For our final day of vacation my parents gave us the enormous gift of watching Jack for a few hours so we could have a solo hike. We haven’t hiked together and without Jack since he was 11 months old. We had already done some exploring of the incredibly scenic Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore with Jack along and were now faced with a morning off. We decided to hike a short section of the North Country Trail (NCT), a 4,600 mile trail that stretches across seven states and runs clear through this National Lakeshore. The section we chose was the very…
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
This was it! The primary reason for taking this trip along the southern shore of Lake Superior was finally upon us! We had already visited the Apostle Islands and the Porcupine Mountains, now it was time for Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore! Just googling this area and perusing the breathtaking photos while planning our trip had us drooling with anticipation and excitement! We couldn’t wait to get there and see all the beauty this unique area has to offer. We had allowed ourselves three nights and two full days to explore the area before returning home from our week and…
Presque Isle Waterfall Loop
We had time for just one big hike while we were staying at the beautiful Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Michigan. We read up on hikes in the area and found helpful information on the Porcupine Mountains webpage. We decided that since Jack is so into waterfalls the best hike for us would be the Presque Isle Waterfalls hike, which includes not one, not two, but THREE waterfall viewing areas! To get to the hike we were faced with a rather long drive! This park is huge (just under 60,000 acres) and we were camping at the opposite end…
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park
We had had a soggy start and departure from our campsites on Madeline Island and by the time the ferry had crossed the 2.6 miles and back to the mainland and the charming town of Bayfield, WI it was already time for lunch so we opted to eat there before beginning our drive. Thankfully, the sun had come out and we had a charming afternoon in the quaint town exploring and eating. Jack generally naps shortly after lunch so we were hopeful that he would follow his normal routine and nap through most of the 123 mile drive that was ahead of us. We…
Big Bay State Park
Big Bay State Park is located on Madeline Island, one of 22 of the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. The park has 62 campsites (51 are reservable) with 15 being electrical, 38 standard tent sites, 2 group sites, and 7 walk-in sites. Water taps, a shower building, many privies, and garbage cans are sprinkled around the campground. The campsites are beautiful with ample vegetative screening and are generally quite large. The site we ended up with (#25) was a little narrow but very long. The park has a large picnic area, a little over 7 miles of hiking trails, and 3.5…
Madeline Island
When planning our next road trip we decided to approach it very differently than we did our winter road trip to the southwest. At that time we were determined to get away from the cold weather as quickly as possible, and had, somehow, managed to squeeze 4,000 miles into just two weeks of travel. We wanted a slower, easier pace for our Spring trip. Another consideration was that we wouldn’t be alone, my parents would be joining us. They purchased a small Jay Feather hybrid camper around the same time we bought our Lance. So, we weren’t just planning a trip…
Tips for Successfully Camping with Kids
Camping with kids along can seem intimidating. I’m not going to sugarcoat this for you: taking kids camping is hard work. But, it really is an absolute blast to do at the same time. I also want to remind you that your kids will be just as worn out and exhausted following a weekend of camping as you will be! We get asked many questions about camping with babies so I’ll do my best to address our most frequently asked questions. To read our tips for camping successfully with kids see our guest post on MinneMama Adventures