A generous family from Evan’s school invited us to spend four nights at their amazing Door County house just south of the little town of Fish Creek. Even though we love the Great Lakes and have traveled all over Wisconsin, we had never been to Door Country! I think that maybe I went when I was very young, but we certainly hadn’t been there as adults. It was so beautiful. It reminded me a lot of other bits of Wisconsin, but what makes Door County unique is that so many fun things are within a 20 minute drive. We packed our three full days there with trips to Peninsula State Park and the Eagle Bluff Trail, Lawrence University’s Bjorklunden, the Ridges Sanctuary Nature Center, Egg Harbor, cherry orchards, Whitefish Dunes State Park and a Door Shakespeare production of The Three Musketeers. But we left lots of local and state parks, wineries, and cute shops to be discovered next time.
Day One: Peninsular State Park, Eagle Bluff Trail
On the morning after we arrived, we drove a few minutes north to Peninsula State Park. We drove around until we came to Nicolet Beach. It had a lot of algae and bird poop and dead fish on the shore, so we decided to go a on a hike first and then figure out a plan for swimming later.
We followed the directions in our book the 50 Hikes in Wisconsin by John and Ellen Morgan to find the entrance to the Minnehaha Trail that was in the middle of a camping area. We spent the first five minutes of the hike in furious whispers explaining to our kids that people were sleeping in the tents ten feet away and didn’t want to be woken up by loud children. Then we made it to the beautiful, quiet cedar-lined trail that ran along side the rocky beach.
The rocks even in the beginning of the trail were so interesting. Sometimes the trees just seemed to grow over them. The beginning of the trail was flat and soft White Cedar needles, but soon it became rocky and swampy.
We were dressed more for the beach than a serious hike, but we managed alright. And then we came to the most amazing bluffs.
We didn’t see any eagles on the Eagle Bluff Trail, but we did see some osprey. The cliff faces were odd with the sharp geometric corners and flat plains, like a toddler’s block creation.
The bluffs are part of “the Niagara Escarpment” which is a band of rock which has eroded at a different rate than surrounding rock layers. It runs in an arch from Niagara Falls in the east through the edge of the Great Lakes through into the Door County Peninsula and down to Chicago. According to the Wikipedia article it has “the oldest forest ecosystem and trees in eastern North America.”
There were also these vivid red berries lining the trail.
As we left the cliffs and came back into the cedar groves, this part reminded me of ruined cities, like in the Jungle Book, where the trees were taking back over.
We stopped on our way back at a scenic look out (with a sign that said you could see several Wisconsin islands as well as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). A kind volunteer took our pictures and then advised us in no uncertain terms that we did not have the appropriate footwear to walk the trail we had just walked. And even though we explained that we had walked and were fine, she just could not believe it. It came on the heels of another middle aged woman asking me if I had regretted my footwear choice. I hadn’t, but next time I probably wouldn’t wear my barefoot hiking sandals just to avoid strangers giving me so much advice! But I’m very glad we have this family picture.
Day Two: Bjorklunden & The Ridges Sanctuary Nature Center, Egg Harbor & Cherries
Bjorklunden is part of Lawrence University. It has various summer programs including Shakespeare classes and summer productions that our friend Scott was in. We met him before class on our second day in Door County.
We saw a beautiful stave church. The Boynton Chapel which was built in the 1930s in a late 12th-century Norwegian stave church (Stavkirke) style. I could just imagine Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter coming out of the woods to attend church.
From there we walked down to the lovely Lake Michigan beach.
And then to another white cedar grove, with soft pine needles and a view of the water.
The whole place was kind of magical with the trees and the lake and the beach and the rocks. And the tiny mushrooms.
Scott took us to a little natural grotto and showed Lily and Jackson how to climb around.
The kids loved it, and they thought “Mr. Scott” was a lot of fun (because he is).
