Things to Do in Slinger (From Racetrack to Trailhead)

Slinger is the kind of place you would drive past on I-41 without a second look, which is exactly how it keeps its best parts for the people who stop. There are more things to do in Slinger than a Kettle Moraine village of its size has any business offering: a nationally known short-track speedway, a good stretch of the Ice Age Trail with some genuinely strange glacial hills, a private fire-truck museum shown by the woman who built it, a community playhouse, a karting track, and a ski hill for the winter. Here is how to spend a day, whatever you are in the mood for, with deeper guides on each along the way.

Catch a race at Slinger Speedway

The single biggest draw in Slinger is the speedway. It is a paved quarter-mile oval billed as the world's fastest of its kind, a claim that comes down to how steeply the corners are banked, and Sunday night is race night from roughly spring into fall. A single card runs several divisions in one evening, headlined by the Super Late Models, so you get a lot of racing for one ticket, and the grandstand sits close enough that you follow the whole thing with your own eyes.

The calendar builds to the Slinger Nationals in July, one of the best-known short-track races in the country, which pulls touring drivers from well beyond Wisconsin, and the late-summer Slamfest is its louder, demolition-flavored counterpart. If you have never been, a race night at Slinger Speedway works better with a bit of planning, from gate times to ticket prices to where to grab dinner beforehand.

Hit the Ice Age Trail and the parks

Slinger sits on a scenic run of the Ice Age Trail, the 1,200-mile path that traces Wisconsin's glacial edge. Several short segments pass through or near town: the Slinger Segment itself is a mostly level 1.8 miles that runs right through the village, while the neighboring Pike Lake Segment climbs to an observation tower on Powder Hill with a view over the Kettle Moraine.

The standout is the Polk Kames, the second-largest cluster of kames in the state. Kames are the steep, conical hills the glaciers left behind, and the trail here loops through hardwood forest and open farm field past them, with a free trailhead lot just off I-41 and no state sticker needed.

For mountain biking and disc golf on top of hiking, Heritage Trails County Park adds flow trails and open ground for all skill levels, with bike repair stands and hoses for cyclists and a reputation for exceptionally well-kept trails. Hiking the Ice Age Trail in Slinger takes a bit of sorting out, since each segment has its own trailhead, parking and sticker rules.

Local history and culture

Slinger's most surprising attraction is a museum of vintage fire trucks. Venerable Fire Collections is a private collection of restored fire engines and equipment, assembled over the years by Mary and her late husband Keith, and it is shown by appointment with Mary herself walking you through each piece. Plan on a couple of hours; it is the kind of specific, personal museum you will not find in the next town over, and the fact that the owner tells you the story of each truck is the whole point.

For local history, the town museum sits in a preserved 1917 church and walks through Slinger's past, back to its early days as Schleisingerville, the mouthful of a name the town carried before it was Slinger.

If live theater is more your speed, the Kettle Moraine Playhouse stages community productions in a small, comfortable room a few minutes away. It is the kind of local company where the casting and direction earn genuine word-of-mouth, and a show there makes an easy evening to cap a day of sightseeing.

Karting, ballfields and a workout

There is more to do if you are the active sort. Berens Racing runs a karting track, a fitting thing to find in a town built around a speedway, with top-tier equipment, coaching for beginners and experienced racers alike, and open days six days a week, so it is a real option for kids who want to drive rather than watch.

Velocity Baseball & Softball is a dedicated training facility for young ballplayers, and there is a small cluster of gyms and studios, from Kettle Moraine CrossFit to Barre Slinger, if you want to keep a routine going while you are here.

Eat, drink and shop local

When it is time to eat, Slinger keeps to small-town Wisconsin: historic taverns dating to the 1840s and 1850s, a Friday fish fry, and a couple of good coffee shops. Aspen Sky adds a winery, distillery and event center for a slower afternoon.

Where to eat in Slinger runs from historic taverns to a Friday fish fry to a couple of good coffee shops, sorted by the kind of meal you are after.

For local shopping and produce, Hearthside Farms and the town's weekly farmers market are the seasonal stops, with the farm especially busy come the autumn harvest, when the pumpkins and gourds come in.

A round of golf nearby

One honest gap: Slinger has no golf course inside the village itself. If a round is what you are after, the nearest are about 13 kilometres east in West Bend, close enough to pair with a Slinger visit without much of a detour.

West Bend has two worth knowing. West Bend Lakes Golf Club is the public-friendly option, and the private West Bend Country Club sits just up the road. Both are an easy drive from Slinger and give the golfers in a group somewhere to be while everyone else works through the trail or the town.

With kids, or by season

Traveling with children, the town has a genuine half-day in it, from the community park's splash pad to karting to frozen yogurt. Things to do in Slinger with kids lean low-key rather than headline-attraction, which is part of the appeal. And because the big draws split by season, it is worth checking the best time to visit Slinger before you lock in a date.

Winter is the season people forget Slinger has a claim to, and it comes down to one place. Little Switzerland is a ski hill right in town, running since 1941, with night skiing, snowmaking and snow tubing, so even a family with no skiers in it gets a full afternoon out of the snow. It is the reason a Slinger trip works in January as well as July, just for entirely different reasons.

Nearby: a day in Hartford

If you want to pair Slinger with a neighbor, Hartford is about 8 kilometres west and makes an easy add-on, with its own museums, parks and restaurants. Read up on things to do in Hartford before you make the short drive over.