Merrillan Dam

This week's travel post will be short and sweet, as it was just a little stop at this beautiful park in Merrillan, Wisconsin after we finished our hike at Wildcat Mound which I showed you in last week's travel post.   I thought about including these photos in last week's post, but I didn't want the post to get too long.  I don't know about you, but I really dislike long blog posts.  I get impatient with the length, and end up just scrolling fast through the post, and not get much out of it;  so, I try to keep my blog posts as short as possible when I can.

As I said above, we were just driving home from our morning hike at Wildcat Mound, and we saw this pretty park and waterfall.  Well, of course we had to stop and check it out and take some photos and videos.

I have never in my life seen such a pretty, natural looking waterfall that is actually a dam.  And the icing on the cake is that the city took advantage of this beauty and made it a park.  Usually dams are very industrialized, and have a lot of fencing around them for safety.  This dam just took our breath away!

Of course all the fall colors, fountain grass, and fallen leaves added to the beauty of the dam.

The water falls into a gentle river that I can just imagine children wading in on warm summer days.

And now here are a couple of really short, dorky videos.  I debated on whether I should even post them or not, but I really love the sound of the waterfall and how videos capture things photos cannot.  So have a good chuckle as you watch!

Next week I'll be back with a fall trip to a state park in Minnesota!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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"Snow Shoe Trail" in the Black River Forest

In last week's Travel Post, I shared how my husband and I went winter hiking for Valentine's Day weekend.  We hiked the Skyline Golf Course in Black River Falls in the morning, and after lunch we headed to the Black River Forest in Millston to hike the "Snow Shoe Trail".

We first spent some time studying the map and trails as there were only a couple you could hike on and the rest were reserved for skiers only.  

By the afternoon, the sun was down and it got colder outside.  I was grateful to have a face mask in my car as my cheeks were getting cold.  I think it was the first time in two years I was willing and happy to wear a face mask. 😀

This was my favorite trail of the day.  The forest was so serene and beautiful in winter.  We spotted lots of deer tracks and even saw one (running away from us of course).  

I could definitely see the difference between a regular hiking trail and a "Snow Shoe Trail".  The landscape was very flat and the trail was easy to follow.  A couple of you commented in my last winter hiking post how difficult it is hiking in the winter because the trails are so slippery.  A trail specifically designed for snow shoeing takes that into consideration.  No rocky, steep slopes here!

One of the surprises of this trail was that there were remnants of an old homestead on the trail.  We had fun exploring!

This is the root cellar.  Oh, I would love one of these for all my winter squash and potatoes!

Just look at the size of this root cellar!

There was also an old well on the property.

This trail was super easy:  only a 1.6 mile loop on flat terrain.  But boy was it beautiful!  

When we first came along this row of pine trees, it literally took my breath away.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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Lower Hixon Trails In LaCrosse Wisconsin

Well this week will be the last of the fall hiking adventures.  And for those of you who have grown tired of seeing pictures of hiking trails, I can hear your sigh of relief through the computer screen. 😁 We did spend almost every weekend hiking this fall, and I didn't even show you all our hikes, just the ones I thought were most "blog worthy".  But all good things must come to end, so this will be the last hiking trail post, then I'm taking a Christmas break to spend time with the family, and I will be back with some trips we took this past summer.

If you remember THIS POST  we hiked Grandad Bluff in LaCrosse, Wisconsin;  while there we could see other beautiful bluffs in the distance.  My husband saw those bluffs and said "I wanna be up there!".  So we looked at a map and we saw there were many more hiking trails called the Hixon Trails;  they are divided into the "Lower Hixon Trails" and the "Upper Hixon Trails".  Because my husband wanted the views, we took the Lower Hixon Trails (Why they are called that when they go up to the scenic bluffs and have great viewpoints, I have no idea.  Ironically, I couldn't see any viewpoints on the Upper Hixon Trails, which are mostly used for mountain biking.).

Depending on where you start on the map, this is the grand view you end up seeing:  Lookout Prairie.  It is totally worth the hike up the bluff!

Now, we didn't do much research before starting this hike, so we ended up hiking a lot of extra miles.  We should have parked our car in the Hixon Forest Parking Lot then our hike would have only been 3.6 miles.  Instead we parked at the Trail Access by the Aspen Trail and ended up hiking the Aspen Trail (0.65 miles), the Log Loop (0.55miles),  the Bicentennial Trail ( 1.8 miles), the Vista Trail (around 3 miles)  to the Savannah Trail (0.3 miles), to a Connecting Trail, back to the Bicentennial Trail, back to the Log Loop  , and finally back to the Aspen Trail.  I have no idea how many miles that ended up being but we barely made out of the forest by dusk, and we were all aching the following morning.

However, in spite of its length, all the trails were gorgeous...even without any foliage on the trees.  We usually hike in the summer or fall, so my husband and I were commenting how nice it is even to hike once all the leaves have fallen because you can see through the dense foliage and get more distant views. 

