Favorite Park

About 68 all day today and mostly sunny.  We spent today at Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek.  This is one of our favorite places and we consider it very special.   We began driving the hour north from our home in Green Bay in 1970 and camping on raised boards in the back of our Volkswagen Bus.  Throughout the 70's the 5 of us camped, hiked, and bicycled here and enjoyed the nature center, fishing, and the cool evenings. We graduated to a tent, to a pop-up, and finally to a 20 ft. travel trailer.  All were just great.

Established in 1909, it is Wisconsin’s most popular camping destination, but is so vast, it doesn’t feel that way at all. Although there are “RV sites”, many, many people are in tents.   Everything remains quite rustic and quiet with only one modest park store for supplies and snacks.

 

Eight miles of Green Bay’s shoreline wrap around northern hardwood forests, wetlands, meadows and 150-foot high dolostone cliffs.  Three quarters of the park’s 3,776 aces are totally undeveloped except for being chris-crossed by hiking and biking trails. The majority of the trees are maple, white birch, and cypress. 

We started at the small Weborg Point campground.. where Chip and the girls caught bullheads and Chip still bears the scar from poking himself in the cheek with a glowing marshmallow stick.  It was here our white German shepherd, Coco, dozed so close to the campfire that her fur started to smoke a bit.

 

Just across the road from Weborg is a hidden spot that Carol and I always find delightful and peaceful. Pioneer Cemetery is what the aging entry sign says.  In history texts it is also called the Thorpe-Calflin Cemetery.  It is not shown on any of the park maps. Containing not more than a dozen or so headstones from the mid 1800’s; our favorite is shown here.. from 1905. It is also the most recent although it has badly weathered since we first saw it in 1971. 

The stone reads:

Hugh A. Son of  E. Melvin
Dec.18 1898    Aug. 9 1905
"Our darling son hath gone before,
To greet us on the blissful shore"

 

The small lamb on top is hardly recognizable.  People have left coins, feathers, and flowers around this headstone of a 6 1/2 year old boy.  There are also the stones of two brothers who died in the civil war along with a marker for Mr. Increase Calflin who was the first white man to settle with his family in what is now Door County in 1834.
 

 

We walked about 4 miles along several of the trails and visited the lighthouse and fire tower.  Then we had an early diner at one of our favorite places in Ephraim.

More of our site visits and pictures in today’s web album. HERE