Natural Bridge State Park and Rocky Arbor State Park #39 and #40

We visited Natural Bridge State Park and Rocky Arbor State Park in the same beautiful fall day. We were lucky enough to have my Mom along to enjoy the parks with us, and help make things interesting (and coach G along when his feet started dragging).


Natural Bridge State Park is a nice, little day use park. It is 530 acres with the largest natural bridge found in Wisconsin. Directly beneath the arch is the Raddatz Rockshelter once used by Paleo Indians, almost 11,000 years ago, and now listed on the Natural Register of Historic Places. We had visited this park before and were looking forward to enjoying it again. There is really only one trail to take at this park, and it winds right by the arch, so you can get a good view of it from almost all sides. This is a great side trip to take if you are looking for a nice walk through the woods to an interesting landmark. It should be noted at this park that we saw a caterpillar in the parking lot which Grandma picked up for G to look at up close, which isn't typically in her Grandma repertoire (nevermind she had gloves on). Thanks Grandma!

After Natural Bridge we headed to Rocky Arbor State Park. This park does have camping available, almost 90 sites, and is well utilized during the summer, due to its close proximity to Wisconsin Dells. The park actually isn't open during the off season, September through May, so we parked at the gated entrance and hiked into the park. The park itself is 244 acres and has just a one mile guided nature trail, which we hiked. There is also a nice playground area and picnic tables with grills nearby. It was a beautiful time of year to visit, cool with the colors just starting to change. Next stop, Straight Lake State Park!