I love state parks (and I don't even camp). The national parks are so dramatic. They can be crowded and — to me — scary (even from the car). State parks are beautiful in a mellower way. The ideal is to have a home in a good place and be able to get to a variety of state parks easily in quick drives through a nice countryside.
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You really should do New York State sometime. You can even get in Cooperstown.
If you are going to Door County Cave Point County Park is a great place to stop.
Peninsula is fine but Cave Point is better.
Yeah, county parks are great too. And city parks.
"You really should do New York State sometime. You can even get in Cooperstown."
I'm interested in doing car trips through states where it's scenic and the weather is good.
If by Cooperstown, you're suggesting a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame, I have been there.
I have traveled in upstate New York and through New England. I think I would rather go back to New England.
Likelihood of 9 good-weather days in a row: Very small.
"Likelihood of 9 good-weather days in a row: Very small."
That's why it's better to live in Madison and do day trips. I believe there are 20+ state parks that you can do as a day trip from Madison. Keep coming back home and eating and sleeping in comfort, and the days don't need to be consecutive. Pick the best weather days.
Looks fun. I wouldn’t need the parks though. Nine random points on a state map would be fun. Okay, maybe not totally random. Throw in a few mulligans...
“I'm interested in doing car trips through states where it's scenic and the weather is good.”
Northern tier of Nebraska featuring the Sandhills and its rivers. Nothing else like it in the world.
"I have traveled in upstate New York and through New England. I think I would rather go back to New England.”
Yeah, a lot of it is kind of depressing, but the parks in New York State are better. Having lived both places.
@AA National parks "can be ... scary (even from the car)"
Yes, as I learned last summer during a driving tour through Rocky Mountain National Park, much of which was punctuated by wife's urgent recommendations to slow down and stop driving so close to the edge.
Yah, Vermont in the fall is where it’s at. On your way there through New York stop at the farm stand for apples.
The state parks in the Finger Lakes region of New York are gorgeous in the fall - - many of them feature glacier-cut gorges, the most famous being Watkins Glen State Park, where a hiking trail passes behind a waterfall - - but others include Fillmore Glen, Buttermilk Falls, and others, including a gorge that is part of the Cornell University campus.
Different states have differing notions about state parks. North Carolina allows free admission to their parks. South Carolina charges for parking, but is more responsive to visitor input as to park amenities such as vehicle camping.
Tennessee has a nice state parks system.
"Yah, Vermont in the fall is where it’s at.”
I live in Vermont, and I will tell you that for flaming fall colors, the Adirondacks are the place to beat. Maybe that’s because I live in northern Vermont. But the southern half gets actual leaf peeper traffic jams, which I will take a pass on, thanks.
The best thing about State Parks is the cheap parking pass that gets you inside parking at all facilities for one low cost.
good list of Wisconsin Parks Professor!
I've been to most of those; but will have to put the others on my list.
We toured the Adirondacks and southern Vermont early August. The whole region was spectacular. It's the west of the east.
Wisconsin is a beautiful state for that. As is the entire upper midwest: Minnesota, Michigan, as is the upper Northeast.
And I just left a week in Washington state- that part of the country also offers amazing non-federal parks.
Not to mention North Carolina and Virginia. (love the western Carolina mountains in the fall).
Arizona- strikingly beautiful from bottom to top.
The US is full of amazing, beautiful places.
But I now live in Florida. Its a different sort of look down here. While we do have a beautiful coastline here. It's not the same. Its sea level all around. And it's wet. Everywhere I step- it's wet. Especially this weekend. Summers make me wonder why I live here. Winters remind me why I do.
Nickerson State Park in Brewster, MA (Cape Cod) is my favorite park. Low key, no fancy accommodations, but great trails, kettle-ponds, right next to Cape Cod Bay. Reserve a yurt there some time, you won't regret it.
I just read two Ian Fleming novels, “The Spy Who Loved Me” took place in the Adirondacks, and “For Your Eyes Only” which took place mostly in northern Vermont. I think Ian Fleming was really taken with the area in the sixties, when it was more wilderness like.
