There are few places in Wisconsin more beautiful than this one. If you love hiking and lakes, you’ll want to spend time there at some point in your life. However, it’s also important to know that the most venomous snake in the state also calls it home.

Have you ever been to Devil’s Lake State Park? It’s gorgeous there. It’s situated in Baraboo Range in eastern Sauk County near Baraboo, Wisconsin south of the Wisconsin Dells.

What you need to be aware of is timber rattlesnakes are present in Devil’s Lake State Park, too. There’s even an official page dedicated to the snakes on the Devil’s Lake State Park website. World Atlas agrees that you’ll find timber rattlesnakes in this part of Wisconsin.

Hiking in Devil’s State Park is epic, but if you adventure away from designated trails, that’s when you can approach danger. These venomous rattlers like to hide next to tree stumps and under rocks. As the park mentions, encounters with hikers on the normal hiking trails is not common, but does happen. The snakes are not normally aggressive and will flee human contact. Where you run into dangerous trouble is when you reach or step somewhere you can’t see in the park. You could be bitten without the warning rattle most associate with these snakes.

Does that mean you should avoid visiting Devil’s Lake State Park? No way. It’s one of the best destinations in Wisconsin and a must-visit next time you make a trip to the Dells. Just be careful where you walk and listen for the rattle of danger that could be nearby.

STURGEON BAY, Wis. (AP) — A man convicted of reckless homicide for starting a 2022 fire that killed two people when it destroyed a Wisconsin building housing a bar and rented rooms has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

A judge also sentenced Anthony Gonzalez, 60, on Friday to 15 years of extended supervision for the fire at Butch’s Bar and the building’s upstairs apartments, the Appleton Post-Crescent reported.

The February 2022 fire killed two tenants who lived above the Sturgeon Bay bar, Victor Jurss and Gary Heise, and seriously injured a third tenant. Gonzalez told investigators he accidentally started the fire in his room above the bar when he was trying to refill a cigarette lighter.

His attorney argued that the building lacked fire safety equipment and said Gonzalez wasn’t reckless because he tried to extinguish the fire and knocked other tenants’ doors to alert them to the fire.

A jury convicted Gonzalez in January of two counts of second-degree reckless homicide and five counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety. His attorney has said she plans to appeal the verdict.

Door County Judge D. Todd Ehlers said during Friday’s sentencing that Gonzalez has blamed others both for the fire and his convictions and that he has shown a lack of remorse.

Sturgeon Bay is located along Lake Michigan about 45 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of Green Bay.

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