We also got to see the amazing garden and maple tree stage of Door Shakespeare. A few nights later we were going to come back to watch The Three Musketeers which Scott thought they’d enjoy more than the alternate nights’ performance of The Tempest. Plus Scott had written all the music for The Three Musketeers and would be playing a kind of traveling minstrel in that show!
The stage has two stair cases that wrap around a grand old maple tree.
The kids really liked being up on the little balcony.
And from the boughs of the maple tree there are lanterns on long ropes.
Of course, a Shakespeare tree house with lanterns was something I absolutely loved. I could have spent a lot more time on the campus; it reminded me a lot of my setting for my own book.
After Scott had to teach his class, we drove north to The Ridges Sanctuary.
First we checked out the sandy Lake Michigan beach. It reminded me a bit of dunes, although not as pronounced. According to the website, the Ridges are named for “its distinctive topography – a series of 30 ridges and swales formed by the movement of Lake Michigan over the past 1100 years.”
And then we left the beach and walked through some boggy lands along board walks.
This reminded me a lot of the bogs near HoneyRock Camp near Eagle, Wisconsin where I was a camp counselor between my junior and senior years of college.
We walked along the board walks to Baileys Harbor Rangelight Light houses.
I thought the board walk and the woods and the light house and the water were so pretty.
Next, we decided to take a path that led off from the board walk into the woods.
We went about five minutes in and got attacked by flies. I don’t think any one actually got a fly bite, but they were merciless. And we turned around, basically constantly moving our arms like windmills. The kids were none too pleased, but it wouldn’t have really been a summer Wisconsin trip without some flies at some point.
When we got back to the board walk, the flies pretty much left us alone. But Jackson, months later, still talks about the terrible flies.
That night we drove into Egg Harbor.
The chicory and coneflowers and queen anne’s lace were still blooming up here, after they had mostly finished down in Milwaukee.
We parked by a beautiful new building that was closed to public by that time in evening and was a very pretty wedding venue. It had this shimmering metal tree outside.
We walked down to the Harbor View Park.
And walked around the docks a little, looking at all big boats.
There was a little cherry orchard that we walked by on the way back. There are cherry orchards everywhere, and ripe cherries peaking out from leaves in late July.
We bought some cherries from the orchard across from where we were staying.
And in a little shop in Egg Harbor, I had gotten some cherry jelly. We added it to some coconut ice cream we brought with cut up cherries for our own Door County cherry ice cream.
Day Three: Whitefish Dunes State Park
The next day we went to Whitefish Dunes State Park.
To our right were dunes and to our left was the ocean-like expanse of Lake Michigan.
The first 50 yards had warnings about rip currents.
But after that it was a long stretch of sandy beach. We got there about 8:00 and had the whole beach nearly to ourselves.
Although, we were sharing the beach with a lot of small dead fish. For a while we assumed that these must be the “whitefish” that the park was named after.
They were all fairly recently dead, because there wasn’t any dead fish smell. Later, a park ranger we ran into explained that actually they are alewife fish. Alewife fish are ocean fish that found their way into the Great Lakes with the early 19th century locks and canals. They like the colder temperatures, but when it gets warmer they die…but not after they have bred. So every year you get spring die offs, and this year was extra big.
Walking along the beach is one of my favorite things to do. And it’s honestly one of the easiest and happiest walks (or pretty much any activity) that we do as a family. Even when the kids were much younger, everyone was happy to be walking in the surf.
It’s my favorite things to do in the summer!
After the official park ended we could still walk in the waters for a while longer near private beach houses.
We swam a bit, before going home to rest before the Three Musketeers that night. The next morning we cleaned the cabin for a few hours before heading back down to Milwaukee. It was such a sweet long weekend.
The most striking thing about Door County was how many things I had seen in other bits of Wisconsin so close together.
Twenty minutes could get us to beaches or bogs, orchards or outdoor theatres, clifftop overlooks or cute shops. We left much unexplored, and we can’t wait to go back!
Have you been to Door County? What do we need to put on our list for next time?