Devil's Lake State Park

While staying in New Glarus Woods State Park, we ran up to Devil's Lake in the car.  Were we glad we did!  First a little background.  Devil's Lake is spring fed, and has no outlet thanks to moraines deposited during the last glacial period about 22,000 years ago.  The Nature Center had an interesting display explaining this occurrence.  The lake is bordered by quartzsite cliffs.

 I had picked out a hike that looked promising online and the girls at the concession stand said nothing to discourage me.  (Somehow we missed the information booth.)

On the above map, we started at the star, took the Balanced Rock Trail (.4 mi.), the East Bluff Trail (.6 mi.), the CCC trail (.3 mi.), and back on the Grottos Trail (.7 mi.), for a total of 2 miles.  Sounds easy, huh?

Well, nobody told us the Balanced Rock Trail was .4 mi. of stone steps!  Good thing we had practiced on all those lookout towers.

About a third of the way up, we could see Balanced Rock way above us.

And we appreciated the clearings with nice views of Devil's Lake.

But we weren't done climbing.  Here's Ron pretending to talk to a young man.  Really he was just resting.

Whew!  We made it.  This is Devil's Doorway.  Personally, I would hesitate to climb on it.  It doesn't look too stable to me.

What a spot for lunch!

With endless views.

But you know what 'they' say about what goes up, must come down.  Soon we were on the CCC Trail making our way down between all those rocks.

(I know it doesn't look like it, but there really was a good trail.)

Finally we had a nice stroll back along the Grottos Trail.

The girls at the concession stand were happy to see us.  It took us so long, I think they were beginning to worry.  Although that climb was rather strenuous, it was a wonderful hike.  We just took our time.

On our way home, we stopped at Natural Bridge State Park to see the sandstone bridge.  Although we've seen many in the Southwest, it's highly unusual for Wisconsin.

(Somebody needs to get rid of all those trees so the bridge shows up better.)

And along the road, I got such a kick out of seeing the Tin Man.

Just look at the beautiful job his creator did on his face.

New Glarus

Since we bought the Wisconsin State Parks pass, we are working hard to use it every chance we get.  For three nights, we stayed in New Glarus Woods SP, near the town of New Glarus.  Now this isn't just any old Wisconsin town, but one that was settled by emigrants from Canton Glarus in Switzerland.  I was not aware that the Swiss people have four national languages - German, French, Italian, and Romansh.  That must be confusing.

The people who settled New Glarus were German speaking.   The current residents of New Glarus are very connected to their Swiss roots.  We paid a visit to the . . .

What do you think of when you think of Switzerland (other than banking?)  How about clocks?

And Swiss cheese?

We learned a lot on our tour, but what made it very special was the tour guide.  His grandfather on one side and his great-grandfather on the other were among those brave Swiss who left what they knew to make a new home in America.  He was full of interesting stories.

There are cows everywhere.  This chef was in front of the restaurant where we ate.

This one looks like she just won the Kentucky Derby.

This 'swiss cheese' cow was in front of a cheese factory in nearby Monroe, perhaps the Swiss Cheese Capital of the United States.

But my favorite cows were the Brown Swiss dairy cattle with their furry ears.  When we stopped along the road to take a picture, they all came over to say hello.  What friendly cows!

Ron's Sibs

After our time in Door County, we hurried back to northern Illinois and brother Mike's driveway.  Mike and his wife Mary are always ready with a warm welcome, even though we had just been there two weeks earlier.

This was a special occasion because Ron's two sisters had flown in from New York and Nebraska.  All four surviving siblings were gathered and there was a lot of catching up.  From left are Jo Anne, Mike, Mary Jo, and Ron.

I mentioned previously that Ron is doing some genealogical research.  They all are very interested in what he has discovered and had fun doing some research at their small hometown's historical society.

The Other Side of the Door

(I got the idea for my title from Sandie's funny comment on the previous post.)

