Chequamegon National Forest: St. Peter's Dome Snowshoe

Today Noelle and I headed over the bridge and into Wisconsin. This time, however, we headed a little farther east than Superior. This time we headed into the Ashland area to do some snowshoeing and winter hiking. Our first stop was in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest to snowshoe the St. Peter's Dome/Morgan Falls Trails. The snowshoeing was amazing. Yesterday's two inches of snow left everything covered with a fresh, powdery coating of white. After about 30 minutes we had made it to Morgan Falls. The falls there are reputed to be amongst the most beautiful in Wisconsin. Today's view, however, was of a solid frozen white mass.

After the falls we retraced our steps to the trail junction and made our way along a beaver pond and creek valley. Slowly we ascended to a snowmobile trail which we crossed before climbing in earnest. The walking was wonderful with quiet and peace, other than the noise and fumes of a few snowmobiles that sped past on the snowmobile trail. The last section of trail had been illegally ascended by snowmobiles which made for some easy going, before ending at a wonderful overlook of Ashland and a distant Lake Superior.

From the overlook we quickly retraced our steps back to the parking lot and made our way further east to Copper Falls State Park. Unfortunately, many of the trails were closed to walking and snowshoeing since they had been converted to ski trails for the winter. We made the most of the situation though and walked to Copper Falls and Brownstone Falls along the Bad River. I'm not really sure why it's called the Bad River though, the views all seemed pretty good to me.

Finally, when our walk at Copper Falls was over, we made our way up to Ashland itself where we ate and drank some delicious beer at the Deep Water Grille and South Shore Brewery. A great end to a great day!