Ableman's Gorge State Natural Area — Attraction in Town of Excelsior

This is one of my favorite geology stops in Wisconsin. Not only do you get to appreciate history behind Van Hise Rock, but the abandoned quarry itself tells a story of the past. On the south end of the quarry, the walls are covered with ripple marks that survived the metamorphic processes that heated and squeezed the ancient sandstone into quartzite. The ripples themselves are the result of an even older sandy beach. They're on the wall because the entire area was folded into the shape of a John Boat (doubly plunging syncline). Closer to Van Hise Rock along the trail you'll catch glimpses of brecciated rocks made up of shattered pieces of the baraboo quartzite glued together by milky white quartz. Across the river you'll find much younger (geologically speaking) sandstone perforated by skolithos...

Woo, man that's steep, lol. Great view, but they really should have some signs and trail markers. We took the path to the right at the top to start, but lost the trail several times. Went down some of the branching trails, but decided to turn back because we couldn't see any trail and to get to the views. There really should be some arrows or colored trail markers, something to let you know where to go. A sign at the top with a map would help too.

It's a beautiful area. The flowers are blooming, and there's plenty of wildlife skittering and flying around. Worth traveling to, but would really like to see some improvements.

One Pokestop at the entrance, and another at Van Hise Rock,...

Went for hike with my son. I knew going in that the trails weren't marked but it wasn't too hard for the both of us to pick up the trail again after we lost it, until we got closer to the South end when we lost it altogether. We then found a road and took that back to the highway to get back to the vehicle. Along the way we stopped at the spring and filled our water bottles. When we were at spot I posted pictures of, we saw three Hawks flying around and just watched them do their thing for awhile. I didn't get pics of them though, we just lived in the moment. I only gave four stars because of the trail not...