They were interesting novels. Somebody should make a movie out of one or the other of them. Maybe both, The Spy Who Loved Me is a natural sequel to For Your Eyes Only. I guess I will read a third. They are my not so guilty anymore pleasure.
Wisconsin should buy the Upper Peninsula. If it works for Greenland...
Mark Twain said that if owned a place in Miami and a place in Hell, he would rent out Miami and live in Hell. I don’t see how people spend the whole year in Florida. I did for a while, and I noticed I spent more time outside in northern New England in the dead of winter, which really only lasts about six weeks, than I did outside in the summer in Florida, which lasts from mid April to mid October.
"Yes, as I learned last summer during a driving tour through Rocky Mountain National Park, much of which was punctuated by wife's urgent recommendations to slow down and stop driving so close to the edge."
Yeah, that's me too... except we have an understanding that I as the passenger can say slow down and have the car slowed down. You might try that.
The passenger would like to look out on the vista but can't do it without thinking that's where we could suddenly be plunging to our death. Even just thinking about it now, I had a vivid visualization. What would go on in those last seconds as we are falling? Do you throw them away on angry blaming and apologies? Do you experience a slowing down of time and think this, this, is everything and live forever in the moment and exist in pure love?
I left Wisconsin 30 years ago, and just came back to Door County last week for a stay in a cabin next to Peninsula park. Had a lovely time. Got hooked up with a local bike club and saw a lot of the county on two wheels.
The highlight for my wife was dinner at a Wisconsin supper club.
I just watched “To Catch a Thief” and there is a protracted scene of the future Princess Grace doing a crazy ride on those windy narrow roads above Monaco, I guess, where she died, with Cary Gran’t white knuckling it in the passenger seat. It’s kind of surreal knowing that’s how she died and wondering if she was thinking about riding in a car with Cary Grant when she crashed.
Though she had her daughter in the car, which rules out the crazy driving, and Wikipedia says that she likely had a brain aneurism that cause the crash. That’s why some things are too good to check. I liked my version better.
I ran into someone a couple of days ago - not a Wisconsite - who was telling me how great the Wisconsin state parks are. Hope to get up to the Apostle Islands area one of these days. (I think I learned about them from a blog post of yours.)
But yeah, there are a lot of great state parks out there. Among my faves are Custer State Park in South Dakota, and Davis Mountains State Park in Texas (though both are very popular and thus get a bit populous in the high season).
we have an understanding that I as the passenger can say slow down and have the car slowed down. You might try that.
Yes, Mistress.
As someone who was the driver of a fuel tanker that was on fire while hurtling down a German mountainside with no brakes, the only thing you think about is "How do I fix this?". My passenger (who outranked me by three grades) totally turtled. I'm glad I was driving, or we'd both be dead.
Day tripping is great, but a day trip is not a vacation.
I'm in nice places every day, on the daily bike commute. No need to seek out prepared nice places.
I will be in western North Carolina in October. Fishing, hiking and enjoying the scenery. Should be great, unless we get another October hurricane.
This is such a lovely post. I share all of those sentiments. The only thing that concerns me about the pictured loop around Wisconsin is that it avoids the beautiful Green Lake Area.
"Yes, as I learned last summer during a driving tour through Rocky Mountain National Park, much of which was punctuated by wife's urgent recommendations to slow down and stop driving so close to the edge."
My wife,(then girlfriend) blindly agreed to take off with me, and three other couples she had not even met, on a 2000+ mile motorcycle trip, to Cheyenne Wyoming for Frontier Days. Lots of great mountain roads on two wheels. I had blast riding those roads, my better half, admitted years later she often had her head down and eyes closed because she was fearing for her life.
After that experience and more miles, she had the utmost faith in my abilities and often napped in the afternoon on the back of the bike.
What would go on in those last seconds as we are falling?
