Rock Creek Felsenmeer

State Natural Area (No. 324)

Location: Barron County. T35N-R10W, Sections 34, 35. 70 acres.

Access: From the intersection of Highways 48 and 53 in Rice Lake, go east on 48 9.2 miles, then south on County NN 2.1 miles, then east and south on County C 1.1 miles, then south on 27 frac12; Street 0.5 mile to a parking area. The natural area can be accessed via the Felsenmeer Trail loop. The felsenmeers are treeless rock piles.

Description: Rock Creek Felsenmeer features one of only three known felsenmeers in Wisconsin. Deposited during Pleistocene glaciation, the felsenmeer is an extensive accumulation, often a large slope, of large angular rock fragments transported by glacial ice and broken down from their parent material as a result of frost and ice-wedging. Rock Creek Felsenmeer contains a talus slope of quartzite, a brittle metamorphic rock that is susceptible to frost-wedging. Felsenmeer communities are characterized by all-summer upwellings of cool, moist air near or at their bases although it is not certain whether year-round ice deposits are responsible for the upwelling of cool air. The cool air drainage in and around the rock field creates a microclimate suitable for numerous mosses, lichens, and liverworts. The shaded microclimate also provides the required habitat for two rare species that are usually found further north, the state-endangered squashberry (Viburnum edule), and state threatened hawthorn-leaved gooseberry (Ribes oxyacanthoides). Rock Creek Felsenmeer is owned by Barron County and was designated a State Natural Area in 1997.