Yellow Trail (Badger North)

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Features Birding · Fall Colors · Views · Waterfall · Wildflowers · Wildlife

The Yellow Trail in the Sauk Prairie State Recreation Area is the longest and most diverse of the three trails at Badger. The entire Yellow Trail system comprises 5.2 miles. There are several small and larger loops that connect to the public roadway on the west and east of the state-owned portion of the Badger Lands.

Starting at the terminal moraine—where the glacier stopped 15,000 years ago—this trail system traverses a rolling glaciated landscape that is relatively clear of vegetation to the south and more wooded to the north. The northern portions of the trail are just below the Baraboo Hills: the ancient mountains that distinguish this part of Wisconsin.

The central portion of the Yellow Trail passes by the former nitroglycerine production area; portions of this area are off-limits to the public, as some potentially dangerous concrete foundations still remain on the land. Runners will pass through sections of trail where sands and gravels were liberally “borrowed” from the moraine to be used as fill elsewhere on the property, when fill material was needed for the construction of more than 1,400 buildings on the ammunition plant in 1942.

The eastern stretches of the Yellow Trail pass along and through rolling meadows that once were portions of large farmsteads. These open areas are being restored to native grassland by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The easternmost north-south portion of the trail is a shared roadway with motorists. Keep your eyes open for “ancient apple trees,” relicts of old farmsteads that pre-date the Army Plant constructed in 1942.