Wisconsin's Concrete County Park

A few weeks ago Noelle had gone to Goodman, Wisconsin for an assignment for school. On the way home she passed through Philips and visited this place with her friend and classmate Gayle. Noelle showed me some photos that she took of the concrete statues there and I knew that I had to go there to see them for myself.

I am really glad I did. I really enjoy stuff like this. It reminds me a little bit of Carhenge or Franconia Sculpture Park. Best of all, the place is free and we even got a free bumper sticker! Here are some photos of Wisconsin's Concrete County Park. Enjoy!

Return to Timms Hill

Today Noelle and made the drive from Wausaukee back to Duluth. It's a long drive and instead of making it a straight trip we decided to break it up with a stop for a hike and a trip to Wisconsin's Concrete County Park. While we have visited Timms Hill before, we've never done much of a hike up it. We were determined to change that today.

From Wausaukee it was a pleasant drive through small northern Wisconsin towns like Laona and Goodman. When we reached the Timms Hill area we realized that we needed to get some water and so stopped at a place called Highpoint Village. While the restaurant there was closed, we just happened to pull into the parking lot when the owner was there and he kindly filled up our water bottles for us. It looked like a nice place and maybe we'll head back again some time when it is open. After getting our water bottles filled and snapping a photo of Timms Hill from across Bass Lake,

we set out to find the starting point for our hike, a small cemetery. The trail marker at the road crossing there is so inconspicuous that we missed it at first, but saw it upon our second pass.

From there the trail cut through a person's yard and then headed into the woods.

We climbed up some glacial features and soon passed a few small lakes.

We crossed a county road and soon started to ascend in earnest. before we knew it we were on top of Wisconsin.

It was Parker's third state highpoint along with Pennsylvania and Minnesota.
Noelle and I took turns climbing up the observation tower and after a short rest we made our way back to the car. It was the warmest, most humid weather we'd hiked in in a long time. Parker did great though.

LaSalle Falls, Wisconsin

Friday after work, Noelle, Parker and I packed up the Subaru and headed east into Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and back into Wisconsin headed to Noelle's relative's house in Wausaukee, Wisconsin. We were headed there for Noelle's cousin Leah's graduation party. We had a great time at the party yesterday and today we were ready to do some hiking. After consulting our guide book we decided on hiking to LaSalle Falls which is outside of Florence, Wisconsin.

After a pleasant drive to the trailhead during which we saw a porcupine, we hit the trail.

The woods in northern Wisconsin are just loaded with trillium this time of the year.

 In some areas it seemed to blanket the forest floor. We also saw some fringed polygala

 and jack-in-the pulpit as well.

Soon we made it to a fork in the trail. A sign indicated a side trip to a gorge overlook. The gorge formed by the Pine River was interesting, but difficult to get to.
Parker and I scaled a steep cliff wall to get down to the river and a nice view.

After checking out the gorge we headed further upstream and could soon hear the waterfall. Unfortunately, there is not a really good vantage point from which to see the falls,

but we were able to stand at the brink of the falls and watch them plunge into a pool below.

There were also some nice little cascades above the falls which we spent a few moments exploring.

 After a few minutes at the falls we returned to the car for the drive back to Wausaukee.

Moose Mountain Scientific and Natural Area

Originally Noelle and I had planned on going on a road trip this weekend. We were leaning towards visiting Itasca State Park again to do some hiking in a less buggy environment than the one that existed on our previous visit. However, with a high chance of rain for the weekend we changed our plans and decided to stay home. We used a break in the rain to get outside and do some exploration of the nearby Moose Mountain Scientific and Natural Area. There is supposed to be a good display of spring wildflowers there, but I guess we were just a little bit too early. We did see some flowers in bloom,

including some violets

and dandelions. Other than a fruit tree of some sort (apple?) not much else was in bloom.

It did look like the trillium and wild ginger were on their way to blooming though, so perhaps we will head back there in the near future.

There are no maintained trails in the SNA, but a user path heads from the parking lot to a powerline cut. We walked the powerline cut

to the summit of Moose Mountain

and then returned back to the car the way we had come. I find it a bit ironic that the natural area is basically cut into two by the powerline cut, but it did open up the vies a bit and allow for easy access to an area that would otherwise be difficult to traverse.

Walking Parker to Poop Park

On my runs along Skyline Parkway near the Copper Top Church I've often noticed that it sounds like cascading water on the downhill side of the parkway. I'd had always wondered if there was a way to get to the possible falls location without trespassing on anyone's property. Finally, I figured out a way to get to them. On my walk to work I pass a dead end street that I figured must lead to near the base of the falls. Today after work I decided to walk Parker down that street to see if we could get a view of the falls.

 What we found was an unofficial park that some neighbors have named Poop Park.

I'm not sure I want to know why it's called Poop Park, but it is a pleasant little spot above a small creek with a bench and a sign. Below and just upstream are a small waterfall

and a few cascades.

 In addition, I found a trail that leads back up to Skyline Parkway. A nice little diversion on a weeknight.

Photo of the Day: Skunk in the Backyard!

Noelle took this shot of a striped skunk wandering through the backyard. Luckily she looked outside before she let Parker out!

A Walk at Congdon Park & Visit to Granitoid Park

It was a beautiful, though cool morning and Noelle, Mom, Parker and I had to take advantage of it. It was windy so we ruled out a visit to Park Point. Instead we decided to head over to Congdon Park, even though all of us had been there before. We parked on Fourth Street and started walking downstream towards the small canyon section of trail where we crossed Tischer Creek on three bridges.

We followed the old road upstream for a bit, then crossed over Fourth Street and headed further upstream on the trail.

When we had reached the upper reaches of Congdon Park we crossed the creek on a bridge and followed a section of trail that none of us had been on before on the opposite side of the creek.
When we returned to the car I decided to drive up 25th Avenue East to see if I could find the fabled "Oldest Concrete Pavement in Minnesota." My mission was successful!

We drove on the oldest concrete pavement in Minnesota and read all about it on a historical marker placed in the aptly named Granitoid Park.

Jay Cooke State Park: The Oldenberg Cascades

Today Noelle, Parker, Mom and I headed out to Jay Cooke to do a little bit of hiking on this chilly spring day. I really wanted to hike the trail that heads down to the river from the Oldenberg Point overlook because we'd never checked it out before. And so we headed out on a muddy trail descending some steep stairs to the river.

Once at the river level we found a nice rock outcropping from which we relaxed and looked at the foaming, churning cascades.

 After a while of checking out the scene at the river we went back up the steep stairs and hiked a wet, muddy loop trail. There were lots of flowers just about to bloom , but other than a few violets

and bellworts, nothing was quite in bloom yet.