Mill Bluff State Park

Mill Bluff State Park
Wisconsin State Park
The view north from Mill Bluff, with Wildcat Bluff on the left and the two humps of Camels Bluff on the right with Bee Bluff between them
Country	United States
State	Wisconsin
Counties	Monroe, Juneau
Location	Camp Douglas
- elevation	955 ft (291 m)
- coordinates	43°56′47″N 90°18′55″W / 43.94639°N 90.31528°W / 43.94639; -90.31528Coordinates: 43°56′47″N 90°18′55″W / 43.94639°N 90.31528°W / 43.94639; -90.31528
Area	1,337 acres (541 ha)
Founded	1936
Management	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Unit of	Ice Age National Scientific Reserve
Location of Mill Bluff State Park in Wisconsin

Mill Bluff State Park is a state park in west-central Wisconsin, United States. It is located in eastern Monroe and western Juneau counties, near the village of Camp Douglas. A unit of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve, the park protects several prominent sandstone bluffs 80 feet (24 m) to 200 feet (61 m) high that formed as sea stacks 12,000 years ago in Glacial Lake Wisconsin. As a result, these bluffs are steep and angular, dissimilar to the rounded terrain more typical of the eastern half of the United States. The bluffs served as landmarks to both early pioneers and travelers today on Interstate 90/94, which passes through the park.

There are ten named bluffs in the park. Mill Bluff, 120 feet (37 m) high, is between the interstate and U.S. Route 12. The park office is at its foot, and the campground is just to the west. Bee Bluff, although smaller and only 60 feet (18 m) high, is the most visible bluff from the interstate, as it stands adjacent to the westbound lanes. To the north is 170-foot (52 m) Camels Bluff, two separate outcroppings that together resemble the humps of a camel. Nearby are Devil's Monument and a 40-foot (12 m) high pinnacle called Cleopatra's Needle. The other, less accessible bluffs are Round Bluff and Sugar Bowl Bluff to the south, 140-foot (43 m) Wildcat Bluff and Bear Bluff to the north, and 199-foot (61 m) Long Bluff to the northeast. Also in the northeast is Ragged Rock, an 80-foot (24 m) tall former bluff whose protective cap was worn away and is eroding into a conical mound.

The bluffs in the park, and others nearby, are formed of Late Cambrian sandstone. Stratigraphically, the stone of the bluffs is part of the Galesville Member of the Dresbach Group. Sandstone from the Ironton Member of the Franconia Formation, which is more solidly concreted, tops each bluff. This capping layer helped protect the softer stone below it from erosion. Similar structures elsewhere in Wisconsin would have been bulldozed away by glaciers, but these bluffs lie in the Driftless Area; that part of the American Midwest which was never glaciated. The bluffs are all outliers of the Franconia Cuesta to the south.