Drive to Wildcat Mountain, Wisconsin

August 12, 2003

We decided to drive westward from the Dells to explore a stretch of road and Wildcat Mountain, recommended to us by a family we met on the upper Dells boat ride. On Highway 33 westward, we went through many fields of corn and soybeans, and lots of cows and horses. But the corn silos below were a surprise to us.

There were black and white Holstein cows everywhere, this being the dairy state. But Rod was glad to see a few Guernsey cows as well shown among the Holsteins above left, the kind he milked when he was back home on the farm in Arkansas.

Most of the cows were where they belonged, in bucolic settings like that above left. But a few adventurous ones were out on the road as well, so we took care.

We drove to the Wildcat Mountain State Park and took a 3/8 mile hike to the Taylor Hollow Overlook . There were a few birch trees, which are a novelty to us, so Brenda posed by one of them.

This fine trail gave us an overlook of the town of Ontario with its white church steeple.

Rod was trying to photograph a butterfly and lost sight of it. It had lit on his hat! So Brenda got the video camera and recorded its presence. It seemed quite content to rest there.

After our hike to see one side of Wildcat Mountain, we drove to an overlook to see the other side. We got a wide vista of woods and farmland as shown above.

Looking almost straight down, we could see canoes on the twisting Kickapoo River below us. It looked inviting enough for us to go and explore.