- Exploring the hidden gems of Western Wisconsin—curating unforgettable stays and sharing the places locals love most.
Some of my favorite fall afternoons have been spent on a trail somewhere above the river, leaves crunching underfoot, a thermos of cider in my backpack and the whole valley glowing gold below me. The best part? You don’t have to drive far to find them. Within about an hour of Prescott, there’s a bluff where peregrine falcons nest on the cliffs, a waterfall tumbling through a 200-foot gorge, ice age potholes drilled into volcanic rock and an overlook where two great rivers meet.
Here are the five fall hikes I’d send you on, from a short walk in town to a full afternoon at the Dalles. Drive times are approximate from downtown Prescott.
Start without even moving the car. Freedom Park sits on a sandstone bluff about 100 feet above the confluence, at the very start of Wisconsin’s Great River Road. Walk out to the overlook and you’ll see the clear St. Croix and the muddy Mississippi running side by side below you, with a visible line between them, all framed in fall color.
The park is named for Freedom, a bald eagle that was rehabilitated at the Minnesota Raptor Center and released here, and it’s still a great spot to watch eagles. Use the spotting scopes, walk through the native prairie and butterfly gardens, then step inside the Great River Road Visitor and Learning Center for exhibits on eagles, river life and the people who’ve lived here. It’s free, and you can get a National Park Service passport stamp while you’re there.
Just north of Prescott, where the Kinnickinnic River meets the St. Croix, this park has more than nine miles of trail and far fewer people than you’d expect. It exists because of the community. In the 1960s, local families donated land and pushed to protect it, and volunteers have since planted more than 20,000 trees and restored about 50 acres of prairie.
For fall color, take the Purple trail, a mile-long walk along the bluff above the sandy delta through a stand of old-growth oaks. Then add the Red trail, 2.9 miles of easy singletrack with views over the Kinnickinnic River valley, and the short Brown spur to a small overlook. Keep an eye on the sky. More than 140 kinds of birds pass through here during migration.
Good to know: The park is open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and a Wisconsin state park vehicle sticker is required.
Near Hudson, Willow Falls spills about 45 feet down a series of rock ledges in the middle of a deep, forested gorge, and in October, with the color all around it, it’s spectacular. For decades, a dam upstream held back much of the water, but it came out in the early 1990s, and the falls have been flowing free ever since. Today Willow River is one of the most visited state parks in Wisconsin, and the falls are the reason.
There are a few ways to get there:
Cross the footbridge below the falls and climb the steps on the other side for another angle. Pack a thermos of cider and stay a while. Go early on peak fall weekends, since the lots fill up.
This is my favorite view for the effort. Drive south on the Great River Road, then follow County Road E up the bluff to Long Lane, a gravel road between the fields that ends at a small parking lot. From there, the trail runs about a mile or a little more, through oak savanna and tall-grass prairie and past red cedars that have clung to the cliff for 250 years, out to a limestone ledge about 400 feet above the Mississippi.
The bluff runs for nearly a mile along the river, and it’s one of only six cliffs in Wisconsin where peregrine falcons successfully nest on natural rock. Watch for them, and for bald and golden eagles riding the wind below you. The bluff takes its name from an old Dakota legend about a young woman named Winona, who leapt from the cliff rather than marry a man she didn’t love. Explorer Zebulon Pike wrote the story down in 1805.
Good to know: There are no restrooms. The last stretch follows the bluff edge, so wear good shoes and stay back from the drop. Go late in the day and stay for sunset.
Up in St. Croix Falls, Interstate was established in 1900, the very first state park in Wisconsin. It wraps around the Dalles of the St. Croix, a deep gorge carved by glacial meltwater through dark basalt that started as lava more than a billion years ago.
Start with the Pothole trail, a 0.4-mile loop past glacial potholes, smooth round holes drilled into the rock by swirling stones at the end of the last ice age. From the observation deck, look north toward the rocks before the highway bridge and you’ll find the Old Man of the Dalles, a stone face in the cliff. Then take the Summit Rock trail to the highest point on the bluffs. If you still have energy, the Silverbrook trail leads 1.2 miles to an 18-foot waterfall.
Before you leave, stop at the Ice Age Interpretive Center for mammoth molars and the film “Mammoths and Moraines.” The park is also the western end of the 1,200-mile Ice Age National Scenic Trail.
Pick two hikes, spend the night in downtown Prescott and end each day with dinner by the river. On Sunday morning, walk to The Kitchen Table for the Hangover Hash before you head home.
Make downtown Prescott your home base and book direct with us: The Port of Prescott for boutique king suites steps from the river, Port After Dark for romantic suites made for couples, The Harbor Hotel for themed rooms and extended stays, and The Cove Guest House for downtown condos and group getaways.
