The Great Sauk Trail is a 10.5-mile multi-use state trail that currently spans between Sauk City and the former Badger Ammunition Plant just outside Devils Lake State Park. Scenery is abundant along the trail with several miles directly paralleling a stretch of the Wisconsin River famous for its bald eagle sightings. Half of the trail travels through Sauk City and Prairie du Sac with easy access to restaurants and city parks. The second half crosses through the Sauk Prairie State Recreation Area which is the site of the former Badger Ammunition Plant.
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Along the Great Sauk State Trail |
Established in 2017, the Great Sauk Trail brings the joy of riding on fresh pavement to the masses of travelers visiting the Dells and Baraboo Hills area each year. Eventually the trail will even pass through Devil’s Lake - Wisconsin’s most visited state park. For now, the trail ends mysteriously at a chain link fence just a few miles west of Highway 113.
This trail might as well be named the Culvers State Trail, as most of its miles of construction were made possible with donations from the famous custard and burger chain which is headquartered in Prairie du Sac. The beginning of the trail actually directly passes the always popular and bustling first ever Culvers restaurant, and I have to admit that I drove through after completing a 20-mile out-and-back on the trail to get my fill of butter burgers and a hot fudge sundae with brownie bits.
Beyond the bike ride up to the first Culvers, the Great Sauk Trails takes its riders on a historic journey through an area rich in legendary stories. Sauk City was founded on the banks of the Wisconsin River when the river was a thoroughfare of commerce in the early mining, timber harvesting, and steam boating days before Wisconsin joined the Union as a State. Whiskey Jack was a mythical figure, like Paul Bunyan, known for great feats of strength and humor who was the hero of lumber raftsmen, and he is said to have won many bar brawls in the rough and tumble Sauk City.
Tall tales and ghost stories abound, but the Great Sauk Trail passes beside real life epic wonders as well. Take a short side trip down the hill from the trail to visit the Prairie du Sac Hydroelectric Dam built in 1914 by Norwegian immigrant Magnus Swenson. The dam produced an enormous amount of electricity at a time when most of the country was still burning kerosene to light their homes. The dam was one of the primary reasons that the Badger Ammunition Plant was located in Sauk Prairie where ordnance, gun powder, and rocket propellant used in WWII was manufactured.
You’ll get an idea of how massive the Badger Plant was as you bike through it past the ruins of barracks and warehouses. Over its 33 years of service the plant employed 23,000 workers – a city in its own right. Today, the site of the plant looks more like it did before WWII, with UW Madison farming plots on research farms and woodlands growing between restored prairies. This, now serene, setting rests in an undulating valley beneath the imposing formations of the Baraboo Range beyond.
The Baraboo Range is a line of quartz stone hills that push out 600-700 feet above the surrounding landscape. These forested hills have been preserved by The Nature Conservancy which established the Baraboo Hills as one of the Last Great Places on Earth. These landmark hills contain the largest contiguous forest in southern Wisconsin. The first phases of the Great Sauk Trail do not enter these hills, but the trail route approaches the base of the hills that make up Devil’s Nose and turns east to follow the lowest contours of the formation which forms the southern border of Devils Lake State Park.
Just as the trail becomes very exciting in the shadow of this imposing escarpment the trail ends unceremoniously at a chain link fence. In the not-so-distant future the trail will continue on and follow an operational rail route to the South Shore of Devils Lake, through the park, and then on to Baraboo. Perhaps someday it will even continue on through Rock Springs and Reedsburg to connect with the 400 State Trail and the western network of bike trails that currently spans between Reedsburg and the Mississippi River. Eastbound, the trail will extend to Mazomanie and perhaps will one day reach the Capital City Trails.
For the time being, the trail is a 10.5-mile isolated segment that forms a 21-mile out-and-back from Sauk City. It is paved its entire distance in smooth asphalt and features stunning views of the Wisconsin River and the Baraboo Hills.
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| Along the Great Sauk State Trail |
The Great Sauk State Trail
COUNTY
SAUK
COMMUNITIES
SAUK CITY, PRAIRIE DU SAC
TOTAL MILES
10.5-MILE POINT-TO-POINT
DIFFICULTY
EASY
PAVEMENT
ASPHALT
Directions and Trail Map
Click Map Image to load the full interactive map.
If viewing on a mobile device, open the trail map above to load into Google Maps App by touching the expand rectangle in the upper right corner.
Address for your GPS: 209 Water St Sauk City, WI 53583
| coordinates: 43.280203, -89.719248 |
| From Milwaukee | 1.5 Hours |
| From Madison | 30 Minutes |
| From Green Bay | 2.5 Hours |
| From Wausau | 2 Hours |
| From Minneapolis | 3.5 Hours |
| From Chicago | 2.5 Hours |
Photos
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| Old Trestle Bridge Crossing the Wisconsin River. This is the start point of the Great Sauk Trail. |
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In Sauk City there are sidewalks, paths, and trails along the
riverfront that connect to the Great Sauk Trail |
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One of the riverfront paths routes past a popular brewery and pub with
outdoor seating overlooking the Wisconsin River |
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| A short road goes down a hill to a beach by the Prairie du Sac Hydroelectric Dam |
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The trail cuts through the Sauk Prairie State Recreation Area |
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The Great Sauk Trail is scenic as it passes through the historic
Badger Ammunition Plant |
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Some relics of the WWII era plant remain along the trail |
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The trail ends unceremoniously at a chain-link gate across the
trail. |