With 640 landscaped acres, Milwaukee’s Whitnall Park is one of the largest
municipal parks in America. Dogs, however, are not welcome there. Dogs can also
not visit the Lake Michigan Beach in Milwaukee. The fine for having your dog in a
prohibited area is $149.50, as is the fine for not having your dog leashed or not
cleaning up after your dog in Milwaukee County. If you find yourself in Milwaukee
with your dog, head for the Granville Dog Park, located just north of Good Hope
Road and west of Highway 45 along the east bank of the Menomonee River, the only
Milwaukee park where dogs may exercise without a leash.
To hike with your dog travel over an hour west to Kettle Moraine State Forest. The
Ice Age was so instrumental in shaping the landscape of Wisconsin that the most
recent advance of the ice flows has been named the “Wisconsin Glaciation.” For
almost 100,000 years – until a mere 10,000 years ago – the ice spread across the
state, melted, reformed and retreated again.
Six major fingers of ice thrust into the land that makes Wisconsin today, scraping
the land and carting boulders great distances. Hills and ridges left behind are called
moraines. Where blocks of ice became detached from the main glacier, depressions
formed from the melting of buried ice. These are called kettles. The Kettle
Moraine west of Milwaukee is really a series of moraines formed between two great
flows of ice. Some are mere pimples in the landscape; others rise to more than 300
feet above the sur- rounding land.
In 1937 the Wisconsin Legislature established the Kettle Moraine State Forest to
protect what the glaciers created. In 1958 local citizens began agitating for an Ice
Age national park and volunteers built the first trail segments of what has become
the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. Today some 300 miles of dog-friendly trail have
been certified along the leading edge of the great glaciers.
The Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest is renowned for its trail system
that permeate its 21,000 acres of land. In addition to marked hiking trails, the
forest hosts more than 50 miles of horse trails, 20 miles of mountain bike trails, 30
miles of cross-country ski trails and 46 miles of snowmobile trails. A 30+-mile leg
of the Ice Age Hiking Trail rambles through the glaciated landscape. The most
apparent relics of the glaciers are the conical hills of water-worn sand called kames,
piled here by streams that churned through cracks in the main ice flows. Dogs will
also enjoy the many lakes left behind by the glaciers; two of the most popular are
Ottawa and Whitewater lakes.
Northwest of the town of Eagle is Paradise Springs, once a resort and retreat in the
early 1930s. The springs poke out from the underground water table in a bowl-
shaped depression that spew water at the rate of 500 gallons per minute. The water
is a constant 47 degrees year round, ideal for the Brook Trout that are stocked here,
the only trout native to the Kettle Moraine. The spring house near the trout pond
built of native fieldstone is one of the grandest ever built in Wisconsin and was once
used as a spa.
Take Exit 282 south from I-94 to reach Kettle Moraine State Forest. Continue 14
miles to Eagle in the heart of the state forest.
copyright 2006
Doug Gelbert is the author of over 20 books, including The Canine Hiker’s Bible.
To subscribe to his FREE Newsletter on hiking with your dog and receive a copy
of Rules for Dogs in 100 of the Most Popular National Park Service Lands, visit
http://www.hikewithyourdog.com In the warmer months he leads canine hikes
for hikewithyourdog.com tours, guiding packs of dogs and humans on hiking
adventures. Tours, ranging from one-day trips to multi-day explorations, visit
parks, historical sites and beaches.
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