Wisconsin is the dairy state and the Great Lakes state — a place of cheese, beer, lakes, forests, and a certain stubborn Upper Midwestern cheerfulness. It sits between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, with Lake Superior bordering the rugged north. Glaciers shaped most of the landscape, but missed a strip of the southwest: the Driftless Area, with its limestone bluffs, deep coulees, and trout streams, is one of the more beautiful and distinctive pockets of the Midwest.
Milwaukee on Lake Michigan is the largest city — a blue-collar town with a very good art museum (the Santiago Calatrava addition is one of the signature pieces of American architecture), German-heritage beer halls, and a walkable waterfront. Madison, the state capital, is a university town squeezed onto an isthmus between two lakes, with the state capitol building at its centre.
The north is lake country — thousands of lakes, pine forests, cabins, and a whole culture of fishing, hunting, and summer weekends. Superior sits on the big lake across from Duluth, Minnesota. The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is a good reason to drive up.
The central and western parts of the state hold the oddities and set-pieces. The Wisconsin Dells is a peculiar mix of natural sandstone gorge and American-style water-park tourism. Spring Green is where Frank Lloyd Wright built Taliesin, his home and studio, which remains open for tours. Cave of the Mounds near Blue Mounds and Circus World Museum at Baraboo are other roadside classics.
