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Joe Steinbring

Rocky Arbor State Park

A huge mossy block of sandstone beside a stream and a trail lined with ferns.
A block of sandstone in the gorge, in July 2022.2022 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring
Static offline map showing Rocky Arbor State Park in Wisconsin with a location pin.

Rocky Arbor State Park is just 1.5 miles from Wisconsin Dells, a 244-acre park around a gorge whose walls and ledges of sandstone, about 500 million years old, were carved by the Wisconsin River before the river moved about a mile and a half to the east. A small stream runs through the gorge now, and pines shade the trails along it. The park was set aside in 1932 to protect the sandstone. I visited on my way home from That Conference in the Dells, in the early afternoon of July 28, 2022, a few days after Mirror Lake State Park. It’s nice. The trails here are rustic, and I followed one along the bottom of the gorge, past mossy blocks of sandstone, under an overhanging ledge, and through the ferns.

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  • A trail curving beneath an overhanging ledge of pale, layered sandstone.

    Under an overhanging ledge.

    2022 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • A narrow dirt trail through woods of tall pines and leafy trees, edged with ferns.

    The trail along the gorge.

    2022 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • Ledges of sandstone above a trail on a slope thick with ferns and green plants.

    Sandstone ledges above the trail.

    2022 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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