A Side Stop

A while back we were going to visit Heidlebeere and decided to take a side trip, the scenic route, if you will.  Highway 131 runs along side the Kickapoo River, which is the longest tributary of the Wisconsin River.  As a river, it begins near Wilton, WI and winds and twists its way south, eventually reaching the Wisconsin River 126 miles later.  However, as the crow flies, its only 60 miles from its beginning to its confluence with the Wisconsin River.  That's one crooked river.  And, while its doesn't match the river turn for twist, Highway 131 stays pretty close most of the way.  So that's the way we decided to go.  Get in a little sight-seeing since we were headed that direction anyway.

We also made one stop along the way.  Well, we stopped more than once, but we only stopped once to do any sight-seeing. That was in the southwest corner of the Kickapoo Valley Nature Reserve, just north of La Farge, WI.  There is a little covered bridge there and I'm a sucker for covered bridges.

This little covered bridge is on the Old Highway 131 Trail, and is part of the reserve.  It was a nice little area.  We weren't able to drive all the way to the bridge because the road was closed to vehicle traffic.  But it was just a short walk down a paved road to get to the bridge.

This was mid-way along the river so it wasn't real wide at this point.  The trail is open to vehicles later in the summer but not at the time we stopped.

It is a nice little bridge, more open than some we've visited.  That's kind of nice.

Looking south along the river from the bridge. 

Its a slow, easy river at this point, not very wide.  We were there in the evening.  We were also the only ones there at the time so it was nice and quiet.  About the only sound was all the birds, and there were plenty of those.

Looking north along the river from the bridge

It was a very peaceful, quiet little hike down to the bridge and back.

We walked across the bridge, and around the area for a little while.

Out on the river there were a couple of geese, I would guess from the sound of the honking. We never actually saw them.  We just heard them. I'm not sure what they were doing but there were sure making a lot of noise about it.  Almost sounded like a disagreement, got pretty loud and heated sounding for a little bit.

There were some interesting rock formations here on the trail and all along the river that we'd been seeing as we drove through the area.

Lots of trees down.  Made for some interesting scenery.

As we were heading back to the car the sun was reaching the horizon.  It was a good stop.

The bridge and the whole drive was interesting.  On this drive we saw an elk, an Amish farmer out plowing his field with four draft horses (he was standing on the plow), a goat standing on what looked like a dog house, and three Amish buggies.  And, of course, the covered bridge.  This was a very nice drive through the "driftless area", the area at the leading edge of the glacier that once covered most of Wisconsin.  Basically most of the southwest corner of he state.

Later I discovered that a few miles north of this bridge, still on the Old Highway 131 Trail, there is another crossing of the Kickapoo River with a covered bridge.  Of course I added it to my list.   All the way down Highway 131, as we took in the hills and valleys, we kept thinking this would be an even prettier drive just a little later in the season, when all the leaves were out on the trees.  Next time we go we'll have to stop at the other bridge.  That would pretty nice.