Rib Mountain State Park

Rib Mountain is a beautiful state-owned public park with campsites, an amphitheater, hiking opportunities and snowshoe trails. The park office sits mere yards away from the privately owned Granite Peak ski hill chairlifts, offering breathtaking views for skiers and nonskiers. The 1,600-acre Rib Mountain park is open daily; vehicle admission stickers are required (a Wisconsin Resident State Park sticker costs $25, nonresidents pay $35 and an individual rail pass is $20). Rib Mountain is more of a day-use facility for picnicking and hiking, though it used to offer camping.

Locals frequent the 8-foot-wide path skirting the main entrance to walk 2 miles up to the 60-foot wooden observation tower for spectacular views of the forest, the Wisconsin River and the city of Wausau. Additional hiking trails are available, and on select winter weekends, the park hosts candlelit hikes that include snowshoe rentals and hot beverages. More campsites are currently in development, as is a new Dynamite Trail on the furthest edge of the park around a quarry once owned by 3M.

This billion-year-old hill is a 20-mile long, 3-mile thick vein of quartzite, one of the hardest substances on earth.