Copper Falls State Park

Now that I've posted Coraline's first day of school, let's jump back to July and finish up summer. You ready?

We took a week long camping trip "up north," and I think that makes us the real deal official Wisconsinites. I can see why these summer trips up north are such a staple for local culture. My eyes were bugging out of my head as I tried to take in all the beauty. And lucky for us, Lake Superior was a dream to swim in, an absolute dream.

In an attempt to save you from severe picture overload, I'm going to share our camp experience in three separate posts based on location. Our first stop was to Copper Falls State Park. It's about four hours north East of us. We left around noon on Sunday. I'd spent the entire weekend frantically cleaning our house so that our EAA guests could arrive mid-afternoon that same day. It is worth mentioning that our house was magnificently clean.

The kids were pretty good during the drive, especially Reid and Nell considering how packed in they were.  We had to lay down one of the seats in the back and then stuff all the pillows around those two sweet big kids.

I picked all our campsites blindly, and at Copper Falls I could not have picked a better spot. We were right up against a decent size hill; to the kids I'm sure it felt like a mountain. They spent much of their time running up and down through the trees, catching frogs and making up games and stories. All these months later and I still think that is their favorite memory of the whole park.

That, or the giant ice cream cones we got at the park store before we took off on our first hike. Can you spot it on Mara's chin in the picture below?

Our Sunday night hike was pretty anti-climatic. We went up to the park observation tower and realized it was built before all the trees surrounding it reached their current height. They definitely need to add another set of stairs or do some trimming, but if we tippy toed at just the right spot you could tell that vast forest stretched farther than the eye could see. It's pretty amazing for this desert girl to witness. 

That first hike also taught me that our sweet Nell just isn't much of a hiker. She was never really whiny about it, and she kept up well enough, but during the entire week she wanted to stay right by my side and talk about anything other than nature. I'm grateful she was willing to go along with all of it, even if it's not her favorite thing. 

Tent camping was a favorite thing though. She was all about that! 

On day 2 we did a rather long loop hike that would give us the opportunity to see three different waterfalls from multiple different angles each. Reid was really into this hike and stayed by Dad's side, talking about nature and science pretty much the whole time. 

It was a pretty long hike but we packed lots of snacks, took lots of breaks, and even spent a good chunk of time playing down in the river bed. 

This was probably my favorite spot. It was the cascade that takes place right before that second  waterfall shown in pictures 2-5. It's crazy how some views block your understanding of what's making that water flow the way it is. By the time we finished this whole loop, we had a pretty clear understanding of the Bad river's path as it cuts through this state park. 

  

If I remember correctly, this was a little tribute that dumps right into that cascade. I think two rivers actually forked together as that waterfall was made. Tyler Forks is the name of the river that feeds into the Bad. It's fun to learn so much about the formation of our Earth while we take our kids on these hikes. We may not be the most fit or outdoorsy family there is, but if you combine a well paced hike, special treats, and lots of educational learning opportunities we are all in!

After the hike the kids earned a nice swim in Loon Lake. I forgot to mention that when the kids woke with the sun (as I knew they would in a tent) I snuck them into the car for an early morning drive to the lake. I really, really, wanted to see and hear Loons on this trip (and we saw plenty). I think they are such beautiful creatures. More memorable than the loons at loon lake though, was the leech and tick that Reid picked up while swimming through the reeds looking for treasures. 

A park ranger gave us some hike ideas for the kids. So after the lake we ventured out of the park and over to the next county to see upper and lower Potato falls. They were easy hikes that would have been impossible to discover on our own, as they were tucked away down a dirt road behind someone's farm.  As you can tell from the photo, the kids were done posing. That was seriously the best shot we got. 

Mara was my little sidekick that night as we made dinner and bedtime preparations. 

The next morning we took off for one last loop hike in the park. It felt like a completely different kind of forest; it's strange how just a mile of distance can do that. It was more dirt and less rock and we didn't catch sight of the river until we stumbled right upon it.  

This hike was recommended to us because the kids could get right down in the water and splash and climb around. Reid (and to a lesser extent Nell) really loved that. Coraline and Mara were comfy eating M&Ms on the shore.

After that we headed out of the park and up to the Apostle Islands for leg two of our week long camp adventure. Apostle Islands was the real goal, but I have to say Copper Falls State Park was almost just as rewarding.