Peninsula State Park, Fish Creek, Wisconsin
Have you heard about the new dance craze sweeping the inland areas of the Wisconsin Peninsula? Well, if not, you soon will!
Since we were only moving about 30 minutes away today, we had time for a paddle this morning. We headed out about 8:00am and were on the water before 8:30. What a glorious day! The sun was shining, the grass was green, the orange and palm trees . . . . oh. Sorry. Wrong season. Wrong state.
Anyway, the sun was shining and the water was calm, clear and an amazing shade of blue! We were anxious to get going. And then, just as I got in, I got a severe cramp in my calf! Poor Blaine had to stand there stabilizing the boat waiting for it to end so he could get in. It lasted so long, I thought it might not end! Fortunately, once it was over, I was fine. Whew! That was tough!
Remember the other day when I mentioned that Blaine wanted to kayak to that small island? That’s what we did today. It wasn’t as far as I thought, but it was still a pretty good distance.
When we first saw this, we thought it was a deer getting a drink! Ha!!
That’s where we’re headed first.
A white pelican!
Did you know that white pelicans are much bigger than the brown ones?
White =wingspan of 108″
Brown = wingspan of 79″
White = avg weight is 16.4#
Brown = avg weight is 8.2#
Too bad he didn’t let us get closer . . .
But we were close enough. Beautiful!
Look how clear the water is!
It’s about 1/2 paddle deep here.
Fish!
We don’t fish, so we don’t know what kind.
Again, the clarity of the water is incredible!
This was well under us.
A place for boats to tie up and have a picnic!
There was a fire ring, too, or so Blaine said.
I was too short to see it.
And then we went looking for that cave I mentioned. And we found it! We had been standing right under it and didn’t realize!
Over there is our next destination. It’s where Blaine thinks the cave is.
We were curious about what this stuff was.
I thought it was residue from the boats – like oil or something. Blaine didn’t think it was that toxic.
Later, we heard someone say it was pollen!
Makes sense, because when we ran our paddle through it, it was a weird light green color.
Is that where the cave is?
Oooo!! There it is!!
I forgot my visor, so I had to borrow Blaine’s Ohio State ball cap. : )
We were hiking right under it!
It’s so high, though, we never saw it.
Pretty cool, huh!?!?
I had a bright idea!
Let’s one of us get out and walk under it for perspective, while the other stays in the boat to take the picture!
Nice shot of the exit point, Blaine. Thanks.
Waiting on a woman.
He had to paddle back to the cave.
It took me a bit longer to hike there.
Look at that!
No wonder we didn’t find it!
I knew where it was now, and I could barely make it out.
While I was out, we needed a picture of Blaine in the kayak. : )
There’s a small white sailboat on the horizon.
Can you find it?
Land Ho!!
Cool clouds!
After we packed back up, about two hours later, we decided to drive around the Park and see if there was anything we might have missed. And sure enough! There was this spectacular overlook! We didn’t realize there was a road that went up high like this!
Isn’t this beautiful?!?!?
Time to move on, and since it’s such a short drive, I just followed Blaine in the Jeep. I must say, I had a good time. I didn’t have to pay attention to where I was going (although Blaine had put the directions in the gps, just in case – – always the Boy Scout, remember?), and I got to sing along to my country music the entire time! Yee Haw!!
I hope you enjoyed Peninsula State Park because we won’t be back.
At least not to camp.
The Park’s just not suited for our size. The site itself was fine, but getting there? The stuff Blaine’s nightmares are made of.
Wagon Trail Campground, Rowleys Bay, Wisconsin
Wagon Trail Campground
“Enjoy our nature”
Cute!
This is a lovely “resort” campground. What that means is that it costs about twice as much as a State Park, which means it should be twice as nice, right?
Well, for once, this one actually is! The site isn’t as large as some State Parks, but it’s still good size and the trees and undergrowth allow for lots of privacy (and no satellite), so it feels larger than it really is. But it’s extremely well maintained and has brand-spanking new facilities which are also well maintained. There’s not even cobwebs under the overhangs! And the people working in the office are especially sweet. It really is quite nice. Not sure if it’s twice as nice. But definitely nicer than other “resorts” we’ve been to.
We set up and I cleaned and cooked dinner. We did the dishes. And then . . . .
Blaine whisked me off on an after-dinner walk. It was supposed to be just a short walk. Ha! It became an hour and a half, much of which was a mosquito-infested-just-short-of-a-jog-arms-flailing, trek to a beach. It wasn’t even much of a beach.
Here we go!
Started out okay, just a bit of semi-dry mud to navigate.
Hmmmm . . .
Maybe this is why there were so many mosquitoes? To keep people out?
There’s Blaine. Doing the Mosquito Flail.
I would have videoed, but I was too busy dancing myself.
It’s a wonder I got this!
That aside, look how tall these ferns are.
We made it!
No dogs? What about the one a lady said she lost here? The white one that was apparently off-leash?
Not much of a beach, but the water and sky sure were gorgeous!
We thought we could return a different way, but it turned out that we could not. So it was aerobic exercise once again.
I stopped for about 5 seconds to snap this.
I expected it to be blurry.
Yeah!!
I thought we’d go home after that, but Blaine had other plans. We walked down the street to the Rowley’s Bay Resort to check it out. They have something here called a “fish boil” three nights a week. Hmmmm . . . .
Here’s the view from the dock across from the Resort.
I don’t know why there aren’t more pictures, I was probably a little miffed.