The Wisconsin Dells

 

I don't think I have ever given enough thought to Wisconsin and Minnesota.  They are beautiful states and they seem like great places to live.  We really enjoyed our time in Wisconsin; people are so friendly and kind here and just like Minnesota, everything seems to be clean and well taken care of.

We stayed in the Wisconsin Dells at Mirror Lake State Park. Our campsite was fantastic; you could not see another camper from any direction.  It felt like we had the whole place to ourself.  

Our first day we went to Circus World.  The town of Baraboo Wisconsin is where the Ringing Brothers started their circus back in the 1800's and they wintered here each year.  The whole town became involved in the circus during that time, from wagon making to performers.  There is so much circus history here in Wisconsin.  It was really fun at Circus World.  Not only were there lots of old memorabilia on display, but there is also a live circus taking place each day.  We enjoyed all the shows!  The trapeze and the spinning wheel were our favorite acts.  Estelle liked the dog tricks the best.  It was fun being able to see everything up close.

One of the live shows was a children's circus.  It ended up being really little kiddie, but Estelle had already volunteered to participate, so we stayed the whole time.  Thankfully, it was pretty short.  She got to be an elephant.  

The big top circus show was much more fun.  

And they had the must fun water fountains and garbage cans here. 

Later that afternoon we went to Devil's Lake State Park.   It is really pretty here; a lake with bluffs on both side of it.  We hiked the East Bluff Trail and saw Devil's Doorway.  

The girls swam in the lake after our hike until the sun was almost down.  We met a nice man that wanted to know all about trip.  We get asked lots of questions about our trip from people we do not know; so we are used to it, but this guy wanted to interview us.  It was fun; nice people, but it was late before we got back to camp and everyone was really hungry. 

The next day we took the Upper Dells Boat tour.  The scenery really is impressive.  Our boat made two stops.  The first is at Witches Gulch.  Such a beautiful little walk through glacier carved rocks.  It feels dark and mythical in the gulch.  It was just a bummer we had to be there at the same time as everyone else on the boat.  It would have been more fun exploring without all the people around.  

The second stop was at Stand Rock.  This is the famous Wisconsin Landmark.  We really enjoyed the rock formations on the Wisconsin River.  Our Earth really is filled with marvelous natural wonders.  

This stop was fun too.  We learned about the photographer that made this place famous by capturing his son jumping across the rocks on camera.  We got to watch a dog jump across (cheesy).  

Back at our campground we did a fun bike trail through the woods.  It was a little tougher than the girls expected (they were expecting a paved trail, it was not), but they all did great.  It was fun and we all worked up a good sweat.  So we headed to the beach at Mirror Lake.  The girls were not impressed with the beach swimming area here, so we loaded up and went back to Devil's Lake.  It really is so much nicer and close to were we camped.  They swam for a couple hours and we got in late again.  It was a fun day.  The only bummer was that we were in the waterpark capital of America, yet we did not have time to go to a waterpark.  I originally had a waterpark on our agenda here, then the weather looked a little iffy, so I wavered and changed things around.  Oh well, we have learned on this trip that there is never enough time to do everything.  

We left the third morning.  We are still driving through Wisconsin now on our way to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  Wisconsin is lovely, but it is summer time.  Sounds like they get too much snow for me in the winter.  

Pipeline, Minnesota

So we left The Badlands in Western South Dakota and headed East...there is a lot of driving before you get to anything other than Prairie and Grasslands.  When planning the route, I didn't really know  what to fill in here.  We were headed into the drive-through states.  I ended up booking a couple nights in Pipestone, Minnesota, about half way between The Badlands and The Wisconsin Dells and figured we would find something to do here.  

We did see lots of grass and farmland coming and going to Pipestone, but we were really glad that we stopped here and we really enjoyed our time in Minnesota.  It is nice having a destination because it gets you off the interstate and you can see what life is really like for the people who live in these areas. 

 But before we got to Minnesota, we made a quick stop in Sioux Falls at Falls Park.  This was listed as the number one thing to do in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  It was a nice park and the falls and surrounding rocks were pretty...but nothing compared to some the beautiful places we have been.  There is not much going on in Eastern South Dakota.  I see why anything other than grass get rave reviews.  

It was evening time already by the time we pulled into Pipestone Family Campground, but the girls were excited because this place had a pool and it was a super hot day.  It has been awhile since we have done any swimming and the girls were in the pool before the trailer was even parked.  They played until the sun went down.  

The next morning we slept in (we lost on hour with the time change...going East is always harder than going west with the time changes).  After a leisure morning we headed to Pipestone National Monument.  We knew nothing about this monument going into the day, but we love the National Park Service and it was close enough to ride our bikes to.  Turns out the monument is all about the stone used to make pipes by the indigenous people that lived on the plains...and it was fascinating.  We really enjoyed learning about the stone quarries and the pipes.  We talked to people that were carving pipes and saw several quarry spots where people quarry by hand and simple tools.  