That's always been my concern on things like the Blue Ridge Parkway, or the Beartooth Pass
Dying would be bad enough, without having a few seconds* to THINK about the fact that you were a goner
A Few Seconds* On the Other Hand, this means that a Tall Cliff would be THE PERFECT PLACE to commit Suicide. As we All Know; you Can't get into Heaven if you take GOD's Greatest Gift to you.
However, IF; as you were falling, you changed your mind (as you Surely would), and REPENTED
(and from a Tall Cliff, you'd HAVE THE TIME); You'd be shot Right to the Front of the Line at the Pearly Gates
AA: The passenger would like to look out on the vista but can't do it without thinking that's where we could suddenly be plunging to our death.
I do try to refrain from any backseat driving when in those situations. "Scary" routes stop being scary if I've driven or been driven over them often enough (e.g., Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain NP). Others, though...I recall finding U.S. 550 (the "Million Dollar Highway") through the San Juan National Forest pretty scary. But spectacular. As the passenger I kept my mouth shut.
My family and I hiked around Copper Falls this summer, beautiful experience and a great example of what the CCC accomplished in its time.
Lincolntf said...
the driver ... the only thing you think about is "How do I fix this?".
My passenger (who outranked me by three grades) totally turtled. I'm glad I was driving, or we'd both be dead.
It's MUCH easier to think about "How do I?" while driving; as a passenger your mind and body are detached from achieving results. It's quite possible that IF your positions were reversed, you'd have been the one that turtled and your ranking officer would have been thinking.
On The Other Hand; Sometimes are No Time For Sergeants
OT: 2nd quarter GDP growth is 2.0 percent. Consumer spending up. durable goods orders up. So much for that pre recession everyone’s whinging about.
Now get out there, spend some money and enjoy nature’s wonders...
Wyalusing has great views from the high bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers.
Ancient Indian burial mounds too. Good camping.
Feels like a pretty special place and you can see for miles. Would be absolutely stunning in October.
Kind of out of the way and hard to get to, so maybe not as crowded as some.
I love upstate New York. So much so a few years back I usurped vacation control for a driving trip through Vermont and the Adirondacks so my wife could experience them for the first time. Across on the Charlotte ferry into Lake George and Lake Placid, west on through to Rochester and back to the Berkshires. Lake Placid was okay I’m told but there was lots of face in phone after that. She was surprisingly impressed with the little valley between Canajoharie and Rotterdam. Who knew?
She needs the pointy National Parks. Wyoming and Montana it is...
My sister was at the Dismal River golf course (designed by Jack Nicklaus) in Nebraska's Sandhills earlier this summer. She'd never been to the Sandhills and couldn't believe how beautiful it is.
I keep telling you people.
People think Nebraska is the Platte River Valley and Interstate 80. Big mistake. People from Omaha are the worst.
Moki Dugway scares people the most. It's dirt and there are some dead cars down the cliffs.
State Parks share the negative qualities of National Parks, crowds and rules, just to a lesser extent. BLM is the way to go.
https://parks.ny.gov/parks/1/hunting.aspx
My first time on the Niobrara river was in 1982 before the Bar Exam. I went with lawyer Dave Herzog, his kids, my girlfriend and two other lawyers (Pam Black and John North, Jr.; husband and wife). Herzog was recently divorced from his wife Linda and I remember him complaining about some guy who was "sexualizing with my wife" (actually his ex-wife).
We camped next to the river. Some guy owned the land next to the river and he would charge people to see the water fall and to camp. A school district build a special ski lift type thing so his kids could cross the river and get a bus to school. It's still there, I think.
I think this was the time where I was late or I misestimated the distances between towns. I was driving about 90 mph on the highway and my Mazda 626 drove much better after that. I later learned that's called an Italian tune-up.
Herzog remarried. A lawyer. He worked up to his death. His wife pushed him in a wheel chair around the courthouse. He was a demon on the typewriter. Always typing and sending notes. He loved the NYT and the New Yorker back in the day before TDS. I went to a memorial service for him at his synagogue. He had lots of friends; Jewish and otherwise. Glad I wore a coat and tie as nearly all the men did. One time he complimented me on my tie. Herzog himself was a sharp dresser. Really a great guy. Glad he introduced me to the Sandhills and the Niobrara river.
