Cascade Guides

First-person stories from the owners, chefs and neighbors behind local places, plus editorial roundups from our team.

Things to Do in Cascade WI (All 9 of Them)

Cascade is small enough to drive through in under a minute. Here are the nine stops that make it worth pulling over instead, from a tree hung with hula hoops to the highest point in the Kettle Moraine.

Kettle Moraine State Forest Northern Unit in a Day

The state tells you the rules for the Kettle Moraine Northern Unit. Nobody tells you what order to do it in, which lake to pick, or where to eat afterwards. This does.

Parnell Tower: 60 Feet Up, 25 Miles Out

Sixty feet of timber on the highest point in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, reached by a 3.5-mile loop off County Highway U. What the climb is like, what is at the trailhead, and why October is not a coincidence.

Mauthe Lake, the Quiet One with No Motors

Two lakes in the Northern Unit have swimming beaches and people pick between them at random. Mauthe allows no motors, which changes everything about the day.

Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive (What to Stop For)

Every page about the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive tells you where the road goes. None tells you where to stop. These are the stops on the northern stretch, in the order the road gives them to you.

Greenbush Wisconsin: an 1849 Inn and 240 Acres

Greenbush is fifteen seconds of Highway 23 and one very good reason to stop: a stagecoach inn built in 1849 that never moved and never burned down.

Cascade WI Restaurants, from Cracker Crust to Perch

Perch and bluegill at Sipp's, cracker crust at Nevvo'z, a beach bonfire at Harbor Lights, a country bar at the Parnell crossroads and mead on County F. That is the whole list.

Cascade WI Campgrounds Ring Crooked Lake and Lake Ellen

Three of the four places to stay in Cascade are on water, and the ninth is a state campground in the forest. Which one you want depends entirely on what you need the lake to be doing.

Hula Hoop Tree Wisconsin or Iowa?

Search for the Hula Hoop Tree in Wisconsin and most of what comes back is a tree in Iowa. Here is the Wisconsin one: where it is, when to photograph it, and why it is a five-minute stop rather than a destination.

Where Is Cascade Wisconsin? And How to Get There

Cascade sits on Highway 28 between Milwaukee and Green Bay, on the eastern edge of the Kettle Moraine. There are three places called Cascade in Wisconsin and most searches want a different one.