Almost 90% of the park is located on sandy uplands overlooking the Wisconsin River valley to the north and west. The park’s north edge slopes sharply down a 100-foot embankment to Marsh Creek. The southeast portion slopes gradually to Black Earth Creek.

The uplands are evenly divided by grassland and timber located on gently rolling terrain. Some of the grasslands directly east of the Beckman Road parking lot are, remarkably, still in native prairie which has never been plowed! Other portions further east have been restored to prairie and display a wide variety of native vegetation.

The creek bottoms are generally flat and contain an interesting mix of marshland vegetation worthy of a closer look. However, mosquitoes abound during summer months, so come prepared!


WILDLIFE

Birders will truly enjoy a walk through the park with at least 200 species using the area at one time or another! Piliated woodpeckers, Eastern bluebirds, ruffed grouse and the occasional bald eagle are special treats. The bugling of Sandhill cranes is common, spring through fall. Wild turkeys sometimes explode out of the cover with a sound you’ll not soon forget.

White-tailed deer use the trails almost as often as people do and, although their activities are usually crepuscular (at sunrise or sunset), daylight flashes of dancing tails are not unusual. A coyote pack hunts this area on a regular basis, so if you’re up to night-time walks when the moon is right, you may hear their most wild and eerie sound.

The other animals you’re likely to see, hear or find sign of include red and gray fox, raccoon, opossum, cottontail rabbit, and four types of squirrels. Can you name them?

Fox and gray squirrels of course, but also rare red and flying squirrels have been spotted in the vicinity!


VEGETATION
(with the assistance of Kay Bongers)

The flora found within the park is unusual and offers the viewer the chance to envision what the area looked like 150 years ago. Early surveyors noted in their journals that this area was part of a huge oak savanna extending from the Mississippi River to the eastern part of the state. If you're alert when you meander through the parks red oak, black oak, white oak and burr oak forest, you’ll spot an occasional, monstrous white or burr oak 8 feet in circumference and larger. Since oaks are shade intolerant, that is, can’t stand shade for healthy growth, you’ll be able to reason that these large monarchs must have been growing in the open (prairie savanna) to grow so large!

The highlight of the park is the native prairie remnant marked Pasque Flower Prairie near the kiosk. The prairie changes through the seasons from birdsfoot violet, pasque flower and prairie smoke in early spring to skyblue aster and downy gentian in fall. This site is highly ranked in the state for its diversity of prairie insects.

In other areas of the park, blue lupine, yellow coneflower and lavender monarda provide splashes of color in former farm fields which are being replanted to prairie.

The other park vegetation is also very interesting and offers variety along the way. A large jackpine plantation found in the central part of the property is at maturity and likely will be replaced over time. The wetlands alongside Marsh Creek support an abundance of Dutchman’s breeches, partridge berry, water cress and several species of sedge. However, the most extraordinary plant is the extremely showy pasque flower which only appears for a week or two each spring, in an abundance rarely found in Wisconsin. They are found in many places alongside the main trail leading east from the Beckman Road access.