BY KEVIN REVOLINSKI AND CHRIS DROSNER
Let It Flow
Why now’s the time for the timeless Great River Road
A river is nature’s winding path of least resistance.
And as it turns out, that’s a pretty good model for a road trip. Let the lay of the land guide you. Roll with the curves and take things as they come.
The Great River Road is the perfect example. The route follows the Mississippi River from headwaters to delta, running right through the heart of America, including 250 miles here in Wisconsin. How ironic is it that a sprawling watershed feeds an immense river, while all along its length are a plethora of tiny towns that celebrate things small and local?
Take the Wisconsin drive and you can see 33 river towns – not to mention the scattered communities nestled into the bluffs just a few side-trip miles deeper into the Driftless Area or across the bridges into Minnesota and Iowa.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Needless to say, this is the perfect path for a fall drive. Dramatic scenery? Absolutely. See the 400- to 500-foot bluffs, testaments to millions of years of geological history, standing sentinel along either side, while the persistent waters keep their patient pace right alongside you. Colors? Of course. The towering bluffs and the hunkering lowlands throw forth with autumn’s fires, and overlooks offer a horizon full of them. Places to linger, places to dine? Laid out along the route are fancy digs, affordable motels, quiet cabins, quaint B&Bs and three fabulous state parks with campgrounds (the bugs are gone!). Drive all day or spend a long weekend.
The many historic sites span but centuries, while the bluffs reach across eons. The locks and wing dams are human engineering feats meant to preserve the river of the now that we know and love. But it flows on, carving through the earth and stirring the silt as it leaves its indelible trace across our ephemeral hearts. Timelessness meets our timefulness, and we gather memories with the ones we hold dear.
WISCONSIN’S GREAT RIVER ROAD starts in the north at Prescott – where the St. Croix joins the Mississippi – and follows Wisconsin 35 south to the Wisconsin River. There it turns to lettered county roads and Wisconsin 133 to stay closer to the river before finishing on U.S. 61 in the state’s southwesternmost corner and its bridge into Dubuque, Iowa. Follow the signs with the green pilot’s wheel – though side trips and parallel routes up the opposite bank can be half the fun.
IT’S A FACT!
A drop of water emerging from the Mississippi River’s source in north-central Minnesota will drop 1,475 feet in elevation during its 90-day, 2,340-mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico.
Four Must-Stops Along the Way
1. Potosi
Anglers know Potosi as the Catfish Capital of Wisconsin, but for over 100 years it was “Beer’s Hometown.” Potosi Brewery lasted from 1852 to 1972 – see the giant “cone-top” can outside. But an ambitious group of locals convinced the National Brewery Museum to locate in Potosi and in 2008 opened a $7.5 million brewery restoration. Also inside are a transportation museum and Great River Road center. The museum has a fantastic collection of rare cans and bottles, neon signs and other artifacts, and you can grab a bite and pint in the pub.
2. Prairie du Chien
Prairie du Chien was just the second European settlement in Wisconsin, dating back to 1685, and its two museums showcase that history. Named for a fort that protected the community from 1816 to 1856, the Fort Crawford Museum covers local history, Wisconsin medical history and Native American nature knowledge. Just five minutes away on St. Feriole Island, the Villa Louis Museum, a Wisconsin Historical Society site, is a collection of historic buildings that include remnants of Fort Crawford and a restored 1871 Italianate mansion that in its day had state-of-the-art conveniences – such as indoor plumbing. Learn about the fur trade and a battle that occurred here during the War of 1812. Both sites close for the season at the end of October.
3. Harpers Ferry, Iowa
The lush, wild expanse of Effigy Mounds National Monument contains more than 200 Native American effigy mounds of significant cultural and spiritual importance to 20 different present-day tribes. At the site’s larger North Unit, about 10 minutes’ drive south of Harpers Ferry, hiking trails of varying lengths fan out from the visitor center. The 2-mile Fire Point Loop passes more than 25 mounds and two bluff overlooks of the Mississippi River. Climb-averse hikers can take the 1-mile marshland boardwalk, but other trails show elevation gains of 350 to 600 feet, the latter being the monument’s longest and most challenging trail, Hanging Rock.
