What is the Ice Age Trail?
The Ice Age National Scenic Trail is one of America’s eleven National Scenic Trails. It is predominantly an off-road hiking trail, similar to the Appalachian Trail. The route generally follows the edges of the last continental glacier in North America, a time known as the Wisconsin glaciation. Besides providing an excellent opportunity for hiking, the trail preserves some of the finest features of Wisconsin’s glacial landscape as well as other scenic and natural resources.
The Ice Age Trail is part of the National Park Service National Scenic Trail System. The Trail loosely follows the terminus of the glaciers from the last ice age. It traverses the state starting at Potawatomi State Park in Door County, runs southeast through the Kettle Moraines to Janesville, turns north going west of Madison, through Devil’s Lake State Park, north to Langlade County, and then meanders west through northern forests to Interstate State Park on the St Croix National Scenic Riverway. Currently, about 600 miles out of a total of about 1100 planned miles are completed statewide. Geology of the Ice Age Trail 12,000 to 18,000 years ago, monstrous ice sheets, over two miles thick at their point of origin, stretched from northern Canada to cover much of Wisconsin and North America. Mounds of glacial material were deposited at the forward edge of the glacier, forming the terminal moraine. The Ice Age Trail follows this moraine for much of its thousand miles.
