Mountains in WI? (Madison, Wausau, Shorewood: schools, university, teach)

[Wheretoliveisthequestion]

What is the terrain like around madison? I am horrible at reading a topography map and I have never been to the area.

[gold*dust1]

hills in the city are the only thing that comes close and they are small in comparison to others more famous.

[Megan1967]

Mountains? Well, I guess you could count Ribb Mountain in Wausau, but I'm not sure it is technically a mountain, I think the locals just named it that. Otherwise I believe you'd have to go the Upper Peninsula of MI. Wisconsin is hilly, but not too many mountains.

[Drover]

More specifically, western Wisconsin is hilly. Immediately surrounding Madison is flat, as is most of the terrain to the east, south and north. However, you only have to get about 20 miles northwest of the city to get to the eastern edge of what is called the driftless area. But you aren't going to mistake it for Rocky Top Tennessee.

Some images of the driftless area in western Wisconsin:

[Megan1967]

Good point, Drover. I missed the Madison part of the question.

What is the terrain like around madison?

Great pix, btw.

[Lookout Kid]

Nice pics Drover!

The city of Madison itself is downright hilly compared to Chicago. There's a reason people from Illinois are known as "flatlanders". Everything is relative, I suppose. Compared to Kansas the Madison area is quite hilly. Compared to Boulder--or even Pittsburg--not so much.

[Chelito23]

Hilliness even varies within Madison. The west side tends to have more rolling hills, think Hoyt Park, Owen Park, University height, Shorewood, etc. The East, South and North sides are all flatter than the West side.

As Drover said, the area west of Madison is truely hilly by anyone's definition. But mountains? I don't think even in the UP they are moountains...just more pronounced hills really...but I suppose it depends on the exact definition of a mountain (prob. elevation).

The nearest mountains to Wisconsin are probably in Colorado or the Appalachians..not sure which are actually closer, but people who want mountains for skiing or hiking make do with the local hills or trek to Colorado, Wyoming or Montana...

[Drover]

I'd guess the closest actual mountains to Wisconsin would be the Black Hills of South Dakota, which despite their name, are actual mountains reaching peaks of over 7,000 feet and at least 2,000 feet from base.

[gold*dust1]

After doing some googling, apparently US schools teach anything over 1000 feet is classified as a real mountain. By that criteria WI has many. Mountainzone.com breaks it down by state and county.

[Chelito23]

Yeah, but I think that means hight from the base to the peak...because if a hill(in Wisconsin's sake) has a base elevation of 800 feet, it will easily be over 1,000 feet (200 feet tall though). That is my guess.

Tim's Hill, the highest pont, is almost 2,000 ft. above sea level...now what is the base elevation, no idea, but I think it must be close to 1,000 feet. It would be interesting if we could get a local geographer to chime in here!