July 3rd, Devil's Lake State Park

  


Monday, July 3, 2006
Day 8
Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin

Today was an excellent day. We woke up early, well actually I woke up later than usual, but woke everyone else up earlier than usual. We drove down to the south shore of Devil’s Lake to hike the Balanced Rock trail, the Devil’s Doorway trail, and the Potholes trail. All were excellent! The Balanced Rock Trail was steep “natural” steps going up about 1000 feet. 0.4 mile never took me so long to hike before. The views were spectacular. My favorite site was probably Devil’s Doorway, which is like a stone doorway in the middle of the sky. I could picture the devil coming through it I suppose. The Potholes were just a few potholes in the rocks, and then it was a steep downhill climb for us. We felt great when we finished this challenging walk. One interesting thing we discovered on the way back on the flat trail near the parking lot was that there was a shaded area with a lot of “loose” boulders. It was noticeably cooler there when we walked by. We were hot and sweaty by this time, so we went to investigate further, and discovered that as we walked down this small depression to the rocky area it became quite cold. I would estimate it at around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Just like walking into a cave, it was cold air coming from the rocky area. Very refreshing for weary, hot hikers!

When we returned I called Bill and he gave me directions to his house in Baraboo. We went there and then he and his wife took us out to lunch. What a lovely home they have! It was beautiful inside and out. We ate lunch at the Ho Chunk Nation Casino Buffet. It was a fascinating building and good food.

After lunch we drove through the Wisconsin Dells which is about five miles of water parks and other amusements. It looks like it belongs in Orlando or some such area, not in the Mid-West! It was very interesting but there sure was a lot of traffic there. Before lunch we toured around Baraboo. I learned a lot and was glad to have had such wonderful tourguides. Did you know that Ringling Bros. Circus started here?

After a lovely afternoon with Bill and Carla we said our goodbyes and headed up to play mini-golf near the campground. After a time I suddenly heard my name being called. Now that is unusual! I turned to see Bill and Carla in the parking lot of the mini-golf. They had thoughtfully picked up some “Cow Pies” for us and dropped them off. We had asked what they were because we kept seeing signs for them and then saw the store that sold them. They are a type of candy made right here in Baraboo. We were going to stop and buy some, but did not go past the store on the way from lunch. Bill remembered and got us what he thought we’d like. P.S. – They’re really good and I’ll bring some home for others to try. And they’re called Cow Pies, because, well, they look kind of like them…

We had a campfire tonight and made S’Mores again. Tomorrow we have our longest drive so we are trying to leave early. We’ll be off to Minnesota and attempting to cross most of it one day.