 

If all the trees had their leaves, you would never be able to see the bluffs in the distance as you can in the picture below.

In case you're wondering who the young man is in all my photos, that is my son.  These photos were taken Thanksgiving weekend when he was home to visit.

In the Hixon Forest Parking Lot is "Pooh's Lair". My son couldn't resist having some fun with this dead tree.

There are two magnificent scenic lookout points on the Vista Trail:  Vista Prairie  and Lookout Prairie .  The first one on the trail starting from the parking lot is Vista Prairie.

After admiring the views we hit the trail again to find the next lookout point and came across this beautiful wooden bridge.

The next look point was the most magnificent of the two:  Lookout Prairie.  The sun was just starting to go down making it hard to see, but at the same time providing beautiful sun photos.  People were starting to gather up at the top to watch the sunset.  Unfortunately we couldn't stay for that because we had a much longer walk back to our car than they did and we did not want to be walking through the forest in the dark.  

 The Driftless Region is certainly a beautiful part of the country!

After enjoying the views, we hurried as fast as we could down the bluff.  After consulting the map, we discovered the fastest way down the bluff was to take the Savannah Trail to the Connector Trail so we did that and it saved us a lot of extra steps and time.  We made it out of the forest well before dusk, so we headed out for some delicious burgers; we were ravenous!  But believe it or not our walking did not end there.  We decided to take in the LaCrosse Rotary Lights while we were already in the city.  They are always so beautiful and considered one of the best Rotary Lights in the state.  I will post a few pictures of them on my "Holiday Break" post.  

Have A Great Day! Amy

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A Visit To The Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge

Have you ever lived in an area for most of your life and discovered something near by that you never even knew existed before?  Well, that is what happened to us one warm fall day.  We were driving home from hiking Grandad Bluff in LaCrosse, Wisconsin and I saw a sign that said "Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge".  I must have driven this road hundreds of times and I have never noticed that brown sign before.  Out of curiosity, when I got home I googled it and discovered it was a great place to bird watch.  Being the bird lover that I am, husband and I decided to check it out the following weekend, and I was so glad we did!

The refuge is a whopping 6,200 acres along the Mississippi River in western Wisconsin. It is an isolated backwater which provides resting and feeding areas for waterfowl and other birds.

The refuge is located in "The Driftless Region" which I talked about in last week's post.  The beautiful steep ridges which escaped the flattening effects of glaciation during the last ice age, provide a stunning scenic background for the backwaters of the Mississippi and Trempealeau Rivers.

The main attraction of the refuge is the viewing deck which looks out at a large body of water.  There are free high powered spotting scopes available for use on this deck.  I know you can't tell in the pictures above or below that there were any birds, but I guarantee you there were plenty of waterfowl to be seen.  They just don't show up I far away photos, but I definitely saw them through the scopes.

You can get a little closer to the birds if you take a short hiking trail off to the side of the viewing deck.  It is called the "Pine Creek Dike Trail".  It is a 0.52 mile loop flat gravel trail that is surrounded on both sides by water.

On this trail you can get farther out onto the larger body of water that is seen from the viewing deck.

This area reminded me of so many of the refuge marshy lands I visited in Florida, except we didn't have to watch out for alligators!

We were blessed on this trail to not only see plenty of waterfowl in the water but also flying above in the air!

And of course the scenic backdrop of the bluffs of the Driftless Region was breath-taking.

I apologize for the grainy, over-bright photos.  The sun was very harsh this day.

I brought my binoculars so I could see the birds more closely.

It was so warm on this fall day.  I believe it was in the sixties, which is quite unusual for Wisconsin.  But we sure have been enjoying a warm fall and it has provided a lot of extra outdoor activities for us to do.  I picked up these black joggers from Amazon.  They are so soft and comfy and I love the high waist!  They are thin, which works perfect for hot days or you have a warm house like I do.

In the refuge there are nine trails to choose from.  We only hiked on two, so I hope to go back and hike more!  If hiking is not your thing, or Grandma & Grandpa need time out of the house to enjoy nature, you can also see the park on their scenic 4.5 mile Prairie Edge Tour Loop.  This loop is accessible to vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians.  The drive takes you through three major areas of the refuge including sand prairie, blackwater marsh, and hardwood forest.

After driving the loop, we did get out and hike one more trail before leaving the park.  It took us through a forest and several nature signs pointing out things of interest.

One of these points of interest was turtles!  They looked a like closer in person than they do in this photo, so I drew an arrow pointing to a log in the water filled with turtles enjoying the sunshine.

As always, it was on the drive back to our home that we saw even more spectacular wildlife, this time it was a bald eagle sitting majestically in a tree.  Bald eagles are as common as robins in our neck of the woods, but I still get excited every single time I see one!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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