We ventured out to this park late in the day.  It was the same day that we had hiked at Mirror Lake SP.  Now though, the weather was changing, a cold front was moving through and the rain began to fall.  But I was on a mission to find Balanced Rock at Devil’s Lake, although at this point the kids weren’t quite as enthusiastic as me.  When the trail we were on proved to be the wrong one to take us to Balanced Rock the complaining started as did more rain.  I wasn’t sure if it was worth it to push forth but based on the recommendation from the ranger at Mirror Lake, we decided to press on.  And, in time, we did find the Balanced Rock trail.  I did need to persuade the kids to get out of the van and just give it a try.  Well, the second they hit the rocky staircase they were off and there were a few times I had trouble keeping up with them, especially Koah.  And it turned out that we were so focused on our hike that we completely missed Balanced Rock.  It’s a good thing Jeff and Korben were a good distance behind us because when they caught up to us, they were the ones to tell us that we were well passed the rock. 

You will notice in the pictures that Freya is bare foot and Koah is in flip flops.  I do not recommend this.  But if I had to choose one over the other I would choose the bare feet.  Turns out that flip flops and rocky staircases don’t mix well.  Koah slipped hard and split his gum on the edge of one of the rocks.  While he was biting down on a paper towel to stop the bleeding, he was mumbling “I want to keep going, I want to keep going!”

I would say that this cold rainy afternoon turned out to be pretty incredible.

The wrong trail..

Still the wrong trail… but all smiles for the moment.

My girls.. on the wrong trail!

Found it!

A rest at a stair chair… as we called it.

I’m not sure if we were already passed the rock at this point.

This is the Balanced Rock in the distance.  It was difficult to photograph based on it’s position but really was quite impressive in person.  Honesty, the entire hike was amazing, even in the mist.  And all 4 kids made it all the way up and back on their own… even in flip flops and bare feet!

The hike we did at this park was perfect.  It was short enough, but not too short, for all the kids.  It also followed a beautiful lush forest which led to to an enormous rock, hence the name Echo Rock Trail.  After the rock the trail does open up to Mirror Lake. 

The ranger at the visitors center was fantastic, not only about information on Mirror Lake SP but about other parks in the area too.  She gave each of the kids a booklet, broken down by age, of information along with questions to complete on our hike.  When we returned the completed booklets to the visitors center each child received a patch.  This patch program is something that can be done at many of the state parks in Wisconsin.  My kids loved it, especially Makenzie and Koah who still refer to some of the things they learned through the book that day.

 

We have been to several children’s museums in our travels past and present.  According to the kids, this place ranks high up as one of the better ones.   There was something for all ages. When we arrived at about 11am my intention was that we would stay for a couple hours and then move on to the natural history museum directly next door and then try to get a quick stop in at the Japanese gardens in town.  We were at the Discovery Museum until closing at 5pm.  It helped that we were 1 of 3 families in the museum for the day.  We got lots of individual attention from the very friendly, helpful staff.  I would have liked to explore more of the town but the kids were content to stay, therefore I was.  I was especially content when we were upstairs in the museum where they have a balance board.  I spent a lot of time on this thing; it times how long you can hold your balance.  And so it turns outs that I’m not as balanced as I thought I was.  I guess I could blame it on the fact that I didn’t pack a lunch and the museum didn’t sell food… and boy was I hungry.  The kids were so busy not one of them asked for food or said they were hungry… until we reached the van to leave… and that’s another story. 

Some highlights:

Pulley Chairs

Whole Body Bubble

The Weather Man

Freya was fascinated that by rolling the balls at the same time on the different tracks that each ended at the exact same time.

Corn Husk Dolls

Outside play.

They also had a new section of the museum called Build It, Make It.  We spent a good amount of time there and left with lots of new abstract artwork for the motor home.  The museum had a great variety of materials to work with.  They had materials like scrap wood, pipe cleaners, and felt.  They also had recycled materials such as bottle caps, old cds, and the cardboard from the inside of rolls of tape.   The children had hammers, screwdrivers, saws, and clamps to work with if they chose materials that required them.   Living in a motor home we are limited with the amount of art supplies we have.  Makenzie and Koah love to  have supplies at hand to freely create some new masterpieces.   And this is exactly what they were able to do at the Discovery Museum!

 

Today was a travel day. It also happens to be one of the hottest days of the summer here in Michigan according to a local, and the AC in the RV is still busted.  This created for a sticky uncomfortable drive.  And about an hour in we were all so very cranky and irritable, I didn’t know who was going to start throwing the punches first.  It probably would have been me if we hadn’t found this gem of a state park just in the nick of time.  I call it a gem because it had water, namely Lake Michigan which meant swimming!!  I don’t know if it would have been quite as impressive any other day but today it was exactly what we needed to calm the spirits of the 6 of us on the brink of all going into heat exhaustion.  We couldn’t get into the water fast enough.