Ruins of the High Cliff lime kilns: a tall white stone stack, a stone kiln wall with an arched door, and a rusted iron kiln tank against a deep blue sky.
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A Quiet Afternoon on the Lime Kiln Trail at High Cliff

ByJamie Dolan

High Cliff is one of those places I keep coming back to. It sits up on the Niagara Escarpment on the far side of Lake Winnebago, and on a warm afternoon there’s almost always a trail there with your name on it. This time it was the flat one down at the base by the water, the Lime Kiln Trail, and I pretty much had it to myself.

It was about 84 degrees and humid, the kind of afternoon where the air feels like a warm towel you can’t put down. Out over the lake everything had gone soft and hazy. I’m not sure if that was wildfire smoke drifting in from somewhere or just thick summer haze, but you couldn’t pick out the far shore the way you can on a clear day.

Past the lime kilns on the way in

On the way in you walk right past the old lime kilns, and they’re worth a minute even when you’ve seen them a dozen times before.

Ruins of the High Cliff lime kilns against a blue sky: a tall white stone chimney, crumbling stone walls, and a rusted iron kiln tank.
The lime kiln ruins at High Cliff. The tall white stack, the stone walls, and a rusted iron kiln, all left from the Western Lime and Cement Company.

This was the Western Lime and Cement Company, and it ran here for about a hundred years, from 1856 until 1956. What’s left is the skeletons of the three kilns, a few stone walls, and a big riveted iron shell sitting on a stone base.

Close view of a rusted, riveted iron lime-kiln shell resting on a stone foundation, surrounded by green trees.
One of the three kilns up close, a big riveted iron shell on a stone base.

There’s a park sign that lays out the whole operation, and it’s a good one.

Interpretive park sign titled Lime Kiln Ruins explaining the history of the Western Lime and Cement Company at High Cliff.
The park sign lays it all out, from quarry to quicklime.

They quarried the limestone, Niagara dolostone, right off the ledge above, dropped it into the tops of the kilns, and baked it at around 2,200 degrees to turn it into quicklime, a white powder they barreled up and shipped out by barge and railcar. The last load went in during the spring of 1956, right about when the land was already on its way to becoming a state park. I read the sign again, took another look at the stonework, and headed on down the trail.

A nice, flat, quiet trail

The trail itself is flat and easy, packed dirt with some loose stone worked into it.

The flat, packed-dirt Lime Kiln Trail at High Cliff State Park, with a single yellow leaf resting on the ground and green summer woods on both sides.
The Lime Kiln Trail. Flat, packed dirt, and quiet.

It was mostly dry. A couple of low spots were a little muddy, but somebody had thrown down a few boards to step across, so I kept my feet dry the whole way.

It’s a quiet stretch of woods. Tall, skinny trees, an open floor of last year’s leaves, and gray chunks of that same escarpment limestone scattered through the understory. I passed maybe two couples the entire time I was out there, said hello, and that was about it for company.

Open hardwood forest at High Cliff with slender trees, a leaf-covered floor, and scattered gray limestone rocks.
Tall trees, an open floor, and gray chunks of escarpment limestone through the woods.

Late summer is a good time for the little stuff along the edges. There was a whole tangle of orange jewelweed, the spotted kind, mixed in with some blue spikes I’m fairly sure are great blue lobelia.

Woodland wildflowers along the trail: orange spotted jewelweed and blue spikes of great blue lobelia among green foliage.
Orange jewelweed and blue lobelia along the edge of the trail.

A little farther on, a patch of daisy fleabane, all those thin white petals around a little yellow button.

Close-up of daisy fleabane, thin white ray petals around bright yellow centers, against a soft green background.
Daisy fleabane, thin white petals around a yellow center.

And on an old rotting stump, a white crust fungus had spread out in thin, papery patches, like somebody had flicked white paint across the bark.

White crust fungus spreading in thin papery patches over a dark, rotting tree stump on the forest floor.
A white crust fungus spread across an old stump like splashed paint.

I didn’t do the full loop. I just walked down toward the end, maybe twenty or twenty-five minutes each way, sat on a bench for a while and let the afternoon go by, then walked back to the car. That was the whole plan, and honestly it was a good one.

On the way home I stopped for a little treat over at Frog’s Ice Cream, which is about the right way to close out a warm afternoon. Nothing fancy, no big agenda. Just a quiet walk, some old ruins, a handful of wildflowers, and ice cream after. High Cliff’s good for that.

If you like these local walks, I also just wrote up a walk through Heckrodt Wetland Reserve over in Menasha.

Have you been there? I'd love to hear your favorite spot.

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