4. Pepin
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Pepin, her birthplace, tells the story of the life and family of the author of the children’s book series “Little House on the Prairie,” as well as the historical context of American expansion. The museum and its gift shop close after October but a short drive away on a 3-acre plot is a reproduction of her little house in the big woods, which is open year-round. Pepin is also the starting point of another drive: the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, heading west to South Dakota.
You’re Not Bluffing
How the sands of time shaped the Mississippi Valley
Go down the geological rabbit hole in Wisconsin, and it all starts to sound almost farfetched. Like the time when ice was hundreds, even thousands of feet thick over the land. Or when Wisconsin was actually the sandy bottom of a shallow sea near … the equator?!? Truth is stranger than fiction. Those seas gave us our sedimentary rock: sandstone, limestone, dolomite. And then a river ran through it.
Proving water is mightier than rock, eventually, meltwater from the glaciers carved the Mississippi River valley and gave us the bluffs. Not just hills, these formations are wide, steep slopes often with exposed cliffs at the top, and they’re formed by erosion. The top layers were harder dolomite, while the lower layers were softer rock more easily worn away. When the supporting rock disappeared, the top layer cracked vertically, dropping away to form those cliffs. The Mississippi also deposited sediments along its course which continue to be carried away to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Mississippi’s meandering course is constantly reshaping, with erosion opening channels and closing off backwaters. But humans have also left their mark: the locks and dams, as well as continual dredging keep it in shape for river traffic, especially commercial barges, but also for recreational craft, from kayaks and fishing boats to steamboat replicas and cruise ships.
IT’S A FACT!
One of the many French town names along the Upper Mississippi, Trempealeau was originally called La Montagne Qui Trempe à l’Eau (mountain steeped in water) for the 425-foot conical rock island at the mouth of the Trempealeau River.
Staying the Night?
Prescott
A six-suite boutique, The Port of Prescott Hotel is a block from the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers
Trempealeau
The Trempealeau Hotel features a locavore restaurant, plus suites, cottages and rooms – some of them riverside.
La Crosse
The Charmant Hotel is a 67-room luxury boutique in a former candy factory one block from the river with a rooftop terrace.
Castle La Crosse Bed & Breakfast is a lumber baron’s regal 1892 manor converted into five well-appointed suites.
Prairie du Chien
Ice cream socials and made-to-order breakfasts give the nicely maintained River District Hotel a B&B feel – but with an indoor pool.
La Crosse: The Middle of the River Road
French explorers gave the name to the sport they found the Ho-Chunk and Sioux playing here, and it became the city’s as well. Once an important port, rail center and lumber town, La Crosse blends its historic charm with modern cool.
Do & See
Grandad Bluff: This 600-foot cliff grants you the perfect view of the city, the sparkling river and the bluffs of Minnesota and Iowa. The observation decks are just a short walk from a parking lot.
La Crosse Queen: Book a tour aboard a replica paddlewheel riverboat for nature views or even pizza and brunch cruises.
World’s Largest Six-Pack: Some of the giant tanks at City Brewery are decorated to look like beer cans, and production of the venerable Old Style lager is resuming there this fall. They’re soon to be repainted to the original Old Style look.
Dine & Drink
Pearl Street Brewery: The oldest of three craft breweries in town (we’re also big fans of 608 Brewing) serves excellent brews in a repurposed boot factory.
The Waterfront Restaurant & Tavern: Choose fine-dining steaks and seafood or casual pub fare with views of the river
Piggy’s: A delectably smoky BBQ joint situated in a historic 1871 foundry.
Buzzard Billy’s: Keep ’er movin’ meets laissez les bon temps rouler with takeout inspired by New Orleans – at the other end of the river.
The Secret Detour
A 2015 Wisconsin State Journal story that cleverly asked milk truck drivers for Wisconsin’s best but least-known fall drives unearthed a resplendent little Great River Road-adjacent gem. With no major roadways close to the river in the rugged stretch between Bagley and Cassville, the Great River Road cuts inland. But where the route’s planners were shy, you can be bold. Dugway Road runs for 3.8 miles north of tiny Glen Haven, directly along the Mississippi’s sloughs on a narrow strip of flat beneath towering bluffs and the canyons of Devil’s Backbone State Natural Area. Trees mostly envelop the tiny road in an autumnal canopy that filters the light and makes everything below it glow. Dugway ends at County A just south of Bagley, where you can reconnect with the (official) path most taken.
