Ice fishing

If the ice is thick enough and you know there are fish to be caught, go for it!

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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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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Merrick State Park

Merrick State Park

Merrick State Park feels like a small park, though it’s not among the smallest overall. The DNR site currently says there are just 2 miles of hiking trails in the entire park. That’s not quite true. When we hiked in Merrick (the day after tackling Brady’s Bluff in Perrot State Park), we found several unmapped …

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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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Lake Kegonsa State Park

Lake Kegonsa State Park

We didn’t spend a lot of time at Lake Kegonsa State Park on this our first visit. It was our second park of the day, after Governor Nelson State Park, and we were getting tired. What little we did see was interesting though. We hiked the short Oak Knoll Trail loop, and I got to …

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Buckhorn State Park sign

Buckhorn State Park

Getting to Buckhorn State Park isn’t all that difficult, if you follow the signs. The right signs. Beware County Highway G Now, I know that many of you will use the GPS in your personal device to get to Buckhorn State Park, but I’m not all that fond of such tech. So I don’t normally …

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