I'm on board with the whole day trip style vacation, reduces so much of the stress and time planning. Kohler-Andrae is a really interesting underrated park. Very unique part the Wisconsin landscape, can add-in a visit to Holy Hill along the way when coming from Madison, and Sheboygan's got some nice restaurants nearby.
He didn't have his Kevlar on, his field shit was all over his side of the cab of the HEMTT and he was half asleep. I yelled at him to tell him the situation, and he looked out the window/in the mirror and scrambled to get in basically a fetal position. I ended up getting a medal, SSG Love, the NCO in question, got transferred eventually. We never spoke a word to each other after that day,
Was able to take in a play in Spring Green this last weekend. Did a matinee for once and picnicked beforehand. Was a good day with the in laws. Grandpa wants to drive at
Speed=age. There was some pushback from the ladies in the car.
I never bother taking a woman on a driving trip, BTW. Our interests are just too different. I might be studying the cuts into the stone along the highway. PA, all sedimentary rock, neatly stacked layers, not much folding. New York State, much the same , carved by glaciers and water, until you get into the Adirondacks, where you see a lot of folding, but still sedimentary rocks. As you get into the green mountains, you start to see veins of quartz that had probably been injected between the layers of rock by a volcano, as you get to New Hampshire, it’s solid granite, must have been like a ring of fire scenario millions of years ago, you get to north of Boston and there is a cut that looks like it was done by an artist of quarts mixed with some other ignious rock, I am guessing from a distance at 75 mph in a cool design maybe a third of a mile long and a hundred and fifty yards high.... What a cauldron of magma it must have been that formed that.
This is the kind of stuff that chicks really dig.... not.
Same with vistiting sites like the stone church/blockhouse in Schoharie. “Remember that scene from Drums Along the Mohawk” honey?
There is just no point in it.
To take an immediate interest in Natural Beauty is the mark of a good soul.
Kant
“quarz” not “quarts”! Spellcheck, you are my enema!
I give up. I need new glasses, I think.
A day trip here in Texas usually means you only drove 300 or 400 miles to have a nice lunch.
But what about the Dells? WHERE ARe THE DELLS?
WHAAA?? Lake Geneva not on your list, Ann? Not a "State Park" I realize, but WELL worth the trip. PS: Stay @ The Abbey Resort PPS: Far better, I guess, to live in one of the mansions that surround the lake :) (best seen from the boat lake tour)
One of this country's hidden gems is Hocking Hills State Park in southern Ohio.
I’m Irving there with you. I love the Texas state parks. National, not so much.
Kettle Moraine is not a State Park, but a State Forest, I just learned...
Rib Mountain is beautiful. Went there not too long ago. And I think I had been to Devils Lake about 15-20 years ago. I remember hiking to the top of the hill and having a newfound appreciation for how the glaciers formed the undulating terrain and left a few lakes behind.
Wisconsin's Governor Dodge and Wyalusing State Parks are beautiful examples of keeping it wild. I wish my state (Illinois) did more of that. But then there's also Missouri--Hawn State Park. Whatever aspect of nature especially moves you, you can see and see again and again.
That's too much driving for me.
We drive around Arizona to see some state parks and nature museums. There is one spot I want to see east for Fort Huachuca that si in the novel "Hondo." Louis L'Amour was very good about his locations.. The spot in the novel is a campground now, I think.
Anyway we will drive over to see it when things get a bit cooler.
I've been all over California and the parks before it became a third world country.
We were going to drive to Chicago but I'm getting old for that now. I've driven across the country many times.
