Eagle Trail

The Eagle Trail is the signature hike of Peninsula State Park, combining a visit to the historic Eagle Bluff Lighthouse with elevated views over Green Bay from the Niagara Escarpment dolomite bluffs that define Door County's character. The trail begins near the Eagle Terrace picnic area and climbs through a forest of northern white cedar, basswood, and large-toothed aspen to reach the bluff edge, where the dolomite limestone has been eroded into dramatic overhangs and vertical faces above the bay. The Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, completed in 1868 and now restored as a museum, stands at the highest point of the peninsula's shoreline bluff, its white tower rising above the forest canopy and visible to vessels navigating the passage between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Views from the lighthouse grounds encompass Horseshoe Island directly below, the Strawberry Island chain, and on clear days the Door County bluffs of the eastern peninsula across the bay. The trail follows the bluff rim north from the lighthouse, passing through a cave-pocked section of the escarpment where cold air seeps from the dolomite fissures even in midsummer, supporting a refugium community of plants normally found far to the north. The descent returns through a mature cedar forest draped in old-man's beard lichen.