It’s Time to Take a Hike in Madison, Wisconsin! The best way to experience Madison is by hiking it. Get outdoors with local author and hiking expert Kevin Revolinski, with the full-color edition of 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Madison. A perfect blend of popular trails and hidden gems, the selected hikes transport you to scenic overlooks, wildlife hot spots, and historical settings that renew your spirit and recharge your body. Take in the migrating birds and wetlands in Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area. See the beautiful deer and prairie flowers in New Glarus Woods State Park. Mark the last advance of the glaciers in Kettle Moraine State Forest. Enjoy an easy stroll along Lake Mendota to Picnic Point. Or challenge yourself on the Ice Age Trail at Devil’s Lake State Park. With Kevin as your guide, you’ll learn about the area and experience nature through 60 of the Mad City’s best hikes! Each hike description features key at-a-glance information on distance, difficulty, scenery, traffic, hiking time, and more, so you can quickly and easily learn about each trail. Detailed directions, GPS-based trail maps, and elevation profiles help to ensure that you know where you are and where you’re going. Tips on nearby activities further enhance your enjoyment of every outing. Whether you’re a local looking for new places to explore or a visitor to the area, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Madison provides plenty of options for a couple hours or a full day of adventure, all within an hour or so from Madison and the surrounding communities. Kevin Revolinski’s love for the outdoors came from frequent childhood fishing trips and hikes with his father in the woods of northern Wisconsin. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Yogurt Man Cometh: Tales of an American Teacher in Turkey, Wisconsin’s Best Beer Guide: A Travel Companion (also Michigan and Minnesota versions), and Backroads and Byways of Wisconsin. He is coauthor of Best Tent Camping: Wisconsin. He has written for Rough Guides guidebooks, and his articles and photography have appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Wisconsin Trails, and the Miami Herald. He has lived abroad in several places, including Turkey, Italy, Guatemala, Panama, and Thailand, but he currently makes camp back in the homeland in Madison, Wisconsin. Arboretum: Greene Prairie Distance & Configuration: 2.6-mile loop - Difficulty: Easy, some moderate - Scenery: Mixed woods, prairie - Exposure: Half exposed, half shaded - Traffic: Light - Trail Surface: Packed dirt, crushed stone, exposed rocks and roots, a few narrow boardwalks, potential wet areas - Hiking Time: 1 hour - Driving Distance: 0.3 mile south of Beltline Highway (US 12/18) westbound or 1.1 miles west of Beltline Highway eastbound - Elevation Change: 934'–1,007' - Access: Trails are open 7 a.m.–10 p.m., and parking is from sunrise to sunset. - Maps: USGS Madison West ; maps in wooden box at the parking lot or at the visitor center across the highway - Wheelchair Access: None - Facilities: None - Contact: arboretum.wisc.edu, 608-263-7888 - Location: 1800 Seminole Hwy., Madison - Comments: No pets allowed. Check park schedule for free guided tours on weekends. This portion of the park has many trail combinations. Plus, the Arboretum section on the north side of the lake and the central section of the park are listed herein as separate hikes (Arboretum: Wingra Marsh and Arboretum: Wingra Woods). HIKE THIS SOUTHERNMOST PORTION of the Arboretum and explore oak savanna, pine forest, and one of the finest prairie restorations there is to see. Description The centerpiece of this portion of the 1,260-acre University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum is Greene Prairie, named for Henry Greene, a UW botanist who, during the 1940s and 1950s, did almost all of the restoration himself, returning what was once farmland to its original role in the landscape. But the towering pines and oak savanna are no less impressive, and this hike offers a nice mix of all of them. Take a map from the wooden box at the gate in the parking lot, and then take the packed dirt trail to the left straight into the trees. This first segment takes you through Evjue Pine Forest, parallel to the Beltline Highway, down a lane carpeted with pine needles. The hum of tires will annoy some hikers, but the pine forest has a pleasant airiness to it and should not be missed. The rest of this hike is plotted to avoid the nearby urban world. At 200 feet, you will pass the T2 trail marker, and another 450 feet later, the T3 junction. Both of these trails break to the right, heading deeper into the pines. Continue straight along here until you arrive at a clearing and trail junction T5, a total of 0.25 mile from the trail entrance. Straight across is the trail that will take you about 600 feet to T6 and T7 and a trail that goes left under the Beltline Highway through a tunnel. This is a good way to connect with other grea