Get Your Foodie Fix
Five key stops for artisan locavores
Best Curds in Wisconsin? Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery comes up on anyone’s shortlist when it comes to curds. The namesake hometown is less than 20 miles east of Prescott, a perfect stop before or after your Great River Road run. Lots of other great cheeses here, too.
Cheese on the Road. Ferryville Cheese & More is the quintessential Wisconsin convenience store. Fill up the gas tank while filling up the cooler with fresh local curds and other artisanal cheeses, meats and your favorite beverages. Grab a sub or an ice cream cone. Need a fishing license and some bait? They’ve got that, too.
Meat Me Across the River. City Meat Market in New Albin, Iowa – some 5 miles north of the bridge between Ferryville and DeSoto – has a variety of delicious smoked meats, including steaks, bacon and jerky-like smoked pork. Can’t make it before closing time? No worries, they have a meat vending machine outside. Insert card, make selection, withdraw neatly packaged meat.
The Apple Mecca. Known for its late September Apple Festival and only 13 miles east of the Great River Road, the village of Gays Mills is home to seven orchards, five of which sit along an eastside ridgetop with views of town and the Kickapoo River valley. Did we mention cider donuts?
Bushels of Yum. Ecker’s Apple Farm in Trempealeau has 14 cultivars (including Honeycrisp), baked goods and a dessert truck. The beer (and cider) garden here often hosts entertainment.
IT’S A FACT!
Wisconsin’s first nuclear power plant was along the Great River Road in Genoa. The plant operated from 1967 to 1989, and the adjacent coal plant was decommissioned by Dairyland Power Cooperative in 2021.
Fall Events
Time your trip for one of these 2023 Great River Road happenings.
Oktoberfest
OCT. 18-21 | ST. FERIOLE ISLAND PARK, PRAIRIE DU CHIEN
While La Crosse has the biggest (and most notorious) Oktoberfest in the region (Sept. 28-30), Prairie du Chien’s celebration out on St. Feriole Island Park is more family-friendly. Find German music, food and dancing, bingo, a euchre tournament and a Saturday parade, as well as, of course, beer – from Potosi Brewery, just down the Great River Road.
Safe & Spooky Halloween
OCT. 21 | STONEFIELD, CASSVILLE
This family-friendly costumed trick-or-treating event is held in Cassville at Stonefield, a re-creation of an early 1900s farming community that is clearly haunted for at least one weekend a year.
Christmas Market
SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS, NOV. 11-DEC. 17 | VILLA BELLEZZA WINERY, PEPIN
Get your holiday gift shopping done in true European style. Villa Bellezza Winery in Pepin invites vendors to gather outdoors along its lighted piazza; your browsing pairs nicely with a glass of vino made from estate grapes and a brick-oven pizza.
Four Awesome Sunset Views
In Milwaukee, it’s sunrises over Lake Michigan. Along the Mississippi, it’s sunsets over the big river. Catch a beautiful evening sky at these spots.
1. Maiden Rock Bluff
MAIDEN ROCK
Just south of its namesake town, this 400-foot bluff with its limestone cliff face towers over a roadside pull-off. A county road up the backside leads to a trailhead of a 1.6-mile loop trail to the lookout where you get the whole shebang: sunset, river and the curving Great River Road.
2. Perrot State Park
TREMPEALEAU
Here, you work for your sunset reward. A moderately steep half-mile hike with some steps takes you to the top of 520-foot Brady’s Bluff, where there’s a Depression-era shelter and a view out over Trempealeau Bay and the Mississippi.
3. Wyalusing State Park
BAGLEY
Here the Wisconsin River meets the Mississippi below the 500-foot bluffs, and a viewing platform at Point Lookout is right there to take it all in. The rivers and the smaller meandering channels and backwaters reflect the colors of the sky at dusk, and you can see (and hear) long trains chugging through it all.
4. Nelson Dewey State Park
CASSVILLE
Much like Wyalusing, you get river views and passing trains as the sun sets behind Iowa. Tent campers should know that the four walk-in sites have clear (and spectacular) overlooks of the river.
IT’S A FACT!
The world’s first waterskiing occurred on Lake Pepin in 1922, when local teenage daredevil Ralph Samuelson rode pine boards (8 feet long, 9 inches wide, with the tips bent up) behind a powerboat.
