It's a nice area, lots of trees, as you might expect. It's very accessible from downtown Madison by car or bike, and it's a great resource. We biked all through it, a couple of miles, on a combination of a path and the road. There are bike racks at appropriate points. There's also canoe and kayak rental (and they have a couple of huge swan paddleboats!) for about $20/hour. I haven't been into the zoo, but it looks like a pretty small, local affair aimed mostly at very small children, as evidenced by the people we saw going in and out.