Elkhart Lake’s Driving Force

Elkhart Lake

For a tiny village with a population under 1,000 people, Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin offers some outsize appeal.

There’s the lake itself and all the water activities it offers, including swimming, fishing, and boating. And there’s an award-winning spa at one of the town’s three resorts with more square footage than some of the nation’s better-known spas, plus exclusive hydrotherapy treatments. The variety of restaurants with farm-to-table concepts, fusion cuisines, and curated wine lists is impressive. And there’s one of the top tourist attractions in the
state: the Road America motorsport racetrack, billed as “one of the world’s fastest permanent road racing tracks,” which brings in race drivers and fans from around the world.

Summer is when Elkhart Lake shines—similarly to many Midwest resort areas—and a number of the business leaders told me about families who have been returning to the area for generations, describing the traditions as timeless and nostalgic. And while summer is when the population swells, community leaders are looking to expand events into other seasons with Christmas markets and fall cultural festivals.

Chicagoans have loved Elkhart Lake for more than a century, with its “escape-from-the-big-city” vibe, history of gambling, and the speedway as a playground. But Wisconsinites from
nearby Green Bay and Milwaukee areas have tended to overlook it. One native recalled it as “the Branson of Wisconsin.” But they’re starting to catch on. Now, Minnesotans looking for an alternative to the old Up North have a lakeside destination that is a five-hour drive from the Twin Cities, centered in Kettle Moraine State Forest. We visited the area for four days in May on a press trip and suggest these highlights.

Amy Nelson

Road America

“Who’s driving?” I ask my friend Megan Padilla as we strap on helmets with the rest of our
group. We are about to head out on Polaris ATVs off-roading on a muddy obstacle course at Road America, a 640-acre complex of challenging trails, go-kart tracks, and supervised racing circuits.

Elkhart Lake’s identity with motorsports started in the early 1950s, when sports car drivers
raced through the open streets of the village, navigating the hills and sharp turns as spectators watched along the sidewalks and streetside. In 1955, as Wisconsin’s legislature
considered banning dangerous street racing, an entrepreneurial highway engineer named Clif Tufte saw the value in the recreation and created Road America.

The 4-mile, 14-turn road circuit is identical to the initial route through the village and still marked with signs like “Dicken’s Ditch” and “Wacker’s Wend.” Today, Road America attracts
pro and amateur racers and their fans throughout the summer. The races vary from the Grand Prix and the SuperMoto series to SportBike and Trans Am tours , each specialized to the tracks.

Amy Nelson

Road America offers camping spots and on-grounds lodging , concession stands, playgrounds, and viewing stands for the races as well as the ATV trails, go-karting , geocaching, and popular programs for motorcycle and driving certifications . During our visit, we watched a detailed video about the history of road racing in the area, including a fascinating bit about female racers in the 1950s who were all but forgotten. Then we headed out for an hour-long ATV adrenaline rush on squishy, muddy forest trails that I was convinced we were going to get stuck on or overturn in. With a stronger stomach than I have, Megan did the driving while I held on and shot some videos on my phone. We criss-crossed the complex, sometimes riding alongside the racetrack where members of a sports car club were doing laps. We learned later from the command center that some drivers were going more than 180 miles per hour as we watched closed-circuit videos and heard the roar of the cars as they passed one another at the finish line.

Amy Nelson

Cooking School at The Osthoff Resort

“I’m going to do it the way Italian grandmothers do it,” chef Rodney Schulz tells us at the start of our pasta-making class in the cooking school at The Osthoff Resort. Along with a variety of private events, the school offers a weekly cooking class on Saturdays that is open to the public and affordably priced at $60 to $80 per session . Schulz is the school’s coordinator, head of cuisine for the resort’s spa, and Osthoff’s pastry chef. He has had a number of roles with the resort over the past decade, and teaching is one of his many skills. I have done a few cooking classes in the past both in Minnesota and abroad, and Schulz is by far the most patient and unflappable of the educators, juggling the different ingredients, skill levels, and dietary needs for our group of eight students.

Schulz tells us the pasta class is the school’s second-most popular class, behind a chicken marsala, risotto, and cannoli-making class. The well-appointed kitchen space had dual stoves and an expansive granite countertop for our four workstations. For the first part of our class, pairs each made a separate sauce or filling. For the second half, we made our own pastas: farfalle (also known as bow tie), fettuccine, and agnolotti (stuffed pasta). I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed at the beginning of the class when my partner and I were assigned the alfredo sauce, which Schulz described as “pretty basic”—but it ended up being
outstanding.

Amy Nelson

The key to the sauce is a hefty share of pinot grigio wine, which I was in charge of watching over and stirring until the alcohol boiled off. The other pairs made a cheese filling, a marinara, and a Bolognese sauce. Making the pastas was more challenging as we rolled out the doughs, learned how to use the right amount of flour to keep the strands from sticking together, and got a tutorial in slicing, folding, and pinching. Along the way, Schulz took time out to teach us how to properly dice an onion and prepare the pasta water.

At the end of class, we all made our own servings, mixing and matching our pastas with the sauces. In my opinion, the alfredo sauce was the best of the three, but that could just be my pride of ownership. While most of the classes are scheduled for two hours, ours expanded into a lovely three as we sampled one another’s creations and chatted over a homemade meal of pasta and wine.

Amy Nelson

Aspira Spa

Some people love speed and the rush of race cars while others want peace, quiet, and relaxation. (And some people in Elkhart Lake want both.) Aspira Spa, also in The Osthoff, is an impressive 22,000 square feet with 22 therapy rooms, a yoga studio, an exclusive cafe, and a new salt therapy (halotherapy) room. Aspira means “infused with spirit,” and many of the treatments incorporate waters from Elkhart Lake or infuse cedar branches and other Native American healing elements in consultation with local Indigenous leaders, according to spa manager Elizabeth Rumpff.

With an array of traditional massages and specialized ones such as deep-tissue, hot-stone, and the CBD oil version, as well as facials and manicure offerings, Aspira also features a unique hammam Moroccan treatment that one of my colleagues called “divine” and a chromotub treatment in a specialized balneotherapy tub Rumpff said is only one of two in the United States.

I experienced a cleansing massage that included burning sprigs of cedar and scented oils and later relaxed in the salt therapy room before I moved outside to a chaise lounge by the pool. I spent nearly three hours total relaxing in the spa.

Amy Nelson

Pottery at Two Fish Gallery

Two Fish Gallery owner Pat Robison’s curiosity is his charm. The pottery artist is also an incredible gardener whose yard is filled with flowers, insects, and sitting spaces. We spent an afternoon chatting with Robison about his craft and the clays, kilns, and glazes he uses in his studio. After we went around the room, each sharing personal details about our own “art” as writers, Robison talked about the customized cups he has been commissioned to create for the local-favorite Paddock Club restaurant , and showed us some tricks of the pottery trade that include rolling pins, newspaper, and texture makers.

As others got to work creating bowls and personalized designs under Robison’s supervision, I wandered o into the gardens to photograph the captivating and colorful scenery. I also browsed the art and goods that Robison and his wife, Karen, also an artist, sell in the adjacent front gallery. From suncatchers and wooden bowls to ornaments and ceramic animals, the storefront offers a number of surprisingly affordable keepsakes.

Travel and tourism obviously drive tiny Elkhart Lake, and the welcoming accommodations and variety of activities likely mean I will be back.

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