Two days of driving, camping and hiking have brought me from the farthest western point in Wisconsin to the farthest eastern point. Home for tonight is Newport State Park in the Door Peninsula. Now why in the world would I make such a stupid drive rather than staying in one spot? Well, the new moon is arriving on the 12th and Newport is certified by the International Dark Sky Association as Wisconsin’s first dark sky park. More on that later – for now time to setup camp.
This park is quite primitive and all campsite are pack-in only. I was at site #1 which is about 1 mile each way from the parking lot. Views of Lake Michigan from the trailhead are already quite encouraging.
The Europe Bay trail is very flat and composed of mostly crushed gravel. I didn’t see any other people while hiking this area and I was the only car in the parking lot.
Campsite #1 in all it’s glory. Quite primitive save a few wooden benches and a metal food storage box.
It was already 5pm and I needed to check out the scenery so I quickly setup my tent and looped back on the Lynd Point trail.
The path became a bit more rustic here as it meandered along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Views heading back towards the main trail. Doesn’t seem like many hikers visit this area.
Now back at the main trailhead I surveyed the coast. Europe Bay is amazingly photogenic as far as Wisconsin beaches go. This area also comprises Europe Bay Woods State Natural Area.
I came across a 6-foot Eastern Fox Snake chilling in the grass and sand. He spooked very easily even when I was 20 feet away but I was able to snap some quick photos (no videos of this one, sorry). Probably the largest snake I’ve ever seen in our state!
Back to the Future!
Whats this – time travel?! Well, sorta. Here’s the sunrise on the following morning at Europe Bay (taken with my old iPhone 6 so slightly potato quality). Hadn’t showered in a few days so took a cold swim to start the day. But enough of this future talk – I still have more to share from the 8th so stay tuned, you don’t want to miss what’s next!
Hiking Data
Here’s the initial hike into campsite #1. Right around 1 mile inbound. Didn’t shut off the tracking until after camp was setup so 1 hour is a bit longer than it should take.
From campsite #1 back to the parking lot is another 1.4 miles. Again I spent way longer than it would normally take as I was snapping photos & enjoying the lake scenery.
And here’s a log of the full in/out trip to campsite #1. This is from July 9th when I had to retrive my tent (that I didn’t sleep in). Why is this? Stay tuned for next posts to find out!
