Lost Canyon Trail

The Lost Canyon Trail explores the rugged sandstone bluff country on the western side of Governor Dodge State Park, looping through terrain that includes dramatic canyon sections and elevated ridge views over Twin Valley Lake. The canyon for which the trail is named is a dry erosional gorge cut into the Cambrian sandstone, its walls rising 40 to 50 feet on either side and supporting a cool, shaded microclimate even at midsummer. The canyon floor is carpeted with ferns and mosses that thrive in the perpetual shade, and the sandstone walls display beautiful cross-bedding patterns from ancient Cambrian sand dunes, the same formations visible in road cuts throughout the Driftless Area. After passing through the canyon the trail climbs to the ridge above Twin Valley Lake, where scattered bur oak provide shade and the sandstone outcrops jut from the hillside in angular formations. The lake view from the ridge is particularly fine in autumn when the surrounding oak-hickory forest turns orange and rust beneath an October sky. The trail descends back to lake level near the Twin Valley boat launch, where the impounded Cox Hollow stream provides a pleasant rest spot before the final return stretch through a meadow restoration area where native warm-season grasses and wildflowers have been reestablished on former cropland.