice bench and a split-log railing, but the north-facing view was
very obstructed by greenery on my visit.
 |
| Taylor Hollow Overlook |
The trail
exits the overlook to the right and descends on a steep grade via two
switchbacks. A tall sandstone outcrop on
the left reminded me of similar outcrops I had passed on hikes in southern
Kentucky years before. At 0.9 miles, the
trail curves left where an unofficial trail exits right. A wooden post with metal arrows seemed to do
a good job of marking this turn in my view, but another pair of hikers had
managed to miss it just before I got there.
 |
| Rock outcrop below Taylor Hollow Overlook |
The trail
continues descending on a more gradual grade before entering a pine
planting. An interpretive sign tells you
that these pines were planted in 1951, and they allow in a lot of sunlight to create
a dense brushy understory. Some young
maple trees also live down here. At 1.1
miles, you cross a wooden footbridge over a small stream. This stream marks the lowest elevation of
this hike, and it sits roughly 300 vertical feet below the trailhead.
 |
| Crossing the stream |
The Old
Settler’s Trail rolls over a low finger ridge before curving left to begin the
climb back up to the trailhead in earnest.
Soon you exit the pine planting and re-enter the oak forest that
dominates Wildcat Mountain’s summit area.
The large number of broadleaf trees on Wildcat Mountain and on
neighboring ridges make this hike excellent for fall leaf-peeping in early
October. 1.7 miles into the hike, noise
from SR 33 can be heard from the right as the south arm of the Old Settler’s
Trail exits left. Continue straight to leave
the Old Settler’s Trail loop and head for the upper picnic area.
The trail
climbs on a steep grade over some wooden waterbars to reach the parking lot for
the upper picnic area at 1.85 miles.
Angle right to walk through the picnic area and reach the first truly
exceptional view. The Kickapoo River
valley, dotted by several farms, lies in the foreground, and wooded ridges form
a nice backdrop to the west. This
viewpoint makes a nice place to sit and rest now that the hardest hiking is
complete.
 |
| Upper Picnic Area overlook view |
After
admiring the view, hike along the right side of the picnic area, following some
brown carsonite posts to Observation Point.
Facing southwest, Observation Point is Wildcat Mountain’s most famous
viewpoint, although it is hard to pick one viewpoint as the park’s best. Exit the southeast side of Observation Point
by taking a dirt trail marked as leading to the Prairie Overlook and the Family
Camp.
 |
| View from Observation Point |
 |
| Hiking the Prairie Trail |
The level
dirt trail soon passes the Prairie Overlook, another mountaintop viewpoint that
was somewhat obscured by vegetation on my visit. Next you hike through the small restored
prairie to reach the entrance to the family campground. Angle left to walk the park road back to the
park office, where your car awaits. If
you want to do some more hiking at Wildcat Mountain State Park, the 1.3 mile hiker-only
Hemlock Trail starts at the Lower Picnic Area along the Kickapoo River. Though shorter than the Old Settler’s Trail,
the Hemlock Trail climbs to some nice overlooks located atop a small hill
called Mount Pisgah, so it is kind of a shorter version of this hike with a
riverside start to boot.
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