Big Spring Creek Cascades

Big Spring Creek Cascades - View from above

Big Spring Creek in the small town of Highland, Wisconsin contains a fantastic cascades/waterfall just a short hike from the parking area.  Also goes by the name of Big Spring Branch waterfall and other variations.  This creek is well known for class I/II trout fishing, and the spring itself is fed from an underground river. … Read more

Nelson Dewey State Park

Nelson Dewey State Park - Mississippi River in the distance

The plan for today was just a quick daytrip with short hikes.  After Belmont Mount was a bust, I tried my luck next at Nelson Dewey State Park.  Just picked up a new Forester so any good excuse for a drive will do. Much like Belmont Mound, this site only has about 2 miles of … Read more

Belmont Mound State Park

Belmont Mound State Park - Observation tower views

Had some free time on Memorial Day weekend for a short day trip.  Decided to head southwest and start at Belmont Mound State Park.  This is a small park & State Natural Area operated by the local Lions Club. Main feature is an observation tower that still stands but has been permanently closed by the DNR … Read more

Wade House Historic Site

Old Wade House - Kingsbury Breweries Co carriage

Winter is taking forever to wrap up in Wisconsin.  I was getting a little stir crazy and decided to check off another stop on my Wisconsin State Park list by visiting the Wade House Historic Site. (technically this is a former state park but much like Pokemon I gotta catch ’em all). During summertime there are … Read more

Bigfoot Beach State Park

Bigfoot Beach State Park - Trout fishing area

I’m posting out of order today in honor of the #optoutside movement started by REI to encourage people to skip the evil that is Black Friday shopping and instead get outdoors.  Luckily today in Wisconsin we had a mini heat wave and tied record highs around 65 degrees which made it an easy choice! Before … Read more

Aztalan State Park

The final stop on this particular weekend tour was Aztalan State Park located east of Madison, WI.  I had known going in that this particular site wasn’t “epic” in any sense outside of the cultural/historical appreciation aspect and wasn’t expecting much.  Thankfully with that mindset I wasn’t disappointed. First – the rain.  I finally remembered … Read more

Rib Mountain State Park

Rib Mountain State Park - Blue/green hiking trail

Rain continued all night and into today with no sign of stopping.  Thanks to a friend’s advice from Idaho to “be here now”, there was no way I could let it stop me.  To begin my trip home, the next stop was Rib Mountain State Park.  This is a popular ski destination and is heavily … Read more

Dells of the Eau Claire River

Dells of the Eau Claire River - View looking downstream from bridge

Not sure I’ve mentioned this but waterfalls are pretty cool.  The area around north central Wisconsin has plenty of them too.  Next stop was the Dells of the Eau Claire River State Natural Area in Aniwa, WI (near Wausau).  I didn’t know much about this location before visiting, but glad I stopped here. I parked … Read more

Rib Falls

Rib Falls - Rib Falls / Wausau, WI

More heavy rains overnight continued the cold, wet conditions.  But if I let a little rain stop me nothing would get done.  So I pressed on and visited another small waterfall Rib Falls near Wausau, WI.  Falls can be accessed from the adjacent Rib Falls County Park and is a very short hike but somewhat difficult … Read more