Mirror Lake State Park-#1

With a good amount of enthusiasm and an equally good amount of trepidation (that I kept bottled up inside as usual), we set off for our first park on Saturday, May 14. It was cold. I'm a Wisconsin native and 45 degrees in mid-May just isn't right, but we soldiered on. Luckily, our friends, Jennifer and Daryl were celebrating their three year wedding anniversary together with their adorable and friendly dogs, Lily and Cowboy at Mirror Lake, so we decided to stop by and visit them. They had a roaring fire that made it tough for us to leave them, but we managed to pull ourselves away to start our first hike.

Although I've visited Mirror Lake several times throughout the years, I haven't hiked it in most of those years. Established in 1962, with over 2,000 acres, and a variety of activities available, it is a great park. It doesn't have the high volume of Devil's Lake State Park nearby, but offers many of the same things, sandstone cliffs along the lake, hiking, canoeing, and kayaking. In the summer, boat and bicycle rentals are available, and in the winter cross country skiing and candlelight hikes are offered.

We headed out on the Echo Rock Trail, and linked up to the Ishnala Trail which includes a pretty bridge over a gorge. You can see the Ishnala Supper Club across the lake, a lovely place, playing Dean Martin. Of course, G ran most of the time, and I managed to maintain a mostly calm veneer, even when he ran towards the water. He seems to have two speeds, running and "I'm tired, carry me". He had a great time, and didn't even question his winter coat and stocking cap on May 14. It was a great first park, looking forward to the next outing!

Next stop Aztalan State Park!

47 Wisconsin State Parks in 365 Days

"47 Wisconsin State Parks in 365 days". This is what I proposed to my  husband of 10 years over sushi at one of his favorite lunch spots (yes, why not stack the deck in my favor?) He merely chuckled and held his hand out for the maps, excel spreadsheets and other documents he knew I had brought with me (in a green folder nonetheless, to match our green endeavors). The requirements? At least one hike, a visit to the most notable part of the park, and a selfie. I know, a selfie? But, we wanted to capture each of our visits at each of the 47 "gems" of the state park system.

"Why not?" Why not explore our own backyard, why not "see what we were missing", as the Wisconsin State Parks website urged. Nevermind that we had a rambunctious 2 year old "G", who was the biggest backseat driver I'd encountered in years.

"Go faster Daddy!"
"Go slower Daddy!"
"More trucks!" (yes, we were to conjure up trucks for his viewing pleasure)
"Get out here!" (repeated several times over a very short time frame, while we are speeding down the interstate)

I'm sure those of you with little and big ones can understand. But before our weekends and summers became a blur of litle league games, summer camps, and other miscellaneous activities that come along with growing and older children, I wanted to take the opportunity to appreciate the place we live. Truly appreciate the beauty of every part of the state. One never knows what will happen next week, next month or next year, we could be enjoying another state at that time.  So, we mapped out a plan to Traverse the Dairyland. First stop, Mirror Lake State Park!

B