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I arrived at the road the trailhead is located on about mid-morning, drove past, turned around, and finally decided this was the place. There is not much of a sign, and no paved parking.
You start climbing uphill right away.
I liked how this scene composed near the top of the bluff.
I was hauling a new photo-gear backpack with a tripod out here. I set up with tripod and took some shots near the peak of the bluff.
This trail kind of laid out like a well-planned golf course. The "front nine" had me thinking it's a neat place but not much "wow" factor. Then I rounded near the far end of the trail and the homeward leg "back nine" brought out the ooo's and ahh's.
Here's a panorama photo of the Pleasant Valley stitched together from 6 photos.
I unwittingly followed a dead-end spur trail right down to the base of the bluff on the far end. Had to make that steep 200+ foot climb right back up the bluff.
I was rewarded with several more scenic vistas along the return trail.
I'm parked waaaay down there.
As I looked up right here while wearing my sunglasses with polarized lenses, I marveled at the blue of the sky. I put a circular polarizer filter on my camera and took this photo to duplicate what I was seeing.
A shy robin as I was getting near the end.
All in all, a nice place to hike. I only covered just over 2 miles, but there was another trail short trail segment I did not take. I doubled my up-down elevation distance by taking that dead-end trail spur too. Here's the walking log overlaid on a google-maps photo.
This area is designated a State Natural Area and the DNR rules make this off-limits for geocaching. I've mined this general area hunting geocaches pretty heavily the last several years, but there is a cluster right around nearby Cross Plains that I have not found. That is my next stop for this day, but I'll wait for more spare time on another night to post that.
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