The week before we headed to Mirror Lake State Park new guidelines came out for Wisconsin State Parks — all would be open again (still no camping though) with revised hours, you had to have an annual pass again, and ALL bathrooms were closed. (even the pit toilets) Now Tammy’s small bladder, weakened by birthing 4 children, kind of dictates the need for several bathroom stops over the course of a Splorin’ trip. We still wanted/needed to enjoy the parks so we purchased a portable toilet that we could use in the back our our van!!! While it sounds kind of icky, it works wonderful and in Tammy’s words – it’s a game changer!! So, Mirror Lake State Park was our first chance to take it for a spin (so to speak).
We utilized the services of the portable toilet as soon as we parked. Worked great. Tammy was concerned about people being able to see in, but unless they come right up to the tinted windows and cup their hands on the window they are not going to see anything. Having sufficiently relieved ourselves, it was time to start hiking!!
We headed off for the Northwest Trails. This led us right by the first glimpse of Mirror Lake.
Many beautiful weeds, flowers and ferns along this trail.
Some of you will notice I included Garlic Mustard in this as “beautiful” even though it is an invasive species. Unfortunately it is a beautiful invasive species… 😦 We have learned much about garlic mustard by reading the Wisconsin State Parks Facebook page.
We made it back to the car and took a quick potty break. 🙂 🙂 Then started on the second half of the park. We were to make our way up the East side of the park to and past the Ishnala Supper Club.
Part of this trail ended up taking us right past the freeway in an open meadow and all the noise that comes with it. This actually became a blessing for us. Mike decided that we should walk back up the driveway to the supper club and make our way back down along the other side of the trail. It turns out that the other side of the trail took you right down a beautiful ravine all the way to Mirror Lake at the end.
It was a very beautiful walk right down the valley the whole way. As we made our way back up to Echo Rock, you get a beautiful view of the supper club across a narrow inlet. So we get our Supper Club “fix” any way we can.
About this time, the park started becoming more and more crowded. Groups of people hiking down the trails, etc. Mike doesn’t like groups of people in the parks in general now with “social distancing” we both dislike seeing lots of people who just ignore this and won’t even step aside on the trail.
We had one more stop to make before we were done — Pulpit Rock Trail. This was a very short one-way out and back hike. Unfortunately when you get to the end you cannot really see Pulpit Rock (because you are standing on top of it). You get a pretty view of Mirror Lake, but we already had quite a few of those.
We made our way back to the car and back home again. Still no #SupperClubSaturday.
Splorin' Saturday 