April 17, 2026
Author: Phyllis Root • Photographer: Kelly Povo
In just a few days it seems as though spring has burst upon us. Trees are greening, flowers rush to open–clearly it’s time to head down to our favorite Rustic Road, where a wealth of spring wildflowers blooms on wooded hillsides.
Wisconsin has over 700 miles of designated rustic roads that meander and mosey through scenic countryside. Some rustic roads travel in a loop, which explains why once, when we’d been driving on a rustic road, we were overjoyed to see a sign ahead promising another rustic road. A rustic road double header! Then we realized we had looped around and were back at the beginning of the one we’d just travelled. So we drove it again, just for the breathtaking beauty.
Rustic Road 51, just south of Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, wanders between steeply wooded hillsides where spring wildflowers bloom in abundance. We drive the road several different times each spring to see all it has to offer as flowers open according to their own internal calendars. This visit, though, we saw in a few hours almost everything we usually see over the course of several visits– some flowers just budding, some in riotous bloom. I love to count flowers, but there’s no way to count the wealth of wildflowers around us. Here’s what we saw in a single amazing morning.
Virginia spring beauty’s small pink striped flowers covering whole hillsides.
Eastern false rue anemone in bud and in bloom. Anemone means windflower, and these delicate white blossoms obligingly sway in the breeze.
Wood anemone, in the same family as eastern false rue anemone, blooming with its single white flower per plant.
Hepatica, joyful in shades of blue and purple and white
Canadian wild ginger, some with flower buds and some with the reddish flowers open but almost hidden under fuzzy leaves.
Bloodroot with its elegant white blossoms, leaves wrapping around their stems like scalloped shawls.
Dutchman’s breeches, many with stalks of flowers still upright, some with stalks bent like laundry lines holding–what else?–tiny breeches.
And in among the Dutchman’s breeches a few squirrel corn with tiny, tiny buds. The leaves of squirrel corn and Dutchman’s breeches are so similar we often have to wait until squirrel corn blooms just slightly later than Ductchman’s breeches to tell the difference, but this time we’re sure that the clusters of buds are squirrel corn.
Trout lilies, many white and a few yellow, their flowers hanging gracefully down.
Pennsylvania sedge in bloom with shaggy heads that give off a dust of pollen when we tap them.
And everywhere up and down the hillsides ramps running rampant.
We also find the leaves of Jacob’s ladder, wood phlox, and Virginia waterleaf along with trillium leaves unfolding to reveal their buds. We don’t find any clue of Mayflower poking up, though, and no sign of elusive twinleaf, so clearly we’ll need to come back in a week or two to continue the search.
Here and there a solitary bumblebee buzzes and small flies investigate flowers. A woodpecker hammers, birds call, a barred owl asked who cooks for you.
We’ve been coming to Rustic Road 51 for years, and it never disappoints. This might be the first visit, though, where we’ve seen it overflowing with such flowery glory, soothing and delighting our winter-worn selves.
Throughout the morning, air has felt increasingly like rain, so when thunder rumbles we head for home. But we know in a few days we’ll be back again. You can count on it.
See more of what we are seeing now!
