Punchbowls and Mixing Bowls

Although amazing scenic geology is not usually considered one of the features of east-central Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin, this area has its surprises. For example, there are a few places that are known as "mixing bowls" or "punchbowls", sometimes with "Devil's" attached. The "bowl" part of the name can be a bit confusing at first if, like me, you think of a bowl or other enclosed depression. Rather, these sites are steep-sided short narrow gorges just off of larger drainage. At one time they were supplied with enough flowing water to carve a gorge, but this has now dwindled to practically nil. If you go above the bowl, you'll find the former streambed. The bowls form wonderful secluded glens. Some are easier to find (and more widely publicized!) than others. Here are three I've come across, all in western Wisconsin.

Kinnickinnic State Park

Before we hop into Kinni, I invite you to take a moment to review "Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park: the green rocks of home". This post features an old dry streambed that turns into a steep-sided narrow ravine with a dry waterfall about the height of a person, cut down into rocks of the Prairie du Chien Group. Got your visual image? Great! Okay, now try this:

Slightly more than person height! This was taken back in April, when there was still ice hiding out in the depths of the gorge.

On the south side of Kinnickinnic State Park there is also an old streambed that abruptly turns into a steep-sided narrow gorge with dry waterfalls, cut into the Prairie du Chien Group, only at a much grander scale. This is the Devil's Mixing Bowl or Devil's Punchbowl of Kinni.

Looking down-gorge, toward one of several steps in the ravine floor. The rocks here are mossy, just like at the ravine park.

The park does not focus on the site in their advertising, and I can understand why, despite its beauty. This part of the park is not developed or easily accessed from the main part. Having a certain barrier of effort and knowledge to get to it keeps the place a little safer. It's not for small children or anyone whose knees are not in good shape! (To get into it, we walked around the perimeter until we came to a place where the wall was close to the floor.)

Looking down into the Mixing Bowl. The scale of the site, plus occasional inconvenient foliage, makes it difficult to get a comprehensive photo.

With the lack of water in the modern creek, Kinni's Mixing Bowl is a bit like the old description of Jupiter as a "failed star". Get a good continuous flow going, and this would be a spectacular waterfall, like Vermillion Falls and Willow River Falls (also cut through the Prairie du Chien). I've joked about wanting to get a water tanker back there just to see what this place would look like with fully operational hydrology.

Part of the series of mossy steps below the main fall.

I figured it was Prairie du Chien as soon as I saw it, not that there were too many choices. It's not sandstone and there are no other carbonates this thick in the local stack. Fortunately, the geologic map of the area (Evans et al. 2007) agrees with me, so I can take satisfaction in not being entirely off my rocker. Being Prairie du Chien, the next question is "are there stromatolites?"

That's certainly a mite bit suggestive.

The Kinni site was the original inspiration for this post; I was tipped off to it a few years back but wasn't able to follow up immediately. I was promised it would be outstanding, and I have to say it certainly is!

Pine Coulee Nature Preserve

Pine Coulee Nature Preserve southeast of Prescott, Wisconsin is one of the newest parks in and around the Twin Cities metro area, although as the postcards in the second link show, the gorge has been known for much longer. Although the gorge at Pine Coulee is not specifically described as a punchbowl or mixing bowl, it shares a lot of the same physical characteristics as the Devil's Mixing Bowl at Kinni: steep-sided short ravine with dry waterfalls and streambeds.

Approaching the pond from the left.

Actually, the gorge here is something like two mixing bowls leading into one, one on the east and one on the north, both with dry waterfall faces down into the central bowl. This is also Prairie du Chien (Evans et al. 2007), but it weathers in an unusual way. Some intervals of the walls of the central bowl look like columnar basalt.

Especially the lowest part; maybe that's what happens when you leave your Prairie du Chien to soak for an extended period.

As with the Kinni mixing bowl, it takes a bit of work to get to this site, although not as much in this case. It's clearly marked on the map, but the trail is not as well-trodden as the rest of the trail system, and once you get there it does require some walking over rocks to get the best effect.

My jigsaw puzzle photo.

Looking at the dry face of the bowl entering on the left.

Devil's Punchbowl Scientific Study Area

Heading east to Menomonie, there is a small park called Devil's Punchbowl Scientific Study Area. The geology is different in this case, but I'll let you see it before supplying the answer.

This is not the most picturesque view, but it does show the differences between the two formations well.

I came in not knowing the bedrock geology. It was evident that there was a more resistant unit above and a less resistant unit below, and the more resistant unit was not a carbonate like the Prairie du Chien. My immediate instinct was the upper unit was the Jordan Sandstone and the lower unit was the St. Lawrence Formation. It's actually the Wonewoc Sandstone over the Eau Claire Formation (Stewart 2026), which makes it my first time seeing the Eau Claire in outcrop. (Well, *kind of* seeing it, as like most recessive units it doesn't go out of its way to show itself. Being in the presence of, maybe?)

Looking up into the damp waterfall face.

It had rained that morning, and this left the punchbowl damp, especially from seeping water and water dripping from the vegetation. With eyes closed it sounded like gentle rain. The Wonewoc is very ledgy here, which I suppose may be a combination of water seeping on bedding planes and thin layers of less resistant material at the bedding planes.

Also, the north side seems to develop ledges more strongly.

This is by far the easiest of the three sites to visit, provided you can handle going up and down 87 stairs. You hardly have to walk any distance otherwise.

From above, looking down into the ledges viewed from below in the previous photo. The Eau Claire Formation below the Wonewoc contents itself with thin gray beds that all erode about the same and accumulate vegetation if not regularly flushed.

References

Evans, T. J., W. S. Cordua, and D. L. LePain. 2007. Preliminary geology of the buried bedrock surface, Pierce County, Wisconsin. Wisconsin Geologic and Natural History Survey, Madison, Wisconsin. Open-File Report 2007-08. Scale 1:100,000.

Stewart, E. D. 2026. Geologic map of the Weston and Menomonie South 7.5-minute quadrangles, Dunn County, Wisconsin. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, Madison, Wisconsin. Open-File Report WOFR2026-01. Scale 1:24,000.