Trails
Golden Pond Trail
Open season: Open year round. Walking, running and biking spring to fall, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in winter.
Length: 1.5 miles
Location of trail: Begins and ends at visitor center contact station
Surface: Paved, boardwalk, ADA compliant
Difficulty: Easy
Information: Travels past hardwood forest and restored prairie, along a wetland, through a willow swale and past Swan Lake. The trail provides excellent bird watching in the spring and fall. Yellow and showy ladyslippers grow near Swan Lake in the spring.
Sundew Bog Boardwalk
Open season: Open year round. Walking spring to fall, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in winter.
Location of trail: Located off of the Golden Pond Trail
Surface: Boardwalk
Difficulty: Easy
Information: The boardwalk takes you into Sundew Bog, a boggy area that supports regionally rare plants such as the insect-eating round-leafed sundew. Visitors can touch sphagnum moss and see tamarack trees.
Round Lake Trail
Open season: Open year round. Walking, running, biking spring to fall, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in winter.
Length: 1 mile
Location of trail: Alongside Round Lake, connected to Rice Lake and Golden Pond Trails
Surface: Paved
Difficulty: Easy
Information: The Round Lake Trail winds through the largest wooded area on the refuge and past a site managed for ruffed grouse. It continues by a wetland popular with wood ducks, alongside Round Lake and past several native prairie restoration sites and a small patch of native prairie.
Rice Lake Trail
Open season: Open year round. Walking, running, biking spring to fall, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in winter.
Length: .5 mile
Location of trail: Connected to Round Lake and Golden Pond trails
Surface: Paved
Difficulty: Easy
Information: Skirts a wetland that fills with wild rice in late summer and waterfowl during the fall migration
Church Lake Trail
Open season: Open year round. Walking, running, biking spring to fall, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in winter.
Length: 1 mile
Location of trail: Connected to The Golden Pond Trail
Surface: Paved
Difficulty: Easy
Information: The Church Lake Trail winds along a large wetland and marsh and through a hardwood forest dominated by ironwood trees. These small trees have uncommonly durable wood, often used for tool handles, fence posts and tent stakes.
Tamarac Lake Trail
Open season: Open year round. Walking, running, biking spring to fall, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in winter.
Length: 2.25 miles
Location of trail: Circles Tamarac Lake, connected to Round Lake Trail
Surface: Gravel
Difficulty: Easy
Information: The trail circles its namesake and passes many tallgrass prairie restorations that sport native wildflowers from spring to fall. It continues by a clearing managed for ruffed grouse and white-tailed deer and an ironwood stand. An accessible fishing pier provides opportunities to cast a line. A spur trail leads to a log homestead once occupied by a family of five.