Beachy Fun.

While I understand why our state parks are packed with people from out of state all summer, I must also say we LOVE it when school starts again and we can get out without the big crowds and enjoy the parks, beaches and trails. One of our favorite places is Devil's Lake State Park. It is less than an hour drive from home, and has a nice big lake with amazing views of woods and rocky cliffs.

The boys love splashing and swimming in the spring fed lake, hanging out on the beach, and eating way too many popsicles from the concessions. This trip we spent a few hours at the north shore in the water, and then after cleaning up and changing into dry clothes, we headed to the south shore for some more fun.


The boys played at the playground, had lunch, ate more popsicles (!), and went back into the water...finding rocks to pile and skip and toss is just too much fun. Having pretty much the entire beach to ourselves was pretty cool too.


After yet another change of clothing, we wandered the boardwalk - looking at funky fungus, driftwood, dense green forests and enjoying a beautiful pastel hued evening sky.


The trip home was quick, and even though we cleaned ourselves up several times we still had sand stuck in every corner. We can't wait to go back up again as the leaves begin to change - definitely a great spot for fall hikes and leaf watching!

corner view wisconsin:: beach

This weeks Corner View is Beach. While we do have beaches here in Madison, Wisconsin, they are of the small lake variety! We are surrounded by lakes, and so do often visit beaches - mostly in fall, winter and spring, though, as we like the cooler weather and no crowds.


In the summer if we head to a beach we like the spring fed lake variety outside of the city - the cool water and clean beaches are lovely. A few things we watch out for in our inland beaches is bacterial counts, algae blooms, swimmers itch...we read the beach reports before visiting to be sure it is safe for swimming! There are many great swimming lakes within an hour or two of us...we could visit a new beach every week all year and not make it through the list!


About 80 miles away is Lake Michigan. I lived in Chicago for many years right on the lake front, and miss that never ending horizon of water. 

The Great Lakes -- Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario -- and their connecting channels form the largest fresh surface water system on earth.


They are a treasure, and we love to visit.

I will admit that none of these photos are from this week - but from my iPhoto archives. We have had a week of cool cloudy days and wind - but perhaps next week we will be back to the beach, throwing rocks, digging with sticks, and looking for fish!

To visit the other corner views (full of lovely beaches!!!!) visit:

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