Just published in time for spring hiking season, a new travel guidebook describes more than 100 day-hiking trails to enjoy wildflowers in Wisconsin, including those in the Stanley area.

Wisconsin’s Best Wildflower Hikes, by hiking guidebook author Rob Bignell, covers trails from Door County to the Driftless Area and from the Northwoods to the Kettle Moraine State Forest, as well as border counties in neighboring states. It was released April 1.

“When it comes to wildflowers, Wisconsin is almost beyond compare,” Bignell said. “You can hike maple forests where a dozen different spring ephemerals bloom. You can head through prairies where yellow, blue and purple flowers reach above the grass. You can walk over wetlands with exotic flowers from beautiful orchids to carnivorous plants.”

The guidebook explores trails in every county and all of the state’s major geographic features. For the Stanley area, the guidebook lists several trails, including those at Schmidt Maple Woods State Natural Area and South Fork Barrens State Natural Area as well as Lake Wissota State Park near Chippewa Falls.

The book provides a plethora of information about each featured trail:

• Driving directions to the trail

• Where to park and find the trailhead

• Course the trail takes

• Scenic points to look for on the trail

• Wildflowers and wildlife you might spot

• Interesting tidbits about regional geology and history “Many of these trails are perfect for families with children,” Bignell said. The trails run from a tenth of a mile to seven miles in length, with most only one to three miles long. His son Kieran hiked many of the trails with him.

Wisconsin’s Best Wildflower

Hikes debuted at No. 1 on Amazon. com’s Wisconsin Travel Books bestsellers list for ebooks on April 1. It was released the same day as Bignell’s Minnesota’s Best Wildflower Hikes,

which looks at more than a 100 trails in the Gopher State.

The pair are the latest in several bestselling hiking guidebooks Bignell has authored. Many of his books about Wisconsin hiking trails, including Headin’ to the Cabin: Day Hiking Trails of Northwest Wisconsin and Day Hiking the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway have hit No. 1 on Amazon. com lists during the past decade. His most recent guidebook, Wisconsin’s Best Autumn Hikes, for several weeks last year topped Amazon.com’s bestsellers list of Wisconsin Travel ebooks. An avid backpacker and long-time editor, Bignell is uniquely qualified to write about hiking, especially for families. A former newspaper and magazine editor, his journalism work has won several awards, from editorial writing to sports reporting. In 2001, The Prescott Journal, which he served as managing editor of, was named Wisconsin’s Weekly Newspaper of the Year.

This is Bignell’s 30th hiking guidebook and his 14th about Wisconsin. He lives with his son in western Wisconsin.

Bignell maintains a website at dayhikingtrails.wordpress. com.