Camping at Willow River

18 Jun 2008

I recently took the kids on a short camping trip to Willow River State Park in western Wisconsin. As we left the house Sunday afternoon, I remember breathing a huge sigh of relief as we left the city and everyday life behind for a while. It's like a weight was immediately lifted, and I could relax and spend some good quality "daddy" time with the kids.

On Sunday afternoon we set up camp at the Willow River campground. I borrowed a bike rack from my father-in-law for the trip, so we had our bikes along for the first time. That worked out really well, as the campground road and some of the main trails were paved- perfect for biking. We mainly hung out at the campsite Sunday evening, making popcorn and s'mores. Zach was tired by 9:00, so he went to bed while I stayed up with Gina by the campfire until around 10:30.

Monday morning after breakfast we hiked back to Willow Falls, a recently restored waterfall in the park. The water was running full strength from all the recent rain, and I got some nice waterfall pictures (photo album from trip). It was a beautiful spot, and nothing like I remembered from my visit with my family back in the 1970s. We'd planned to spend most of the day Monday down at the beach, but the temperature never got out of the 60s. Instead we took a few bike rides, and the kids played quite a bit on the two playgrounds in the park. They also enjoyed just playing in the tent. As a matter of fact, I think being in the tent was actually Zach's favorite part of the trip. On one of our bike rides, we saw two deer (does) right up next to the campground road. Gina spotted one, and a little later Zach spotted the other. Each was no more than 15-20 feet from us, and it was fun to see the kids get excited.

After dinner we took a little nature hike along a lakeside trail. Gina had her camera handy and was hoping to spot some more wildlife. We saw a group of hawks (at least I think they were hawks), and Gina was happy to get a few shots of them as they circled overhead.

Monday night we had popcorn and s'mores again, although Zach was so tired he turned in before the smores. Gina and I saw what looked to be a feral orange cat wander through our campsite a couple of times. After both kids had turned in for the night, I heard a sound and shined my flashlight on a large raccoon that had wandered into the site. He was about six feet away from me and didn't appear to be very afraid, so I'm assuming they're accustomed to having people around. I had all the food put away, so after a couple of minutes of poking around it walked away disappointed.

Thankfully Tuesday was warmer. After breakfast I packed-up our stuff while the kids entertained themselves watching a little caterpillar crawl along the ground. After everything was packed. we took a bike ride down to the beach area and visited the nature center there. People were swimming, so we biked back to our campsite, got all of our stuff together, and drove the van back down to the beach to spend the rest of the day there. We had a little picnic and the kids swam with the new floaties I'd bought for them. They also had a blast building a dam and a lake in the sand with some other kids there.

It started to cloud over a bit in the late afternoon so we packed up and reluctantly headed for home. Even though it was tough leaving, I was so happy to have had a couple of fun, stress-free days with the kids. It was over all too soon, but at least the other trips I have planned for the summer will be three nights each. Maybe next year I'll try stretching them out even longer.