Pike Lake Unit, Kettle Moraine State Forest—I Kame, I Saw, I Enjoyed
Written: Jul 29 '04 (Updated Jul 29 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Scenery: |
 |
|
| Crowds: |
 |
|
| Time needed for visit: |
|
|
|
Pros: panoramic view, wetlands, old-growth forest, people-watching, close to Milwaukee
Cons: noisy, most of the park is unremarkable
The Bottom Line: Don’t expect a wilderness experience and you’ll be pleasantly surprised
|
|
|
| ericgoldman's Full Review: Pike Lake State Park |
Pike Lake is one of the five units of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, a system of parks ringing Milwaukee. It’s a little small as nature parks go—less than 700 acres—but offers a nice respite from the urbanized Milwaukee metro region.
What’s Special?
Southeastern Wisconsin state parks tend to have a certain sameness about them—flat, a mix of second-growth/plantation forest and grasslands, and centered around a lake. Pike Lake exhibits all of those characteristics. However, there are three special elements of Pike Lake that make it a cut above the standard.
Powder Hill. Powder Hill is a glacial kame (the accumulated deposits of sediment at the front of a stationary glacier) topped by an observation tower. Topping out at 1,350 feet, Powder Hill is one of the highest points in Southeastern Wisconsin, and provides an unusually steep (for the area) 200 foot elevation gain to reach the summit. At the top, you’ll be treated to one of the best panoramic views in the area. Unfortunately, the tower was not constructed at the highest point, meaning that trees block a big chunk of the southern view.
The Boardwalk Trail. A boardwalk runs through a wetlands area along Pike Lake. The trail was intended to provide nature access for wheelchairs, but everyone will enjoy walking through a very pretty marsh. This was one of the nicest short hikes I’ve had in Wisconsin.
The Black Forest Nature Trail. A short walk through a forest that appeared to contain some old-growth trees. Compared to the orderly rows of planted trees in other parts of the park, this section of forest was particularly compelling.
Other Features
The Ice Age trail runs through the park. Usually, the Ice Age trail follows the best parts of trails in the parks, and Pike Lake is no exception. Except for the short trails I’ve already discussed, the hiking is rather typical for area parks. Trails are color coded in various loops and tend to blur together.
The park’s small size means that trails are always near the perimeter of the park. In this case, regardless of the trail I was on, I could always hear some mechanical noise—cars on the bordering freeways, trains on the nearby train tracks, tractors working the neighboring farms, boats and Jet skis on the lake, planes overhead. There is a pervasive mechanized hum throughout Southeastern Wisconsin, and the park offers no respite from that.
I was also disappointed by the Astronomy Trail. Designed to give children a sense of the scale of the solar system, route markers for each planet are placed at the approximate distance from each other corresponding to the distance between planets. Good concept—but horrible execution. The markers are not within sight of each other, so you cannot get a visual sense of scale. In addition, the write-ups at each route marker contain boring and irrelevant trivia about each planet—with lots of typographical errors, no less. I was surprised at how poorly this was executed.
In addition to hiking, the park offers other traditional Wisconsin activities—boating, fishing, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, biking, camping (there is a 32 site campground) and picnicking on the beach. I don’t believe Pike Lake is extraordinary on any of those fronts except for the beach. I saw an incredible diversity of people at the beach—overweight Midwestern parents with their kids playing in the sand, a young couple in love, good-looking tanned college dudes playing volleyball, a father and adult daughter, tattooed skankers. If you like people-watching, you’ll have fun here.
Getting There
Pike Lake is located near Hartford and Slinger between Highway 41 and Highway 45. From Milwaukee, take Highway 41 north about 25 miles, exit on Highway 60 and go three miles west. The park charges an admission fee ($5/day), although I parked on the other side of Highway 60 and hiked in (if you’re going to the beach, just pay the parking fee).
Conclusion
Having been raised on California nature parks, no park in Southeastern Wisconsin measures up—the region is too flat and over-developed. However, as Southeastern Wisconsin parks go, Pike Lake has some nice features that stand it above other parks.
You can find more details at http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/specific/pikelake/.
Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: June-August
Recommended for: Anybody
Review Topic: Overview
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ericgoldman
|
|
Member: Eric Goldman
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 32 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.