Best Places to Hike Near Madison, WI
There is no better time to get out and go for a hike than right now. People who love the outdoors and enjoy exploring new hiking trails can enjoy the hundreds of miles of trails to check out within a short drive from Madison. This Wisconsin city has five different lakes with trails surrounding each of them, and there are over 200 parks with both hiking and walking trails, along with state parks and rec areas. Discover the best places to hike near Madison.
The UW Madison Arboretum Trails
If you’re up for a challenge but don’t want to leave the city, head to the UW Madison Arboretum Trails. You can explore the over 17 miles of trails that cover woodlands, savannas, wetlands, and prairies, and wind through the world-renowned ecosystem right on campus. Even though the Arboretum is part of the university, the trail system is open to the public. Explore the trails on your own or take advantage of the guided nature walks that are available.
Explore the Outdoors in a 2020 Toyota Land Cruiser
If you’re in search of a comfortable off-road vehicle, the 2020 Toyota Land Cruiser is sure to meet your needs. With its exceptional handling and luxurious design, it’s going to check all your boxes. Read on to see how the Land Cruiser will help you explore the outdoors.
Outstanding Off-Road Capability
With a 5.7-liter V-8 engine, the 2020 Toyota Land Cruiser is good for 401 pound-feet of torque and 381 horsepower. Its eight-speed automatic transmission enables it to grip well off-road. You can check your surroundings easily with the Multi-Terrain Monitor, seeing the front, rear, and side views. The Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System assists with ideal traction. Multi-Terrain Select helps with challenging surfaces, while Crawl Control with Off-Road Turn Assist gives you a tighter turning radius. In addition to its off-road capability, the Land Cruiser has an impressive 8,200-pound towing capacity.
With all that muscle, its LED lighting and chrome grille may come as a surprise. Not only is it powerful and perfect for off-roading, but it’s sleek and holds the road great too. Since the Land Cruiser is built with exploring in mind, it comes standard with a moonroof.
Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison features over 16 acres of outdoor gardens along with an indoor tropical paradise. It is home to the only Thai Pavilion in the continental U.S. and is a winner of the national Garden of Excellence Award. Guests can stroll through the gardens or take the accessible tram that travels from garden to garden either on the weekends or daily, depending on the season. Enjoy the fresh air and beautiful sites at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison.
The Rose Garden
Make sure to take your time exploring the Rose Garden at Olbrich. This is one of the most popular gardens. It covers 2 acres and features a wide variety of roses of all colors and sizes on display. It also has ornamental trees, spring blooms, and annuals to see while you wander through. The Prairie-style design of the Rose Garden features simple geometric designs made from natural materials. The most prominent feature in the Rose Garden is the Rose Garden Tower. It is a two-story tower offering visitors who climb up spectacular views of the garden and more. Read the rest of this entry »
How the Toyota Safety Sense Suite Helps Drivers
Modern vehicles should approach safety in a modern way. Toyota has developed some of the most innovative driver-assist technologies to keep you and your passengers safer on the road. Here are a few of those technologies that are a part of the Toyota Safety Sense suite:
Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection
This is arguably one of the most important technologies in the Toyota Safety Sense Suite. It not only helps you stay more aware of oncoming obstacles, but helps you avoid collisions, keeping you, your passengers, and people outside your vehicle safer.
The pre-collision system with pedestrian detection uses a camera and sensors to constantly scan the road ahead for obstacles, vehicles, and pedestrians. If the system detects one, it will alert you via audio and visual cues. If the system detects an imminent collision and you haven’t applied your brakes, it will apply the brakes for you. If you do apply the brakes, the Brake Assist system kicks in to give you a little more stopping power.
The Craft Beer Lover’s Guide to Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, is keeping with a long heritage of beer history with the many craft breweries that call the city home. There are many breweries in town to explore, but if you’re looking for somewhere to start, you can’t go wrong with these staples:
Ale Asylum
No list of Madison craft breweries would be complete with a nod to Ale Asylum. The funky-fresh interior, complete with leather couches and pinball machines, lends itself very well to enhance your enjoyment of the top-notch brews that Ale Asylum creates. For starters, get a glass of their Ambergeddon amber ale, the accessible Hopalicious American pale ale, or the Ballistic IPA. Ale Asylum’s taproom has an impressive variety to choose from, so you’re sure to find something to satisfy your palate at this local-favorite brewery.
