There are two of them, and that is the first thing to sort out. Search for the Hula Hoop Tree in Wisconsin and most of what comes back is about a tree near Anamosa, Iowa, roughly two hundred and fifty miles away, which has been photographed far more and written about far more.
The Wisconsin one stands on County Road F outside Cascade, in Sheboygan County, among the glacial hills of the Kettle Moraine. If the photographs you are looking at show flat corn country running to the horizon, you are looking at Iowa. Ours sits in the kettles.
Which tree is this, and where
A tree on County Road F, about three and a half miles west of Cascade village, hung with hula hoops. That is the entire description, and it is accurate.
There is no sign. No car park. No plaque, no admission, no gift shop, and nobody collecting anything. You drive County F west out of the village and at some point there is a tree with hoops in it, and then you understand why people pull over.
Parking, and not getting hit
County F is a rural county highway with a shoulder rather than a lay-by. Traffic is light but it moves at rural speeds, and people stopping for photographs is not a thing drivers here are expecting.
Pull fully off the asphalt. Get out on the field side rather than the road side. This is obvious and it is also exactly the sort of thing people forget when they are excited about a tree.
When to photograph it
Near sunset. The single most-shared photograph of this tree is a golden-hour shot, and that is not an accident of taste. The hoops are open circles, so they read best backlit, with the light coming through them rather than flatly onto them.
Midday sun gives you a tree with some plastic in it. Low sun gives you the picture people actually share.
Autumn does the same favour here that it does everywhere else in the Kettle Moraine. Early to mid October, with the hardwoods behind it turned, is the best fortnight of the year for it.
Who put the hoops there
Honestly, nobody has written this down properly. The local paper in Plymouth has covered the tree, and it turns up in Wisconsin photography groups and on Reddit, but there is no official origin story and no plaque to read.
It appears to have grown by accretion, the way roadside things do, with hoops added over time rather than placed in one go. If you know the real story, the village would probably like to hear it as much as we would.
That absence is part of the appeal. It is an unofficial thing in an era where almost nothing is.
What else is on County F
The road the tree is on carries on west, and it is worth carrying on with it.
Keep going and County F meets the Kettle Moraine, where County A west out of Cascade doubles as the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. The tree is the first stop on it for most people, and the road west through the kettles lists what comes after.
How to behave at somebody else's tree
It stands on the edge of farmland, and the land around it belongs to somebody. Stay on the road side of the fence line, do not climb it, and do not take a hoop as a souvenir.
Whether to add one is a question people ask. The tree has clearly grown by accretion, so there is an argument either way, but nobody official has ever invited it. Leaving it as you found it is the safe answer.
Is it worth the drive on its own?
No, and anyone telling you otherwise is overselling a tree. It is a five-minute stop.
It is worth the drive as part of an afternoon that also has the tower, the winery and the scenic drive in it, and in that context it is the bit people photograph and remember. Treat it as punctuation rather than a destination.
The rest of that afternoon, including the other eight things in and around the village, is in the rest of the village.
Frequently asked questions
Published July 20, 2026
