Wyalusing Sand Cave Trail Loop

This was my second time ever visiting Wyalusing State Park in Southwest Wisconsin. The first time was several years ago back in college, so I didn’t remember much. My friend and I chose this trail because we had heard good things about it from multiple people, so we decided to check it out!

Loop Details

  • Level: Intermediate

  • Pretty caves

  • Clearly marked trails

  • Not crowded

  • A lot of roots on the trail

  • No steep inclines

There were a handful of parking spaces available at the trailhead. The trailhead has a small old stone hut on the right side of the road. You can’t miss it! The trail starts just behind the parking spots.

Starting on the Sand Cave Loop, you will come to a fork nearly right away. Make sure to stay left. The right path is the Walnut Springs Trail. As you take a left at the fork, you will start to wind your way down to the caves. The path was relatively wide which was nice.

This trail is a dirt trail as you can see in the pictures above. One thing we noticed was the number of tree roots sticking out of the ground on the trail. This is the main reason I deemed it an intermediate level trail. You definitely have to watch your step.

The trail will come to another fork where you will see a sign pointing right, in the direction of the Big Sand Cave. As you get close you can hear the trickle of water coming down the rock. I bet this would be really pretty after a good rain storm or in the spring time. As you get closer to the rocks, you can really see the color pop on the sandstone.

As you head back to the fork, you can either turn back to the trailhead or do a loop of about 0.8 miles where you can see the Little Sand Cave. We went over to the Little Sand Cave and while there is a railing, there is also clearly a trail if you wanted to go down closer to the cave. I decided to be brave and stand on the side of the steep bank to get a good picture.

Heading back up to the trailhead is a long but very gradual incline. The loop took us about an hour, but the air quality was pretty poor so we weren’t walking quite as fast as we normally would. We were also constantly on the lookout for roots in the path.

All in all this was a good hike! It was perfect for a nice afternoon walk. Not too taxing but definitely had a good sweat going. I can’t wait to go back and explore some more trails yet this summer! For more information about Wyalusing State Park, click here.

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