Biking

Normally you need to provide your own bike, but as long as you have one, you can make good use of them in these state parks.

Willow River State Park sign

Willow River State Park

Willow River State Park is one of the more popular among Wisconsin state parks, primarily because it has a large waterfall that isn’t likely to dry up as it’s so close to the river’s mouth which joins the St. Croix River about 5 miles downstream. Getting to and from the falls can be quite the …

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Potawatomi State Park sign

Potawatomi State Park

There are 5 state parks in Door County, Wisconsin. We had originally thought to visit all of them in one trip, but we decided to “knock off” the southernmost, Potawatomi State Park, with a separate trip of its own. (We still plan to hit the other 4 parks in one week in June of 2023.) …

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Devil's Lake State Park sign

Devil’s Lake State Park

Our visit to Wisconsin’s largest state park, Devil’s Lake State Park, included three other hikes as well – in Natural Bridge State Park, in Tower Hill State Park, and through Cave of the Mounds. The hike around Devil’s Lake was by far the most difficult of these and is probably the toughest hike we’ll take …

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Lake Wissota State Park

Lake Wissota State Park

If you live in Wisconsin or Minnesota (or possibly anywhere else), you likely realize where the name, Wissota, comes from. Wikipedia claims: “An engineer on the [Lake Wissota Hydroelectric Dam] project [that created the lake], Louis G. Arnold, named the lake by combining the beginning of “Wisconsin” and the ending of “Minnesota”.” And you would …

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Wyalusing State Park

Wyalusing State Park

This article is about our second visit to Wyalusing State Park. Sadly, I don’t have the pictures I took on our first visit. (Or, if I do still have them, I can’t find them.) Those pictures included a shot of the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. These do not. This second hike was …

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Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park is currently the 3rd largest state park in Wisconsin. (Buckhorn and Devil’s Lake are bigger.) As if to emphasize this fact, half of the hiking trails are over 2 miles long each, and almost everything shorter than that is either inaccessible directly or isn’t worth walking on its own. That’s pretty …

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Hartman Creek State Park

Hartman Creek State Park

Hartman Creek State Park may offer the widest variety of activities of any Wisconsin state park. In addition to the frequently-found hiking, boating, camping, and hunting (and related) activities, you can go mountain (fat tire, singletrack) biking, swimming, snowmobiling, and horseback riding. Many miles of trails are specifically designed for horseback riding, for singletrack biking …

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Perrot State Park

Perrot State Park

There are a pair of Wisconsin state parks along the Mississippi River – Perrot and Merrick – that have an interesting history. They are both connected to a grocer from Winona, Minnesota, named John Latsch. You can read the details on this Merrick page (suggest you read that one first) and this Perrot page at …

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Mirror Lake State Park

Mirror Lake State Park

Mirror Lake State Park contains MIrror Lake. Nothing surprising there. But Mirror Lake, though technically a lake, is one of those bodies of water that’s really just a wider-than-usual section of a river – in this case, a few wider sections. Mirror Lake is not a standalone body of water with no inlet or outlet. …

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New Glarus Woods State Park

New Glarus Woods State Park

New Glarus Woods State Park is pretty much what its name says. It’s a state park that is mostly woods near New Glarus. There’s nothing spectacular about it. It’s just a nice place to visit – perhaps to camp – that has interesting vegetation (mainly outside the wooded areas) and a place to play. I’ll …

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