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INTERACTIVE HIKEPRAIRE MORAINE COUNTY PARK

1) Welcome to Prairie Moraine County Park. This park is 160 acres, divided in half into an Ice AgeTrail part, that centers on the Terminal Moraine in front (north) of you, and an off leash dog park tothe east. Our hike today will be in the Ice Age Trail section along the moraine where Ice Age Trailvolunteers have been restoring prairie, oak savanna, and oak woodlands for the last 20 years. 2) As you face north, the terminal moraine of the glacier looms in front of you, about 200 feet higherthan where you are now. When the ice advanced from the north to this point, it brought with tonsof rocks and dirt, scraped from the hills of northern Wisconsin and Canada. When the ice melted,beginning about 15,000 years ago, all of the rocks and dirt remained at the end of the glacier,forming the Moraine. 3) You’ve now reached the narrow ridge crest of the Moraine. Here it is lower than elsewhere in thepark, and birds commonly use the “saddle” as an easier flyway. Looking north you see the BadgerMill Creek Valley with US 18-151 (Verona Road) in it. This was a major “outwash channel” for themelt water produced by the glacier over the several thousands of years it took to melt. 4) You’ve just reached the edge of surviving remnant oak woods. This land, now a County Park, wasnever plowed or logged because of the high terrain and very rocky soil. Since European settlementin the 1850s until about 2005, the forest has been prevented from burning, and was invaded bynon-native vegetation such as buckthorn and honeysuckle. An Ice Age Trail restoration project hasremoved most of those invasives and restored fire to the landscape, and the forest is now in theearly stage of recovery. 5) You are now back on the ridge of the terminal moraine with great views 15-20 miles to the southinto the Sugar River Valley. To the west is a deep melt water ravine that carried huge amounts ofwater over thousands of years as the glacier melted. It washed out the moraine at one point and allthe sand, gravel, and rocks spread out below in an “alluvial fan” that covers the lower part of thepark and the farmland beyond. This all traveled down to the outwash plain of the Sugar River inthe valley below. 6) You are about to hike back down the terminal moraine through a restored and preserved oaksavanna. Oak Savannas were widespread across southern Wisconsin until European settlement,about 150-200 years ago. Restoration over the last 20 years has removed the dense stands ofinvasive buckthorn and honeysuckle that choked the hillside. As you descend, look to the east,across the fence line and property boundary, to see what this hillside looked like beforerestoration.

7) You are now looking at a large “Kettle Pond” dating back to the end of the Ice Age.  Kettlesformed near the end of the glacier as enormous blocks of ice, some around 300 feet high, melted atthe rate of an inch or two per decade.  Trapped rocks, dirt and debris slid of the side of thesemountains of ice and collected around the base of the ice, forming a big bowl or “kettle” of water. Kettle ponds continue to collect rainwater and melted snow and slowly discharge it to thewatershed below. 8) Here you are at almost 1200 feet above sea level, the highest point in the park, and one of thehighest points in Dane County. From here the glacier stretched north all the way to the top of theearth and down the other side to about the middle of Europe. The ice was as thick at this edge asthe height of the radio tower in the park below you - about 300 feet. It was about 1000 feet thickover Wisconsin’s State Capitol in Madison and four times the height of the building! 9) This boulder strewn hillside contains many “glacial erratic” boulders – granite, gneiss, andsimilar rocks from northern Wisconsin and Canada. They rolled off the ice face and down theMoraine thousands of years ago and remain there today. Early settlers to Wisconsin who knew thatthe bedrock was mainly limestone and sandstone were at a loss to explain how these giant mostlyround rocks came to be here. 10) Ice Age Trail volunteers, helped by youth from “Operation Fresh Start”, are still activelyrestoring this park. The next phase of restoration will be centered on the woods to the north andwest of this spot – clearing out around the large oaks and opening up the area to prescribed burns. This will eventually allow native spring wildflowers to return and help generate new oaks to takethe place of the large aged ones you see now. 11) On clear days, this observation platform allows excellent views of the Sugar River Valley downto Belleville, about 10 miles away, and the “driftless area” ridge beyond. Streams coming fromboth glaciated and non-glaciated terrain feed the Sugar River. The West Branch drains the highlimestone and sandstone ridges of the driftless area. The main channel of the Sugar River followsthe front of the terminal moraine from Middleton south to Verona and has huge deposits of sandand gravel washed out from the mass of melting ice. 12) As you head back to the parking lot, take one last look back at the terminal moraine andimagine the huge blocks of ice melting above you a mere 10,000 years ago. Enjoy the majesty ofthe giant oaks, and the beauty of the restored prairies on the hillsides. Consider returning to seethe park in other seasons and watch the restoration efforts continue to transform the countryside. Thank you for coming here!

INTERACTIVE HIKEPRAIRE MORAINE COUNTY PARK