^Looking westward from the intersection at Robert Street in Fort Atkinson, February 2022.

In Wisconsin, US Route 12 traces a northwest-southeast path in an overall quest to link Chicago to the Twin Cities of Minnesota. At Hudson, Wisconsin, just east of the Twin Cities, US Route 12 enters Wisconsin by riding along on the bridges used by Interstate 94. From these state line bridges over the St. Croix River, US Route 12 follows Interstate 94  for only a short while, escaping to the north for a short bit. US Route 12 soon corrects toward the east, passing through many small railroad towns before reaching Menomonie. US Route 12 makes a beeline for Eau Claire after serving Menomonie. US Route 12, which has been paralleling Interstate 94 ​since the two routes split up, continues to mirror Interstate 94 to an extent as both routes turn southeastward. The two routes meet once again in Black River Falls, and after that, the two routes are very close together while they both continue southeastward, until the Lake Delton area. At Lake Delton, US Route 12 heads straight south for Baraboo and Sauk City. At Sauk City, US Route 12 bends back toward the southeast, bound for Middleton. At Middleton, US Route 12 assumes the form of the Madison Beltline, one of the most important expressways in the Madison area. US Route 12 picks up a concurrency with US Route 18 passing through Madison, and that concurrency lasts until Cambridge. Past Cambridge, US Route 12 heads southeast through Fort Atkinson, and Whitewater to Elkhorn, where US Route 12 becomes a freeway. This freeway has access points at Interstate 43 and Lake Geneva before it ends at the Illinois border.  At Genoa City, US Route 12 crosses the state line moving southward into Illinois.

My photo of a route marker for US Route 12 in Wisconsin comes from the north side of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, where Wisconsin Highway 67 joins US Route 12 northward for a spell. The aperture looks north at signage serving northbound travelers on Highway 67. As US Route 12 comes from the southeast as a freeway, it bends northward and the freeway shrinks down to a surface highway. This photo was taken in April 2025 as I was driving around southeastern Wisconsin.
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