Posts filed under Wisconsin

Pine Cliff and Lakeview Trails

Adventure Tuesday

I know the weeks seem to go awfully fast and September is already upon us. Although, no fall weather here yet since the temperatures were in the upper 80's this past weekend.

Pine Cliff and Lakeview Trails

We went to Governor Dodge state park again, and as I mentioned before these parks are fairly big with lots of different trails. This time around we decided to do a hike around the lake called the pine cliff trail, and also a smaller hike called the lakeview trail. Again these parks never seem to cease to amaze me. They are always a mix of deep forest, fields of wildflowers and if you are lucky even some cliffs. We started of in the forest before we climbed up the ridge line.

You start by walking through a dense stand of deciduous trees, and work yourself towards a more pine dominated vegetation.

There are of course a ton of small details to look at as you move through the forest, much to W's despair.

The main attraction is just like the name gives away, a pine cliff, that is a cliff with lots of pine growing upon it.

I am always so amazed that trees and plants for that matter can grow in places with practically no soil.

Eventually we worked our way down the ridge and came back down towards the lake.

With a thin layer of topsoil I was not surprised to encounter this area, where apparently a tornado went through a long time ago.

These trails can also be used during the wintertime for crosscountry skiing. I just wish we will get enough snow to be able to get out this winter.

Hiking Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park in Wisconin

Adventure Tuesday

Time flies, and today I am posting the 6th Adventure Tuesday post. It's fun to share some of my every day adventures. An adventure doesn't have to involve a risk for your life rafting down the Grand Canyon, or climbing the tallest mountain in the world. You decide what your adventure is, your pace and how far you are willing to go.

Cherokee Marsh

This past weekend W and I decided to go to a park that is about 10-15 minutes by car from our house, so basically in the near vicinity of Madison. We had something else planned originally but had to switch those plans and ended up doing this instead.

Arriving at the park I immediately spotted all the water droplets on the spiderwebs even before we stopped the car. The morning started off as a foggy surprise and it definitely continued to surprise us, well at least to me.

We started off by walking up the trail from the south side of the marsh and immediately got some views of the Yahara river which flows into lake Mendota.

As I mentioned earlier the weather was foggy and a bit cloudy. This walk varied between open fields with views of the river and beautiful stretches through oak forests.

We kept seeing more spiderwebs of different shapes along the hike, mixed in with the vegetation.

Again, as many of the other hikes we do, this one was not that far. But I am mostly interested in getting outside and also to take some pictures of all the cool plants and insects I see.

I try to identify time as time goes by, so if some of them are unnamed check back later on to see if I managed to identify them, or better yet, if you know the name of the plant let me know!

It's incredible how many different types of flowers there are here. Ok, there are a lot of flowers and such around fairbanks too, but not like this. Or maybe I am just biased because a lot of these flowers are new to me.

Follow Ann olsson at bloglovin'

We did run into the giant wasp here too, but now I know they are harmless and it did make me feel as if they were less intimidating, but man, look at that size. Also I managed to snap a few pics of two different butterflies.

Hiking Magnolia Bluff County Park in Wisconsin

Adventure Tuesday

Magnolia Bluff

As I have mentioned earlier there are two different types of parks, State Parks where you pay an entrance fee, and then the County Parks that are completely free!!

There aren't any real mountains in Wisconsin, but there are some cliffs, bluffs and hills. This hike is literally just up a hill/bluff where you can see some views, and then the trail continues into the forest.

But what a forest. It's a beautiful oak forest, mixed with other deciduous species.

As many other trails we have ventured out on, these trails are used both by hikers and and cross country skiers during the wintertime. Here, you can also run into a horse or two, as there is excellent horseback riding too, and who wouldn't want to ride along into a deep oak forest?

More trees, as we continued our walk, and more plants, fungi and insects! Here in Wisconsin there are lots of different types of vines, growing up the tree trunks, they are so pretty. You can see their attachment to the tree trunks, it's pretty fascinating.

Of course I couldn't help myself and took a lot of pictures of all the tiny little details I could see.

Eventually at the end of the trail we got into this interesting pine forest, which must have been planted, but we aren't sure. After that, we arrived at the same place where we started, at the bluff. One thing is for sure though, it was a very pretty walk through the forest!

Follow Ann Olsson at bloglovin'