Willow River State Park

We spent the past Sunday at Willow River state park in Hudson Wisconsin.  It was absolutley gorgeous and everyone had a great time!!  Wisconsin offers free admission to their parks one weekend a year for their open house, and they have a few extra activities planned in the park to help promote it and gain readmittance numbers.  My opinion, no extra activities were needed to protmote the park, they will want to hire me as a spokesperson after reading this blog.

We started out our morning near the dam at a fishing contest that both Addy and Isaac were entered in.  It was sooooooooooooooo cold that the only winners of the contest were the three lucky people who actually caught fish.  Not us :(  But none the less they had fun with their poles and cookies that were provided.  The park provided bait and poles to kids that did not have their own.  We then proceeded to the beach area, train rides, nature center, craft tables, art walk and The FALLS!  The highlight for the kids were the two train rides they got, the highlight for Seth and I was the GORGEOUS Waterfalls.  We hiked 2.5 miles each way to and from the falls and Isaac rode his bike or walked the entire way!!!!!!  It was quite the adventure through the woods, seeing all the camp sites and various trees, plants, animals etc.  We all loved it and Addy even managed to catch a small cat nap on the route back, even though that was the steepest hills I have ever climbed.  The falls were amazing and well worth the hike, we climbed TONS of stairs to get a better few and then went down closer to the waterfalls and had a picnic lunch.  It was amazing to be eatting so close to the falls.  We were right down on the rocky water.

We defintely hope to go back next year.  We were there ALL DAY 9-4, and only spent $2 and that was the fee to do the fishing contest.  We can't wait for our next hike/waterfall adventure.  We are thinking we will do something more local, maybe Minnehaha falls in Mpls.

Enjoy the pics, they are amazing!!!

all smiles at the fishing contest

Addy did an excellent job at the contest by eating cookies

view of the lake that morning

riding the train...Isaac and Addy got to sit in the engine part and ring the bell

On our way to the falls

The view as we turned the corner from the trail

what we saw from the bridge

On the bridge overlooking the water falls

we climbed to the top, up tons and tons of stairs

the view from the top

from the top

Isaac on the walk back down, these stairs went on forever.  So proud of Isaac that not only did he walk/ride his bike the whole way there and back but he climbed up and down all of these stairs

This was the view from our picnic blanket

Isaac and I went into the waterfall/rock a tuny tiny bit

and we went out in front a little ways

a little snooze on the hike back

when we got back he still had energy to play at the nice playground

doing a craft...writing his name in sand

touching a snake

Addy LOVED the turtles

Last stop of the day...the beach to throw rocks in the water