Horicon Ledge Park, Wisconsin - Limestone

I found out about this small county park from my buddy at the start of this season. It's only 45 minutes from Pewaukee, WI. We checked it out and it has a lot of potential. But we will need a lot of help to clean it up. The routes are full of mud, dirt, moss and plants. I put up a few boulder problems, but it will take a long time to establish this area with only my buddy to help. A lot of the rock is poor quality and falling apart, but there are a few key areas with good quality rock. Here are some pics to give you a better idea of potential.

where is this at? are there a lot of boulders, or mostly cliffband?

There is a mix. There are some boulders, but a lot of it is shorter cliffband.

Heres the area

mountainproject.com/v/wisco…

Heres how to get there

maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl…

I remember checking this out way back when and decided it wasn't worth it. High Cliff is sooo much better. There's also some small limestone around Fond du Lac at the southern tip of the lake.

Tbh most of the rock in the area was a disappointment. But at the same time it is by far the closest exposed rock to the Milwaukee / Waukesha area that I know of anyways.

So maybe those few decent lines would be worth establishing. :)

There are more than just a few decent lines. I would say there are at least 20 solid lines here. Not to mention, like Paul said, it is the closest climbing near Milwaukee/Waukesha area. Its only 45 min from those areas. Where as High Cliff is 2 hours. Far worth establishing in my humble opinion.

I just heard about some limestone in the sotheast corner of Rock County. Been waiting for the flooding to subside before I go check it out. Will keep you posted.

please do!!!

SE Rock county in Wisconsin?! I grew up in Clinton (S.E rock county) and would be amazed , but happy if you found anything worth while down there. Let me know what you come up with

I'll try to check it out next week. Did you know there is a sandstone ledge in Rock County? Not good for climbing but it's a nice spot and definitely sandstone.

There is indeed a limestone shelf in Rock County. It is in the Carter-Roehl County Park near Avalon.

As I suspected, however, it is short (about 12 ft.), hangs over the creek and is heavily vegetated with moss and ferns etc.

Beautiful spot but NG for climbing.

thanks for checking! keep us updated on any other adventures or discoveries for sure!

did this area ever get cleaned up?

Headed here tomorrow and will gladly give an update. I went to high cliff yesterday and was literally driven out of the park by mosquitoes.

Just wondering if anyone who has checked this out has ever seen or checked out the cliff band along hwy 67 just east of ledge park. If you look on the google map and zoom out a bit it is labeled as Mayville Ledge State Natural Area. I drove by it a few times and it looks like a pretty long band of rock, no idea of the quality though.

Yeah, it is chausy in spots, but a lot of it goes. Landings are kind of rough though...a lot of large rocks at bases...albeit the best rock closest to the MKE area.

Mayville Ledge has been scoped out, but most of it is Choss unfortunately. There is some really tall cliff band probably about 60 feet, but I don't know if it would clean up.

And besides even if it would the area is a State Natural Area and you wouldn't be able to bolt. So I haven't spent much time there...

Also as far as Ledge Park goes, John and I originally went out there over 2 years ago to take pictures and after some more outdoor bouldering experience I think the place is mostly choss crap. However there may be a few spread out good lines, John found one Here (which was really an amazing quality cliffband with little pockets). But we never really made the effort to look for more.

If this is the spot you are talking about, maps.google.com/maps?q=Mayv…

The cliff you can see from the road is owned by the farmer. He's super cool and let me go check it out and even said I could climb it, but I never got around to it. At the top of the cliff band is a fence separating his land and the state natural area. Good luck figuring out how to get inside of the State Natural Area without trespassing on someone's property.

Thanks for the info guys.

no problem man

I first heard about this place on a field trip once way back in middle school! After my first visit I was pretty impressed and came back several times with a crash pad and even a rope and small rack. I was only 14-16 years old but I did manage to get on some non established problems and even lead a nice line the pulls over a roof and up into a hand crack. It's a neat place but the rock quality is often questionable. I think this area could certainly be a cool bouldering spot though.