Mini Vacation

I just got back from a little trip to the Mississippi River. There is a spectacular park in Iowa, across the river from Prairie du Chien, called Pike's Peak Park. There is camping available, which is of no interest to me, but they have the most beautiful and well maintained hiking paths you can take, deep into the natural wooded bluff.

The top picture is at the pinnacle of the peak. (say that three times quickly) The lookout, called "The Crow's Nest," is supposedly at the highest point of the bluffs, along the Mississippi River. It is located across from where the Wisconsin River empties into the Mississippi. 

The middle picture is of the lowest point we reached on our foray into the wild. It must have been about a million steps down.  We entered the trail about 5:30 pm and had the place to ourselves. The quiet was amazing. As I was going along, I was hoping that I would have the ability to get myself back up all those steps before nightfall. It was gorgeous. The trail we took was about 1.2 miles in, with quite a bit of elevation, so double that, to get yourself back out.  Luckily, not many mosquitoes had yet hatched, or we would have been coated. The woods were quite dense. 

The last picture shows Bridal Veil Falls. There were actually 2 waterfalls along this hiking path. These are not my original pictures. I didn't have a camera with me, but thank you to those who came before me and had the foresight to be great photographers. It was much greener and more overgrown this time of year. 

We also saw many barges along the river, and a lot of wildlife. I finally spotted a couple scarlet tanagers, something I have always wanted to see. There were also some cranes and many large predatory hawks, and a big group of hummingbirds. We also saw all the casino's and other touristy gift shops that clutter any city which is adjacent to something worth seeing. I didn't frequent any of them. 

It was a whirlwind trip. Three states in 36 hours: Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. We took a drive up the Great River Road to LaCrosse and then crossed the river in Minnesota and drove the river from that perspective. The return crossing back to Wisconsin was a very high, long span, yet amazingly narrow and quite scary bridge. Cheap thrills. 

There are road crews who must have to work full time to maintain these roads on both sides, slowing traffic for emergency repairs from the falling rocks, and the natural ebb and flow of Mother Nature. This side of our state is flat, where the glaciers scraped out the farmlands. It is wonderfully crazy how different the terrain becomes just to the west.

We had a nice time, but my calves will need a days rest -at least, before I'm ready to tackle anything more.