A Look At the 2020 Toyota Avalon’s Charm and Style
The 2020 Toyota Avalon seeks to revitalize the large sedan class. Through impressive power levels, style, and lists of exciting features, the new Avalon is the pinnacle all other sedans should aspire to. Here’s a look at what the 2020 Avalon has to offer you:
Unparalleled Style
The first thing you may notice about the 2020 Toyota Avalon is its surprisingly sharp style. Its exterior appearance does a fantastic job of updating the traditional sedan style and bringing it to the modern era. From its blacked-out front fascia full of sharp, modernist angles to the available chrome-tipped quadruple exhaust in the rear, the Avalon doesn’t shy away from making a statement on the road.
As you move up through the Avalon’s list of trims — the XLE, Limited, XSE, TRD, and Touring — you’ll get more access to more exterior features. The Touring’s sequential turn signals are Vegas-inspired eye-catchers. The sporty TRD’s 19-inch allow wheels and red-painted brake calipers give the Avalon a racer’s atmosphere. Whichever trim you choose, you can expect a sedan dripping in expertly engineering style.
With so many people worried about being in public, it’s a wonder that more people haven’t picked up hiking. If you’re looking for a great hiking trail in the Madison, Wisconsin, area, here are a few you should check out.
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Picnic Point Marsh Loop Trail
The 2-mile Picnic Point Marsh Loop Trail is an easy hike right in Madison’s Shorewood Hills. This trail is flanked nearly completely by Lake Mendota, offering great lakeside views to one side and forest on the other. Its location makes it one of the more popular hikes in the city, but if you avoid peak times, it can be a great escape. Since it’s a loop trail with only an 88-foot elevation gain, this is a great trail for beginners and families.
Is Your Vehicle Ready to Handle the Heat?
Oh, the horror! On a brutally steamy summer day, you leave the cool confines of your workplace and make the long, sweltering walk across a shoe-meltingly hot parking lot. You open your car door and the blast of heat that emanates forth nearly knocks you out. You pause for a moment and contemplate just how toasty your seat is, not to mention your steering wheel. With a bit of trepidation, you take the plunge and inch into the vehicle. Hot! Hot! Hot! No worries, though. You know your air conditioner will kick in in no time. You crack your window to allow the heat an escape route and wait. And wait.
You hold your hand near the air vent questioningly as sweat starts to form on your brow. Why isn’t there cool air flowing? You turn some knobs and flick some switches, and still nothing. The slowly awakening horror is suddenly upon you. THE A/C IS BROKEN!!!
Is this an unavoidable cosmic joke, or could you have taken some preventative measures to help assure this didn’t happen? Jim Ward, Service Manager at Smart Motors in Madison, says there are many steps one can take to avoid such a sticky situation.
“Wisconsinites know how important it is to winterize their vehicles, but often they neglect to ‘summerize’ them, too,” Ward says. “While some things can easily be done by the owner, there are also somewhere a service professional comes in handy.”
If you love to read or you’re looking for a unique gift for a friend or family member, you should visit some bookstores to browse and find interesting material from your favorite authors. Here are some of the best places where you can find your next summer read in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Book Deal
At The Book Deal, you can find more than 20,000 used books in over 60 genres. It’s a great place to find a new book, CD, DVD, graphic novel, or vinyl record at a bargain price. You can turn in your old books for store credit, and they’ll come to your home or office and pick up large collections for free.
Teachers and other educators get 10% off everything in the store, and you’ll get a free book when you sign up for their rewards program. For every book The Book Deal sells, they give one away to a local student. It’s their goal to encourage reading and increase literacy by making books affordable for everyone. They’re open for appointments Thursday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., and you can shop for books online.
The 2020 Toyota C-HR compact crossover SUV is ideal for commuting, and its unique look makes it easy to spot in parking lots. It has a variety of appealing features to make trips more fun for drivers and passengers, and you can choose LE, XLE, or Limited trim levels. Keep reading to learn more about this attractive, affordable vehicle’s coolest characteristics.
A Sporty Style
The 2020 C-HR has a sporty, agile look and LED headlights that curve around the sides of the hood. The thin upper grille has a chrome Toyota emblem in the center, and the lower grille is large and angular. There’s also a rear spoiler, aerodynamic underbody panels, 17-inch wheels, a rear windshield wiper, and heated power side mirrors. C-HR stands for Coupe High-Rider, and the subtle rear door handles next to the roof make it look like a coupe.
You can add puddle lights, power-folding side mirrors, automatic high beams, rain-sensing windshield wipers, 18-inch wheels, and fog lights. You can also choose a black or white roof with many body colors. The optional adaptive front lighting system points the headlights where you need them to improve visibility when you travel on hills or around turns.
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