08/12/2026
24 Hours in SW Wisconsin: A last minute adventure!
We woke up on a rainy Sunday morning and decided we wanted to take adventure! Our friend (thanks Rachel!) had recommended a place that serves BBQ chicken on Sundays and we wanted to paddle the Kickapoo. From those two nuggets of ideas, our mini getaway was born.
After finishing livestock chores and wrapping up from pizza weekend, we loaded our van with bikes, a canoe and our favorite adventure buddies (Fritz and Otto) and headed for Wisconsin. Wanting to avoid potentially long ferry waits in Lansing due to Fish Days last weekend, we opted to take the somewhat longer route, though LaCrosse.
It was raining when we left home but by the time we reached out first destination, the sun was shining and we knew we were in for a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Our first stop was for some "almost famous" finger lickin' chicken at Rockton Bar in Rockton, Wisconsin. Open seasonally, they start serving at 11am. (Reservations are recommended.) If not for the heavily dressed pasta salad, baked beans, white bread with butter, and Miller Lite I could've sworn we had landed in Argentina at a Sunday parilla! (Make no mistake, this is definitely a uniquely Wisconsin experience in so many ways but we did love reflecting on the Sunday parillas/BBQs that we experienced during our time in South America.)
Side note: each meal comes with 1/2 a chicken so plan accordingly!
No trip to Rockton, Wisconsin is complete without at least stepping into Wildthings Fur where you will find everything from fur bikinis and hats to keychains, koozies and rugs. We left empty handed but Fritz sure did enjoy guessing the origin of each fur we passed.
After lunch we hit the Kickapoo River! For anyone deciding to take on this adventure, we'll share a few details of our float. First we drove to LaFarge and dropped bikes at Bridge 18. This is inside the Kickapoo Reserve so you'll have the opportunity to support the reserve by purchasing a day pass ($5/person or $15/family). Our plan was to drive back to Bridge 12 and float downstream from there. If you're like us and end up with a napper in the backseat, you could drop half the party at Bridge 12 to start the float while the other half of the party naps and drives the short distance to Bridge 14 to join the river fun.
Apart from the beauty of the Kickapoo River itself, a wonderful part about this stretch of river is that a bike trail connects these takeouts, making for very easy (and safe with young children) transport from place to place.
Another side note: There is a canoe rental/shuttle service based at Rockton Bar so if you want to save the hassle of bringing your own canoe and thinking about river logistics, there are other ways to do it!
The Viroqua Food Coop was the perfect place to land for a picnic/snack style dinner. Of course, as we were outside eating on the patio, we ran into folks from Decorah who were on their way back to town from a weekend festival at Driftless Music Gardens! Coops sure do have a great way of bringing people together!
It would be easy enough to leave Decorah, enjoy this adventure and come back in one day. We opted to make a mini vacation out of it and booked a last minute room at the Hotel Fortney. This hotel is gorgeous, very welcoming to our kids and we're all still talking about the morning glory muffins and Wonderstate Coffee that they offer in the morning. It's probably more of a place for a romantic getaway or a trip away with friends but we really enjoyed it with our kids too!
We took the Lansing ferry back on Monday morning and loved watching the bridge construction as we waited for the ferry to arrive. It's absolutely wild to watch the detailed work and careful thought involved with building a bridge!
