Enjoy this park on foot, any season of the year. In the spring, the park is a wildflower garden where hepatica, bloodroot, Dutchman's breeches, and the dwarf trout lily bloom. The dwarf trout lily is only found here. Relax by Hidden Falls in the summer. The autumn brings a burst of red, orange, and gold in the maple-basswood forest, one of the last extensive stands of the "Big Woods." When winter comes, ski or snowmobile the trails through picturesque woods.

Nerstrand Big Woods State Park is a wildflower garden in the spring. Feast your eyes on sharp-lobed hepatica and the dwarf trout lily which blooms in April. The dwarf trout lily is listed on the Federal endangered species list.

Nerstrand Big Woods State Park comprises two nearly horizontal layers: a layer of glacial drift about 150 feet thick overlying a layer of Platteville Limestone. The limestone is visible only where the drift has been eroded away at Hidden Falls and along Prairie Creek.

Raccoon, fox, deer, warblers (blue-winged and Cerulean), tufted titmice, and blue-gray gnat catchers are just a few of the residents in the park.

When the first settlers arrived in 1854, they discovered an island of woods in the vast oak savanna prairie which now makes up Nerstrand Big Woods State Park. Sugar maple, basswood, elm, green ash, and ironwood trees shaded the land. Over 50 varieties of wildflowers, along with countless varieties of ferns and mushrooms grew in the Big Woods.