Walking down Old Marsh Road across the three-mile width of Horicon Marsh is a spectacular journey in winter.
The frozen wetlands, sea of restless cattails and the wildlife of winter are exceptionally beautiful with the marsh under a blanket of snow.
While most people visit Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in fall, when hundreds of thousands of Canada geese descend upon the marsh on their fall journey south, a visit to the world's largest freshwater cattail marsh in winter is well worth the trip.
From December until March, visitors get a unique opportunity to explore areas of Horicon that are off-limits for the rest of the year. Travel deep into the marsh via the vast network of dikes, trails and frozen ditches and waterways. Traverse across and through the sea of towering cattails, winding like a maze through ice-covered channels.
As I walked east towards the towering Niagara Escarpment that looms over the vast marshland, the heavy silence of winter gave way to a steady stream of vibrant, colorful life.
Songbirds warbled and chirped as they busily explored and fed in the reeds and shrubs. Powerful birds of prey stalked the frozen wetlands and watery edges and soared overhead. The signs of many other creatures of the marsh were everywhere.
Halfway across the marsh, the road leads past a thick woodlot, where wildlife bustled in the winter forest.
A large group of American robins perched in the thick trees here, their cheerful voices bringing a spring-like atmosphere to the snowy marsh. It was wonderful to see so many robins in the dead of winter and to hear their familiar, loud chirps.
Among the robins, a trio of colorful blue jays patrolled the highest treetops, scolding sharply as I wandered around the forest.
A gang of crows also swept in from the south, putting on a loud show, then winging off to the north in a loose flock.
Closer to the ground, half a dozen chickadees explored the branches and stalks of shrubs and wildflowers, probing every tight crevice for seeds, grubs and other bits of food. With them, soft-colored juncos hopped about on the ground and climbed among the stalks.
A ring-necked pheasant cackled loudly out in the marsh, and other species of birds, such as a pair of white-breasted nuthatches and three types of woodpeckers also enjoyed this woodland oasis in the center of the vast marsh.
Travelling the many dikes and channels in winter allows visitors to the marsh to go places they are never able to reach during the warmer months of the year. Since all areas of the marsh are open to hiking, snowshoeing, and skiing in winter, it is possible to wander for long distances into the frozen marsh and see the marsh from a whole different perspective.
Viewing the huge wetland from the surrounding roads and highways is one thing. But being deep inside the heart of Horicon is a completely surreal experience. Only from the inside do you get a true feeling for how large this natural resource truly is.
Along the eastern edge of Horicon, the same cliff that forms High Cliff State Park and the Door Peninsula rises hundreds of feet over the wetlands. The Oakfield Ledge area, along the northeast corner of the refuge, is especially scenic, as is Ledge County Park, at the south end near the Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area.
Oakfield Ledge features some of the most beautiful and interesting limestone formations anywhere in the area, with jagged, moss-covered limestone outcroppings fractured and torn by the forces of nature.
All along the cliff, visitors can explore great caves and crevices in the limestone walls. Hiking through these massive tunnels and fissures in the limestone ledge can be challenging, especially with deep winter snows, so take caution when exploring the area on foot.
Trails along the top of the ledge provide spectacular views of the northern edge of the marsh, extending out for miles to the west.
As the snows of winter melt away, these spectacular areas are bejeweled with layers of colorful spring wildflowers that explode into bloom under the spring sunshine in April and May.
- Robert Zimmer: 920-993-1000, ext. 7154, or firstname.lastname@example.org