Those "we're on the edge of cliff and could fall to our deaths" sort of drives only scare me when I'm the passenger, not when I'm the driver. Then I fantasize about some idiot hitting us or my wife making a mistake and plunging us to our doom. The last time that happened was Maui and the "Drive to Hana". a curvy, narrow road, cliffs, idiots racing around at 100 MPH, and one point the Sun right in our eyes. I finally had to take over the wheel.
California has the greatest state parks, but you have to chose carefully.
So we make Carmel by the Sea a state Park. All is solved.
"we have an understanding that I as the passenger can say slow down and have the car slowed down. "
Let's be clear that the understanding includes a commitment on the part of the passenger to control her emotional expressions. Yes, that includes positive emotional expressions such as, "OH WOW! LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL VIEW!
Freaking out, screaming, yelling, etc. will result in the car being safely pulled over and not moving an inch until all occupants of the car have regained their composure and have acknowledged and recommitted to their responsibility to Not Distract the Driver.
The driver has a huge responsibility: to get the occupants to the destination safely, efficiently and comfortably, all while following the rules of the road which can vary by state and by weather and traffic conditions.
Distracted driving of any kind is the #1 cause of avoidable traffic accidents.
(Also: stay in your lane and on your side of the centerline, dammit!)
AOC said that it was interesting that all the Civil War battles took place in state parks.
sportsfans/
Little-known Buck-horn Lake Ky State Park in the foothills of the Cumberlands up the mountain-side near Hazzard, Ky. is a little-visited out-of-the-way beauty..
until all occupants of the car have regained their composure and have acknowledged and recommitted to their responsibility to Not Distract the Driver.
Oh jeez do I need that one. The gasp of excitement has nearly killed us all on more than one occasion. I’d offer up your arrangement but my passenger usually wants me to speed up...
That's why it's better to live in Madison and do day trips. I believe there are 20+ state parks that you can do as a day trip from Madison. Keep coming back home and eating and sleeping in comfort, and the days don't need to be consecutive
Pardon me if you discussed this before, but have ya'll considered getting an RV? Take the "comfort" of home along with you and the range of travel is greatly expanded.
My folks have been doing that the past couple years and are having a blast with it.
I might be studying the cuts into the stone along the highway. PA, all sedimentary rock, neatly stacked layers, not much folding.
That just reminded me - when I was a kid my father would take me rock hunting. State parks, fossil parks, rock quarries etc. One time he took a sledge hammer to a rock for me and opened up the most beautiful geode that sat on my desk for years.
Looking back, I wouldn't put it past him to have planted it there the weekend before.
Thanks Dad!
Another vote for Hocking Hills in OH — huge caves, river canyons, waterfalls, just beautiful. Wife and I loved it.
This discussion is reminding me that the second time I ever drove a car was on Trail Ridge Road (in RMNP, mentioned earlier), at the age of 12. We were staying in Grand Lake, and my father decided to go on a long hike one day and didn't return until very late. Late enough that my mother panicked and wanted to drive up in the direction of the trail loop he was on to see if any ranger stations had seen him/found him (or something like that). The problem was that she was extremely sick at the time and was on a variety of painkillers, and couldn't drive, so... I did! Volvo 240 wagon automatic, so it was easy enough—and I wasn't as terrified as I would have been otherwise, since it turns out Trail Ridge is a lot less scary at night.
(oh, and my father was sitting in the tub, relaxing, when we got back to the cabin, of course)
I love this trip. It sounds peaceful, refreshing and apolitical.
Enjoy!
Cherry Springs State Park in northern PA is a great place for stargazing. Every new moon the place is packed with stargazers. They even have mini domes available for the really dedicated astronomers.
Going on either side of the new moon will probably help you miss most of the crowds without impacting the view much.
CO's newest tourist attraction is a big rock:
"The boulder sparked widespread interest across the state and was named Memorial Rock by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis because it fell over the Memorial Day weekend."
It's even bigger than the biggest Paul Bunyan.
But what about the Dells? WHERE ARe THE DELLS?
I use "The Dells" to describe once beautiful places that have become overly commercialized, bland family destinations. My recent trip to Sedona had that feel, at least the northern part.
