East Bluff State Natural Area

East Bluff State Natural Area is located on the eastern bluff top adjoining Devil’s Lake within Devil’s Lake State Park.  East Bluff is a continuum of natural communities of great ecological interest grading from open talus slopes, to dry prairie and glade, to open oak woodland, and finally a closed canopy southern hardwood forest. A moist, shaded grotto is also present downslope.

The extensive 400 foot high talus slope is composed of angular blocks of quartzite below the vertical cliffs. Perched atop the quartzite talus is a curious open woodland – a pygmy forest of stunted shagbark hickory and white ash. And along the bluff edge are among the best examples of dry prairie and bedrock glade within Wisconsin. Trees average only 4 to 6 inches in diameter and 20-30 feet in height. The ground layer is dominated by Pennsylvania sedge with other grasses including poverty oat grass, little blue-stem, and big blue-stem. Other herbaceous plants are columbine, shooting-star, prairie coreopsis, prairie alumroot, field pussy-toes, and large-flowered yellow false foxglove. In some areas, quartzite is exposed at the surface and contains a distinctive lichen and moss flora. The southern dry forest is dominated by white and red oaks with black cherry, shagbark hickory, big-tooth aspen, red maple, and white pine. The ground layer contains species such as black-seeded rice grass, arrow-leaved aster, marginal wood fern, shining bedstraw, round-lobed hepatica, hairy sweet cicely, and false Solomon’s-seal.  East Bluff is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1993.