Rib Mountain State Park
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Rib Mountain State Park is on a long ridge of quartzite just southwest of Wausau, beside US 51. The quartzite is about 1.7 billion years old, one of the oldest rock formations on earth, and it has worn away far more slowly than the land around it, so the ridge now rises high above the plain around Wausau. The Mountain View panel at the overlook puts it at 1,940 feet above sea level and calls it the third-highest point in Wisconsin; the older bronze plaque at the summit gives the same height, from the years when it was thought to be the highest point in the state. The Kiwanis Club of Wausau bought land at the top in 1922, the estate of Jacob Gensman gave 40 acres in 1923, and the land became a state park in 1927. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps built paths and a campground here and cleared the first ski slopes, and Granite Peak Ski Area still runs on the north face. I stopped there in the late morning of August 8, 2021, a gray Sunday, on my way north to Ashland, and went on to Council Grounds State Park afterward. I walked along the top of the ski runs, past boulders of quartzite and slopes of late-summer wildflowers, to the rock formations called the Queen’s Chair and the King’s Chair, and climbed the observation tower for the view over the treetops to Wausau and the Wisconsin River.
Photos from Rib Mountain State Park
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The Queen’s Chair, near the summit.
The summit plaque, from when this was thought to be Wisconsin’s highest point.
The view from the observation tower.