Devil's Lake State Park

Back in the days when our kids were younger, we brought them to places.  Now that they are older and learning the ropes of being independent, they do things for us, one thing at a time, as we did for them.  They show us the places they thought would be interesting to us. 

A week ago, Shannon showed us one of the bigger state parks in the area - the Devil's Lake State Park  in Baraboo, Wisconsin.  There we hiked all around the lake.  One side involved hiking on a railroad while the other half involved trekking among huge boulders.  I preferred the latter.  But it was a good hike of not just Tim and I but with our two daughters.  This does not happen very often anymore but whenever it happens, we are grateful.  It good to have an insider tell us what time to go there because the place got busy after a while.  We were fortunate to have been able to find a decent parking and not had to walk another mile back to get to the car.

Devil's Lake was beautiful.  People from the area go there to do all sorts of outdoorsy things including hiking, picnicking, snorkeling, partying, swimming, reading, boating, rock climbing, just being in the sun, and many more.  I even saw people taking pictures of wild flowers!  :)  I thought to myself that in our own area, we also have the Folsom Lake but in general people go to the lake to be active and be cool.  At the Devil's Lake Park, it was like Stephens Green in Dublin, Ireland where people just go there to be outside their homes and be in the sun.  Although they also do all sorts of activities, they don't have to do anything else once they are there - other than collect some sunshine, I guess.  

The boulders on one side of the lake were pinkish in color, which to me was unusual.  According to geological record of the place, the rocks are made of quartzite which are characteristically whitish gray.  The ones in this lake, however, are a special type of quartzite - called the Baraboo Quartzite which contains a significant amount of iron that changed the color to pinkish to purplish gray.  

At the end of our hike, I was feeling the effect of the Wisconsin humidity.  But we stopped at a nearby town to enjoy some Culver's and enjoyed the refreshment from Buffalo chicken tenders, butter burgers, French fries, cheese curds, and frozen custard.  

It is a good feeling to experience things that our children discovered on their own and are now shared with us.