Access & Directions

This prairie does not have any maintained trails or burn breaks on the site. However, visitors are welcome to hike the steep bluff. 

The parking lot for Muralt Bluff Prairie is located near W2635 County F, between Monticello and Albany. Access is by foot only up the steep bluff, and a trail will take you to the farthest west end. You can return by following the firebreak along the south and east edges.

Google Map

What Makes Muralt Bluff Special

Best times to see the abundant native plants are spring and fall. In early May, a large population of prairie smoke blooms on the northwest bluff along with shooting star, puccoon, violet, sand cress and Pasqueflower. Later in autumn, you can see all the tall grasses, nine kinds of asters, five species of goldenrods, gentians and blazing stars. Many other threatened and endangered species find a home here. However, changes in the surrounding land use have reduced the available grassland habitat from hundreds of acres in the 1970s to only the Muralt footprint today.

On July 20, 2014, a visitor to Muralt Bluff Prairie posted to the Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association (SWBA) website a tally of the more than 100 butterflies that he spotted:  including giant swallowtail, eastern tiger swallowtails, clouded sulphurs, coral hairstreaks, summer azures, great spangled fritillaries, pearl crescents, question marks, eastern comma, mourning cloak, American lady, red admirals, red-spotted purples, common wood nymphs, monarchs, northern broken-dash and Delaware skipper.

The elevation of Muralt Bluff Prairie is also a sight to behold, with views of Blue Mounds some 40 miles away. 

Outcrops of limestone and sandstone rocks are present on the site.  Erratic boulders from an earlier episode of glaciation are present.  The last advance of the ice sheet stopped about 10 miles to the northeast 16,000 to 18,000 years ago, but a pro-glacial lake, named Glacial Lake Broadhead by Wisconsin geologists, backed up the valleys of Sylvester and Searles Creeks and the Sugar and Little Sugar Rivers, flooding the broad valley to the north of Muralt Bluff Prairie.  

How was Muralt Bluff Protected

During the early 1970s, early Prairie Enthusiasts Gary Eldred and John Ochsner independently discovered the unusual tall grasses and flowers covering Muralt Bluff Prairie. They kept visiting the site and made a plan to conduct a prescribed burn there. In April of 1975, Gary and John joined Reynold Zeller, Dan Hazlett, Jonathon Wilde, Deanne DeLaronde, Chuck Philipson, Tim and Peggy Hammerly, and John Ringhand as they dropped a match in the southeast corner and watched the fire follow the wind across the field to the north.  Their suppression  tools—snow shovels and burlap bags—proved inadequate to slow or stop the fire.  The Albany Fire Department responded to reports of a wild fire, but they were unable to get their trucks up the bluff, so everyone stood and watched as the fire eventually ran out of fuel.  Many cedar trees were scorched, the ground was blackened. But the following summer erupted in blooms of native flowers which were long suppressed by lack of fire. The sight was impressive enough that the Green County Board of Supervisors was persuaded to buy the acreage, protecting it from development. Read more about this first prescribed burn HERE.

Muralt Bluff Prairie was dedicated as a Wisconsin State Natural Area in 1977. With the help of The Nature Conservancy, an additional 12 acres was added to the site in 1981. The county deeded Muralt Bluff Prairie (then 62 acres) to The Prairie Enthusiasts in September, 2013. With the addition of the adjacent Iltis Savanna this is a 95-acre mosaic of prairie, savanna and woodland.  A fourth parcel, Stauffacher Prairie, which is located a mile away across from Gap Church on Highway 59, is considered by the Wisconsin DNR to be part of the Muralt Bluff Prairie SNA although that land is owned by the State of Wisconsin.

How You Can Help Muralt Bluff Prairie

The Prairie Bluff Chapter is stewarding the site by removing colonies of aspen, sumac, dogwood, prickly ash and honeysuckle that had invaded from the fence lines and wooded edges. These species are being removed as they smother and shade out the native plants and grasses.

Check out our Events Calendar to see upcoming work parties or contact the site steward to get involved.