As someone whose family is from The Dells, I am allowed.
The driver has a huge responsibility: to get the occupants to the destination safely, efficiently and comfortably, all while following the rules of the road which can vary by state and by weather and traffic conditions.
Travel by map is the best way to get somewhere.
All of the terrible things you mention don't occur, and it's safe for the environment too.
Nice! Makes we want to visit Wisconsin. My dad's sister and her family lived in Wauwatosa and I was eighteen when I was last there. Speaking of frightening park drives: Kodachrome Pass in Denali...by schoolbus.
If that's your route, take a detour at the northwesternmost point and swing over to Hibbing, Minnesota to visit Dylan's hometown, including the open-pit iron mine that forced Hibbing to be relocated a mile or so south in the 1920s.
While it does seem that it would be nice to visit the State Parks in Wisconsin....and I am sure that they are very beautiful....It seems that it would be putting too much into a short time.
Visiting, 15 parks in 9 days would be a lot of driving. You would have to see several parks a day to get all 15 in. Rushing through the parks and not having enough time to stop for a couple of days would seem like you are not doing the visits justice.
Really, how much can you see, absorb the qualities of the parks AND the surrounding areas when you are trying to see several a day and then rush to the next location.
It doesn't sound fun at all...to me.
So I should cancel my Rocky Mountain National Park plans?
I live in the middle of a bunch of excellent parks. Hard to get too excited about parks elsewhere.
Tom Wolfe in “The Right Stuff?” has an excellent description of Test Pilots trying to “fix it” all he way to the ground. That was my motorcycle experience up to and including peak altitude. On the way down the certainty you never knew you had that you would be here for the next moment is replaced by an intense curiosity. Regaining consciousness feels like an answer.
This is a link you'd best not entertain any notions of clicking, iffin' you want to live sans nitemares.
The road from Praire du Chien WI to La Crosse, fifty miles of the Great River Road running past bluffs and coulees right down beside the Mississippi, is a terrific trip but you have to do it after the leaves fall and before they come out in the spring or you can't see the River. On that map if you went from Wyalusing to Perrot but stayed by the river, you'd be on this road I'm talking about. Then you go back toward Wyalusing by going over to Sparta, getting Wisconsin cheese at the gas station, and then cutting south through the driftless region, (possibly taking in Wildcat Mountain). The road by the Mississippi and the road through the driftless region, it's like a digital-free zone in that no one not with you ever knows where you've been or what you've seen or why you go and yet it's a trip anyone would like.
My son and I drove from San Antonio to Oshkosh, and back, for the biggest airshow in the world. I really enjoyed the drive. I’m pretty tired of airline flying. I don’t actively dislike it like Ann but not flying is OK. Traveling through most of the Central Time Zone was very interesting. We agreed the prettiest part of the drive was going from Dubuque to Madison on 151.
There was a funny moment. We stopped at the COSTCO in Sun Prairie for gas. We went into the main store to ask if there was any place around with some Gluten free options for my son. I’ve traveled enough that I’ve developed a pretty good English dialect translator so I heard her say “I think Rocky’s Pizza across the road has gluten free crust” he heard “… Racquis…” The Wisconsin accent kept him guessing for four days. BTW, on our last night in Oshkosh we went to Primos restaurant and found they have an extensive gluten free menu.
But it's Wisconsin doll. Come to New England where it is actually beautiful. We have a coastline and you have boring lakes with fat old white people eating at supper clubs. And their likely republicans. The worst kind of fat white people.
My mom told me door county was like the cape. I laughed in her face and said no dear.
You live in Arkansas freeman. Totally grossie state. But I did love the scene in movie from Sasha Cohen's movie where all the Arkansas rednecks went after him. So red state deplorables.
We have lovely state parks here in PA. My family and I just spent a week at Rickett's Glen state park with its amazing lake and waterfalls. Over 1/6th of the land in PA is state parks or state forests, many within 45 minutes of our home in Suburban Philadelphia. We are spoiled....
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