Looking for a very interesting winter activity in Wisconsin? Head to Prairie du Chien in the southwest corner of the state. The upper Mississippi River is home to hundreds of bald eagles, and the eagles are most viewable in winter.
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Archive for the ‘Winter in Wisconsin’ Category
Bald Eagle Appreciation Day
January 25th, 2012 by knapik
Westby Wisconsin Nordic Ski Jump
January 10th, 2011 by knapik
Westby Wisconsin, located in the soutwest corner of the state only a half hour from LaCrosse, is home to an annual nordic ski jumping tournament. On February 4 and 5, 2011, the Snowflake Ski Club will host its annual “big hill” event. US and international jumpers will compete on a 118 meter hill. The jumpers approach 50 mph as they soar off the jump and down the hill. Many olympic jumpers use the Westby event as training for major worlwide jumping competition.
Snowflake Ski Club was founded in 1922 and it is one of only two remaining all-volunteer large hill ski jumping clubs in the Western Hemisphere. This is a tribute to the city of Westby (population 2000) and to the dedicated local volunteers. On Friday, February 4 there will be open training at night, under the lights. Following the jumping there will be live music and fireworks. The main competition will be held on Saturday, February 5 starting at noon. Live music will go throughout the day on Saturday. Snowflake Ski Club offers free admission to US military members.
Westby is located in Wisconsin’s famed Driftless Area and is a three hour drive from Minneapolis, about four hours from the Chicago western suburbs. Excellent lodging and restauarants can be found nearby.
La Crosse Rotary Lights
December 3rd, 2010 by knapik
On a chilly December afternoon we decided to make a half-day visit to La Crosse, WI. We wanted to enjoy dinner at one of the great restaurants there, but our biggest reason for going was to enjoy the Rotary Lights at La Crosse’s Riverfront Park. So we left Lonesome Hollow by 2 pm; arrived in La Crosse by 3 pm; did some shopping that just isn’t possible in Soldiers Grove; and went for a glass or two of wine to the Three Rivers Lodge restaurant located in the Radisson hotel. The Radisson sits right next to Riverfront Park and we sipped our wine while gazing out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the park and the mighty Mississippi River that lay on the other side of the park.
Winter Eagles in Southwest Wisconsin
January 13th, 2010 by knapik
During the winter months eagles congregate along the unfrozen portions of the Upper Mississippi River. The stretch of river from La Crosse, WI south to Priarie du Chien, WI always has a high concentration of these majestic birds. After hitting a population low in early 1970′s the eagle population is once again healthy, and the eagle was removed from the Endangered Species List in 2007. Wisconsin now has more than 1000 pairs of nesting eagles, and more than 200 of those nest in the Upper Mississippi Valley.
Eagle soars over the Mississippi
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A Wisconsin Winter Hike
December 29th, 2009 by knapik
It was 7 am, December 29, 2009. The temperature was minus four degrees (Fahrenheit, just in case someone outside the US is reading this). Early glimmers of daylight were just appearing to the east as we left our bed and breakfast, the Inn at Lonesome Hollow, near Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin. We quickly made our way to Hwy 131, then headed north. As the sky lightened a bit more we weaved our way past a wonderous white landscape, progressing north through the quiet villages of Soldiers Grove, Readstown, Viola, and LaFarge. About four miles north of La Farge we turned left onto Cty Hwy P. Just a mile after turning onto Cty P we pulled off the road into a small parking area at one of the many trailheads in the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.
Slight glint of the morning dawn on the frozen river
The Kickapoo Valley Reserve (KVR) is a jewel. It is more than 8000 acres of roughly sculpted hills, bluffs, and valley that are owned by the people of Wisconsin. It is located near the center of the famed Driftless Area, a large island or peninsula of land that was spared by the Wisconsin Glacier of ten thousand years ago. The Kickapoo River has therefore been slowly wearing away the limestone bedrock of the valley for more than one hundred thousand years. In places this erosion is gentle in appearance, with graceful valleys that gradually meld into the hills. In other places this erosion is dramatic and limestone bluffs rise almost one hundred feet vertically out of the river bed. The Kickapoo Valley is twenty-five times older than the pyramids of Egypt. It is about 500 times older than the United State of America. It is evidence of the persistence, the patience, and the power of nature. Read the rest of this page »
Romance in the Country
Bald Eagle Appreciation Day
2012 Wisconsin Trout Fishing