The trail here was beautiful too.  First you feel like you are just walking through a field of tall grass and there is nothing but flat land, but then all the sudden you are by a lush river with tall rock walls and a waterfall; it is beautiful.  We loved the Old Stone Face Rocks and the Indian Head.  

We didn't have much else planned in this area, but we saw some signs around town advertising this weekend as festival weekend.  We think it was a pollination festival or a celebrate hero's festival...not clear.  This is a small town that is not used to many visitors from outside the state; I guess they just assume everyone knows what the celebration is.  We checked out the festival.  The kids had fun at the petting zoo and on the inflatables.  It felt like everyone knew each other, except for us of course.  We saw an add for a play that night, so we bought tickets for the evening.  We were surprised there was a theater in the little town.  It is fun to be a part of these hometown events.  

After the girls swam for a couple more hours we headed to the play.  It was not the best production we have even seen (this is community theater in a small town) but we were impressed with a couple of the actors and we had some good laughs during the play.  It was Nunsense the Musical.  It was fun and we enjoyed it, plus I like supporting community theater and events.  

Another late night, but we still left the next morning and drove across the rest of Minnesota.  We were so impressed with how nice the small towns were.  Everything looks so clean and everyone seems to keep their yards and homes well kept.  It didn't matter if it was an apartment, duplex, single family, house in town or in the county, it all seemed nice.  We have seen lots of rough looking small towns on our trip, but Minnesota must be doing something right.  People seem to take pride in their town regardless of wealth.  

Before we left Minnesota, we made one more stop for a horseback trail ride.  I just stumbled upon this great family owned place when looking for something to do that would break up the long drive.  It was perfect.  The trail was great and beautiful.  We road through farmland and forest and we really felt like we got a feel for the lower Minnesota area; we we loved.  I was really impressed.  Everyone is Minnesota is so nice!

The Badlands, South Dakota

 

We didn't have to travel far from the Black Hills to get to Badlands National Park.  We stopped in the town of Wall and after a quick stop at the National Grasslands visitor center, we headed to to Wall Drug Store.  There are more signs for Wall Drug Store than one could even imagine.  There is a billboard every 20 feet or so.  It was a strange big place in a tiny little town.  You could buy about any souvenir you could imagine, get food, take pictures with dinosaurs and cowboys.  Why...? I have no idea, but lots of people were here.  We were not overly impressed ourselves.  Overpriced stuff that will eventually just end up collecting dust.  

Natalia did have fun finding some new boyfriends though.  haha...she is a funny girl.  

We didn't actually have a campsite reserved here.  We did some boondocking again.  I had read that there were lots of great places just outside the park to camp for free.  This turned out to be a great decision.  We drove down a dirt road and found a perfect spot right on the cliff edge of the wall to the badlands.  We could see for miles and had great views of the badlands and prairie from above.  The sunsets were amazing and there was a cool breeze to make the hot evenings comfortable.  We enjoyed sitting for hours enjoying the quiet outdoors.  Estelle worked on her art, Hector scanned the horizon for animals, Sienna read her books, I worked and Natalia relaxed.  

In the morning we first explored the Minutemen Missile National Historic Site.  We learned about the Cold War and about how the remote plains area was used to house the missiles that were ready to launch at any point if needed.  

Then we headed into Badlands National Park.  It is such a strange, yet beautiful place.  It looks like huge sand castles.  It was a hot day, real hot, so even though our hikes were little, they took some energy.  We did the Wall and Door trails before picnicking at the visitor center.  We really enjoyed the visitor center, especially the fossil lab were we got to talk to the interns working on the fossils found in the park.  

We also got to talk to more field workers while we were on the fossil trail.  They were doing a dig in the middle of it and they were great about answering all of our questions.  Estelle had lots.  I love that my kids are not afraid to ask adults questions.  I tell them all the time, you do not need to know everything, you just need to know where to go to find the answers.  

We enjoyed the scenic loop and we were grateful we could see the vistas from the truck because no one wanted to leave the air conditioning.  Then we drove back into wall and tried to got to the wounded knee museum, but it was closed...so we got ice cream.  

Our last night was pleasant as we enjoyed the great views again.  Natalia and Estelle played that they were restaurant workers.  They cooked, took orders, prepared our plates of food and cleaned up; washed and put away the dishes.  They had so much fun doing it.  It is my new favorite game for them to play!  I hope they want to play that for the rest of the trip.  It is the most relaxing evening I have had the whole past four months.