Cyndie and I traveled East to a driftless area in Wisconsin over April 21st & 22nd 2012.  Our first afternoon we traveled through and took in a good portion of Monroe County.

Read more about Driftless Wisconsin.

We headed Northeast out of La Crosse to the West Salem area to begin our backroadin’.  Our goal for this trip was to capture all of the round barns (mostly in Vernon County – Day 2) and covered bridges in the area.  Upon arrival in Monroe County, we were met with so much more than round barns; the regular ones were just as picturesque if not more so.  These rounds barns were either in really good (restored) shape or, as it were with one of them, covered with a tarp or the scene was just too busy for a good photograph.  My preference is the old, the decay, the moss-covered  and weather wood, missing boards…you know, falling apart.  I realize these structures do not exists purely for my photography pleasure and the owners concerns are more with form/function and perhaps the grips of a local or national historical society guideline or two.

I was instantly locked onto the very different styles of copulas that adorned the tops of these Wisconsin barns.  There was quite a variety than what I have noticed thus far and they were very different from the ones around home.   The barn windows and doors were a wonderful highlight of the trip as well.  We ran into a great property just East of Mindoro, WI.  Ten of these thirty-six images were from that one farmstead (Images 4-13).  We slowly made our way to Sparta, WI – running parallel to and just North of I90.  It was a great start to the trip – gorgeous country sides and a nice Spring day.

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