Brunet Island State Park and Lake Wissota State Park #28 and #29

Brunet Island and Lake Wissota were our 5th and 6th parks of our Weekend O' State Parks trip. We stopped at these parks on the way home heading south from Pattison State Park. When we started out from Pattison in the morning, we didn't know if we would be able to do two more parks on that day, but after the biggest breakfast I've had in years (luckily Pete's surprise was tinged with respect or that conversation may have turned out differently), we decided to give it a go.

Brunet Island State Park was named for explorer and settler Jean Brunet who was born in France in 1791 and came to America and settled in St. Louis in 1818. Brunet was an influential man in Wisconsin, first living in Prairie du Chien, and then settling in present day Chippewa Falls. He was responsible for establishing the first dam and sawmill in Chippewa Falls, and served as the first judge and legislator in the Chippewa Falls area.

The park is 1,300 acres with a 169 acre island in the Chippewa River, which has outstanding views of the river and the larger part of the park on the opposite side of the river. We enjoyed the Jean Brunet Nature Trail, which wound through forests and along the river. G insisted on wearing his backpack (which is about half his size) to hike, so maybe he knows how it feels to carry him? We crossed the river to get to the park on an old wooden, one lane bridge, definitely a standout for the car ride portion of our trip. There were a lot of people enjoying the park by boating and fishing, and if we were in the area again, we would definitely take advantage!

Lake Wissota was our next and last stop of the day, I had spent a lot of time at Lake Wissota during my time at college, so was very much looking forward to returning. The park's namesake, Lake Wissota is 6,300 acres, and offers pretty much every activity one could want, including biking horseback riding, camping, boating, canoeing and kayaking. It's a beautiful park, with a lot of amenities, including a 285-foot swimming beach. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to swim, and G was pretty much past tired, so we enjoyed our hike on the Lake Trail and headed home. Don't be fooled by G's apparent happiness in the selfie below, it was an odd spurt of energy before he fell asleep again on my back! Next stop, Lake Kegonsa State Park!