Since getting the portable toilet, we decided we didn’t need to remain super close to home; we can be completely independent of any facilities (except stopping to get gas). So we wanted to try to tackle the last few parks we need to check off our list before our big finish with four State parks in Door County.
This weeks adventures were to take us to two state parks: New Glarus Woods State Park and Cross Plains State Park. These are two that we have tried to work into our plans for a while, but since they both are sufficiently away from other parks, we never were able to make them work. But, surprisingly, they ended up being a couple of our favorite parks.
Once again upon arrival we used our “facilities” in a completely empty parking lot — it was lovely. We then immediately headed out before the crowds got too big. With so much being cancelled right now, it is clear more people are out splorin’ just like we are.
Spring is FINALLY coming in to full bloom and we came across some beautiful plants and flowers almost immediately.
At first Mike thought that was a pitcher plant, but it turns out it is a Jack-in-a-Pulit. These were everywhere!! Once we saw 1, 2, 10, we saw hundreds of them! We quickly made our way out into the plains where we saw a Bison!
Ok, so it was a fake Bison, but….we were quickly back out of the plains onto the trail.
This was a gorgeous walk in the woods. As we went along Mike suddenly stopped as he saw a bright red bird. It was a Scarlet Tanager!! All we can say is WOW! It was beautiful.
Along this trail on the South side of the park you exit the woods into an expansive prairie area that has a lovely little stream flowing through the middle of it.
As we made our way back to the car, we passed an area where we saw probably 10 or 20 goldfinches flitting back and forth across the trail. We also noticed a couple of the birds were completely yellow (unlike the goldfinches that are black and gold) and they were not has brightly colored as the goldfinches. Mike has a great “bird memory” and can usually find out what we saw with a little help from Mr. Google. It turns out they were American Yellow Warblers. Too bad we could not get a picture of them. Maybe next time.
We were then off to Cross Plains State Park. There isn’t a sign for this park, in fact, there isn’t really a parking lot or welcome center or… anything. This was a hard park for Mike to plan. It is a newer state park and there are no real maps available and it is a combination of county, state and federal lands, all kind of bunched together. The Ice Age Trail runs through it as well. But, we were just going to wing it with the information that Mike was able to get together. (The Wisconsin State Parks Facebook page is a great source of information if you can disregard all the people complaining about bathrooms and campgrounds being closed.) We also located a map on one of the signs on the road by the park and probably should have taken a picture of it, but didn’t. Once again — off we went. It looked like we were going to primarily be circling a couple of fields. It was a beautiful walk.
We saw a Baltimore Oriole along the way — we have those in our backyard, but Mike was surprised that we would see one “in the wild”. 😉 We also saw a couple of Bluebirds — they are always pretty to see. Pictures of birds are hard to capture with your phone we are finding.We made our way back to the car via the Ice Age Trail.
We now were going to try the trails on the other side of the road — there were no maps, but there are trails visible from the road, so we decided to just wing it. Not something really easy for Mike the Planner, but he was not “too” uptight about it. This was a very enjoyable surprise!!! We thought the trail was going to be similar to the other side and just loop a big field. But the trail quickly cuts off into the woods and you are walking on the top of a very large ravine. Tammy was even able to get Mike “sort of” close to the edge of this beautiful area — but, note he is holding on to the tree.
When you get to one portion you have a beautiful view of an iconic Wisconsin dairy farm. We also stumbled upon another bird we had never seen before: the Eastern Towhee.
The trail stayed right at the top of a hill — we came upon one, smaller trail that went down the hill but we were too chicken to take it and see where it led. I mean, that is way too much of a deviation from a “plan.” As we made our way back to the car we came across a Shagbark Hickory bloom. We had seen many of these throughout our hike, but this seemed like a perfect specimen. Plants and birds are becoming our “thing.” Who would have thought?
We had plans of doing #TakeOutSupperClubSaturday from one of our favorite restaurants in Eau Claire and just do a whole selection of appetizers. But, Tammy found out that one of the appetizers that she really wanted was no longer on the menu. So changing up the plan again, we found a real supper club enroute and ordered food and stopped at a park to eat al fresco at a picnic table. First we had to make a pitstop at a Walmart to get some plates and silverware (and maybe a bottle of wine).
Since we weren’t headed straight home, we had some time before the supper club opened so we decided to try yet another place to go hiking. Mike kind of picked blindly one that was somewhere close to Fannie’s Supper Club. Boy, he can pick them!!! We ended up going to Castle Mound Pine Forest just outside Black River Falls, WI. We really had no idea what this park was about — we had driven right past it once, but didn’t bother looking into it. Turns out we should have!!!
It was a really cool little park where the main attraction is a very large granite mound (Castle Mound) that rises well above the pine forest floor. The trail loops you around the mound and then you can climb up to the top for some pretty awe inspiring scenes.
It was a short little loop but lots of places to explore and climb among the rocks. The ladder to the top of the rock observation deck was closed (although the sign had been torn down and thrown to the side) but I am not really sure either of us would have been able to do it any way. We did encounter a couple of other hikers on this trail that were most certainly enjoying themselves. (the smell was undeniable and reminiscent of our trip to NYC in February.) We were VERY glad we found this place — it is definitely worth a stop!!!
We then ordered our food from the supper club, (no prime rib and no scallops and they forgot our salads — but beggers can’t be choosers) picked it up and ate at the Highgrounds Veterans Memorial Park. It was a little chilly, and very windy, so we ate quickly and then made our way home.
Almost #SupperClubSaturday — we are getting close!!!
Splorin' Saturday 