Category Archives: County Park

County or City Park visited or camped here

August 28, 2013 Green Bay, Wisconsin

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Today we made the short trip down to Green Bay and found a great campsite at the fairgrounds.  We find that fairgrounds are a great place to stay for short times because they are cheap, grassy, and usually have some shade.  They tend to be in safe areas and away from a lot of noise and traffic.  This one had electric and water hookups.  We visited Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, and even found a geocache there.  Did some shopping at a new Cabera’s for new trekking poles and dinner at Famous Dave’s Barbecue.  Great day!

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August 26, 2013 Oconto, Wisconsin

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Due to the extreme heat in Ashland projected for the next several days, we decided to forego plans for hiking, biking and kayaking in the area and head back down toward Lake Michigan. Before leaving Ashland, Bill checked the pressure on the tow dolly tires since he knows it is important to always check your tire pressure.  The NEW valve stems just replaced in Bessemer several days ago were leaking because of bad cores, so we had to make a quick run to NAPA to get the materials to replace those.  Sometimes things that seem to have been fixed are not really fixed and things do not always go as planned.  We finally pulled out of Ashland an hour behind schedule and headed to Oconto, Wisconsin about 30 miles north of Green Bay.  We have not driven on an interstate since we entered the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and today was no exception.  We enjoyed the drive through quaint small towns, farmland with silos, and even Indian Reservations.  Today we drove through the Bad River Indian Reservation and the Menominee Indian Reservation. We noticed that there is no cell phone coverage in the reservation territory.   As we drove by farms we noticed wood had already begun to be stacked high in preparation for the coming winter.  On this very hot day, it was hard to picture what the countryside would look like covered with snow.  We were told that some areas of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan can get over 200 inches of snow a year.  No thank you!!

 

August 23 Ashland, Wisconsin

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Sadly we left Michigan this morning.  Our time in Michigan was wonderful and it certainly exceeded our expectations in beauty!  The weather for the most part was cooler than expected but that was fine with us.  The vicious mosquitoes and black flies we had heard so much about were not nearly as bad as we feared.  Perhaps it was due to the cool weather.

We arrived in the quaint town of Ashland, Wisconsin and was immediately taken with its beauty.   We found a campsite overlooking Lake Superior in Kreher City Park.

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There are two streets in Ashland that caught our attention during our visit.  Lakeshore Drive which takes you along Lake Superior with some breathtaking views of the lake.  The other street is Main Street where we found 11 huge murals painted on several building for 8 blocks along the street.  The first mural was done eleven years ago by Wisconsin artists Kelly Meredith and Sue Martinsen as part of the state’s sesquicentennial celebration.  This then became part of a long term project to bring art, history and tourism to Ashland.  Yes, these are murals painted on buildings!  Take a look!

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Lumberjack Mural depicts the men and women of Ash;and’s lumber era

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Waitress mural

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Storefront mural…a compilation of Ashland storefronts from the early 1900’s

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Veterans Mural in honor of all the Ashland men and women who served our country in wars and conflicts

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Lighthouse Mural depicting 3 lighthouses within Apostle islands off of the coast of Ashland on Lake Superior

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Asaph Whittlesey Mural depicts Ashland National Bank, 1892

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Ore Dock Mural, the dock was built in 1916 and extended in 1924. It was 1800 feet long and at the time was the largest concrete dock in the world

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Historical Ellis Avene Mural features Northland College, Wheeler Hall; the old Ashland high school; and the Knight Hotel

 

On Sunday we decided to make the 30 mile drive to Copper Falls State Park to do some hiking and see the waterfalls.  The forecast of 95 degree weather concerned, but did not deter us.  A brief history of the park is that thousands of cubic miles of lava oozed from deep fissures where Lake Superior now lies.  The lava spread in all directions, building horizontal layers that reached thicknesses up to 60,000 feet.  There was so much lava, the earth’s crust sagged and formed the basin of Lake Superior.  Evidence of the lava can be seen in the park today.  The Bad River and its tributary the Tylers Fork flow through a gorge and drop over several waterfalls.  Copper was mined by Native Americans and then later by European settlers.  The park has done an excellent job of creating walkways with many, many steps that takes us around a trail where we can view the waterfalls.  It was a great experience, but it was REALLY hot!

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August 8, 2013 Marquette, Michigan

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On the way to our next stop in Marquette, Michigan we decided to stop at Oswald’s Bear Ranch near Newberry. They rescue bear cubs from around the United States and give them a place to safely grow up and live. It is against the law in Michigan to breed and buy black bears.

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As we drove toward Marquette, we couldn’t help but notice the breathtaking views of Lake Superior.  We pulled into a private campground and were directed to a campsite overlooking Lake Superior.  We were hesitate to take the site because of the traffic noise, but the view won out over any hesitations.  We noticed immediately the campground was not at all as advertised on their website.  The website depiction must have been from 10+ years ago, but we had prepaid for reservations and again, the view won us over.

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We came to realize that first night that the water had a very strange smell….much like iron and some such minerals.  The water continued to be a source of concern during our stay, but we had several water filters on the coach and used a Brita water pitcher, but still we were uneasy.

Now for the GREAT part of our time near Marquette.  The highlight of our time here was without a doubt the ferry ride to view the cliffs of Picture Rocks.  There are 15 miles of sandstone cliffs which are up to 200 feet above lake level.  The colors are caused by large amounts of mineral in the rocks.  The water evaporates leaving streaks of colors.  The red color comes from iron, pink and green from copper, yellow and brown from limonite, and black and white from manganese.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words….

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Before we caught the ferry we spent the morning in Picture Rocks National Lakeshore Park where we hiked Munising Falls which was very easy, and Mosquito Falls which was quite a challenging hike over roots, rocks and trails muddy from the previous days rain.

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Another day we decided to go to Presque Isle Park, a beautiful peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior, to do some sightseeing and geocaching.  We found this to be a great park with some interesting and challenging geocaches, as well as some gorgeous views!

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