The Elroy-Sparta State Bike Trail is a 32 mile rails-to-trails conversion. Graded limestone surface and boasts 3 train tunnels you travel through. Make sure to bring along a flashlight. The La Crosse River State Bike Trail is 22 miles long and parallels the La Crosse River. The scenery is a prairie setting with patches of farmland, forests and wetlands. Less traveled roads are great bicycling experiences as well..
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Why bikes and Deke Slayton? Sparta Wisconsin is the Bicycling Capital of America with the first Rails to Trails Program in the country in which old railroad tracks are converted into bike trails. Deke Slayton is a Sparta native, and one of America’s first astronauts. The community wanted to celebrate both of these traditions, and the Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bicycle Museum was born
There suddenly appears in the midst of the Monroe County countryside north of Sparta, an unusual sight - a fantastic garden of concrete sculpture decorated with thousands of glittering glass shards. Transforming ordinary materials into an ambitious series of patriotic and religious monuments, Paul and Matilda Wegner created a remarkable "Grotto."
Fort McCoy is located approximately 7 miles west of Tomah, 6 miles east of Sparta, 25 miles south of Black River Falls, and 35 miles east of La Crosse and the Mississippi River. Each of these communities is home to a variety of industries and offers many recreational and social opportunities and events. The installation enjoys positive working relationships with, and public support from, local, county, and state governments; the chambers of commerce; county and school boards; civic organizations; veterans groups; and the general citizenry within these communities.