We stopped for lunch on Friday at the Trempealeau Hotel... good food and nice scenery.
The first night was spent at Merrick State Park near Fountain City. With the high water levels the southern part of the park was closed (flooded) and the biting flies were pretty bad. We ended up hanging out inside the bus for most of the evening. Luckily we had accidentally reserved an electric site... we were able to run a small fan to keep cool despite being trapped "indoors" all night.
We left early in the morning since the bugs were still bad and headed further North. We stopped at Kinnickinnic State park and made breakfast at a picnic area. No bugs! We checked out the overlook and interrupted a couple that was Squirrel Fishing...? Apparently you try to get them to grab onto a peanut on the end of your line...? I had to snap a shot of their "tackle" as they left it behind for a stroll through the woods.
After breakfast we drove over to Willow River State Park. This was easily our favorite campground of the (long) weekend. If you visit be sure to get a site in the 300 loop - the oldest and densest-wooded section. The falls were pretty and we saw some wildlife.
On Sunday we drove further North to Interstate Park... Wisconsin's first and a joint venture between "us" and Minnesota. The scenery was beatiful but the campground wasn't quite as nice as we have come to expect... things were a bit run-down and there was lots of noise from heavy truck traffic on Highway 8, just a few hundred yards away. There were a few yet-to-be identified creatures lurking about, as well. After this post I'm off to try and look this guy up, yuck!
It was worth it, though, to see the Dalles of the St. Croix.
The crazy thing was that along the tops of these bluffs on our hikes were "potholes" - large circular holes that were literally drilled into the rock during the glacial melt of the last ice age. Rocks were picked up by whirpools and scoured these holes, many of them feet across and tens of feet deep. Definitely unique.
We drove home earlier today, no issues other than being HOT! It was over 90 degrees out by 9:30am and it's 95 here now. Feels good to be home with another successful trip in the books - about 650 miles round trip. Washing the sheets since we'll be camping again Friday!
