Mazo beach is a beautiful, wide strand of secluded beach along the scenic Wisconsin River near Madison. Flanked on one side by towering sandstone cliffs where eagles sometimes soar, Mazo is a haven for nudists and naturists from all over the midwest. On any sunny summer weekend the place draws a nice crowd of 500 or more clothes free sun seekers, couples and singles. While the state has stopped short of officially recognizing Mazo as a nude beach, the Wisconsin DNR and other authorities have willingly allowed nude sunbathing there for as long as anyone can remember.

Just a couple precautions if you decide to visit Mazo:

1. It’s part of the Lower Wisconsin Waterway, a protected natural area. No glass is allowed on the beach. Bring you beverages in plastic.

2. A few years ago some stodgy, textile-oriented members of the state legislature got their undies in a bundle about nuude sunbatrhing on state land. They couldn’t close the beach, but succeeded in having a gate installed on the road so naturists now have to brave a mile-long walk through occasionally mosquito-laden woods to reach the beach. You have to carry everything with you from the parking lot, so pack lite.

3. The tall willows on the north end of the beach have occasionally been a congregating place for people seeking various kinds of sexual activity, which is not tolerated by either the state or naturist community. If you wander into the willows you may get an eyeful. If you enter for illicit purposes, you may get a sizeable fine from the lone DNR warden, which sometimes patrolls the place.

4. A while back there was a self-proclained fundamentalist preacher and his offbeat followers decided to protest the evils of nude recreation by harrassing people on their way down to the beach. If anyone pesters you - and no one has ever bothered me - just ignore them.

Happily and nudely yours!
Kiernan