We got a later start for our exploration of the Green Bay side of Door County, but we also had less ground to cover.  First stop was a county park at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay where we could see Sherwood Point Lighthouse across the way. You can take a boat tour of lighthouses like these people did, but where's the challenge in that?

Heading north, we again took roads as close to the shore as possible and, once again, saw a lot of trees. The next clearing was another nice county park where they had a large beach area.  This place must be packed on warm days.

Next up was Egg Harbor where they cleverly had painted eggs all over town.  Here are just a few of my favorites.

Screaming Turtle

Ferrous Ovum

Journey into Sunset

Guard Duty

Transformation

Seed of Life

Egg-xploration

And floating in the harbor . . .

Egg at the Beach

I'm just a sucker for the themed art pieces we find in so many places.

By the time we hit Fish Creek, it was time for lunch.  We picked a place that looked reasonable, but began to worry when they served us water in a wine bottle.

After a delightful meal, we hit our last stop at Peninsula State Park.  Although the Shore Road in the park had that same 'tree view', there were some highlights.  One was Eagle Bluff Lighthouse where they even invited you in (to the gift shop.)

And we climbed the fourth of these towers that seem to be in every Wisconsin State Park.  Unlike the other one I wrote about, this one you could drive to the base, so only about 100 steps were involved in the climb.

From the top there was a panoramic view of Welcker's Point and Nicolet Bay to the west,

Eagle Harbor to the east,

And aptly-named Horseshoe Island to the north.

On our return trip through the park, we took Skyline road which had a couple of pull-offs with nice views.

This concludes our tour of Door County.  I'll just leave you with a classic 'Widow's Walk' or 'Captain's Walk', if you prefer, to honor the seafaring history of the area.

Door County Road Trip

So we're in that tiny strip of Wisconsin famously known as Door County and have two days to see everything.  We decided to tackle it systematically and see the east side and north tip one day and the west side the other.  If I knew how people post those route maps, I'd do it.

First I have to say that Door County is not my favorite place.  Driving along the shore roads, all you can see are trees and glimpses of houses that are on Lake Michigan (east side), or Green Bay (west side).  The only places that have a view of the water are parks and town harbors.  Having said that, of course we did find interesting things to see.

The first stop was Whitefish Dunes State Park where we followed a trail through the trees to some nice viewpoints along the shoreline.

The wave action has undercut a lot of the limestone creating interesting gurgling sounds even on a calm day.  I wonder what it would be like during a storm.

 Take a good luck because soon we'll be back in the woods.

Then it was off to look for more of the 11 lighthouses.  The Baileys Harbor Rangelights were particularly interesting.  Consisting of lower (foreground) and upper (way in the background) lights, ships would line the pair up for safe entrance into the harbor.

Here's the plaque on the lower light with more information.

Some of the lighthouses were impossible to reach like the Old Baileys Harbor Light.

And the Cana Island Lighthouse charged money to get any closer than this.  I object to that on principle.

Next up was Sister Bay.  Is that a lighthouse? Nope, just a decoration.

Sister Bay was packed with tourists, all here for one thing.

The restaurant is famous for their goats on the roof.

(I thought the grass looked fake, but they actually mow it because the goats don't eat it down uniformly.)

We waited an hour to be seated and had some delicious Swedish pancakes and meatballs.  The waitresses are all dressed appropriately.

We continued north and followed a road that seemed like a joke - unbelievably crooked for no reason.

At the ferry dock, we looked across Porte des Morts Passage (even I can translate that as Death's Door.) I believe this is one of the Plum Island Rangelights.

We could barely make out the Pilot Island Lighthouse in the distance.

Look, Brenda, Bea's is still in business!  It's surprising the vice squad didn't shut her down years ago.

On our way back south, we found this unique chapel.  Located on the campus of Lawence University, the Boynton Chapel was built in the style of a late 12th century Norwegian stave church.

If we had been just a little earlier, we could have had a tour.