Hey there friends! We spent 4 fabulous days in the Wisconsin Dells! Today, I am going to be talking about day three. Be sure to check out days one, two, and four!
Day 3 is where it gets crazy you guys! We knew we wanted to do Devil's Lake State Park. It is the most popular state park in Wisconsin. We figured we'd go, spend an hour or so there, and go do some other things. That didn't happen at all!
We took our time getting ready that morning. We ate breakfast in our room, the boys watched a few minutes of TV, and we got ready. The park was about 30 minutes from our motel. We had passed a thrift store on the way and decided to stop in for a bit. Then, we headed to the park. It was $11 to park for the whole day (good thing we didn't pay by the hour, believe me!). I had read to check out the South Shore. The north gets very busy and the south had the same lake and little beach. The boys had fun exploring the sand, but the water was much too cold that early. We decided we'd take a little hour or so hike and head out. This is where the story goes completely crazy.
We had followed this trail. Kyle also had an app that told whether trails were easy, moderate, or difficult. The trail we picked was easy. It appeared, you just had to climb these rocks to get there. We started climbing the rocks. We saw many families with small children, as well as pets, climbing. Including an Amish family! Nolan was in the Tula and Liam was doing awesome climbing. What we thought to be a small little trail to get to the easy trail, turned out to be a hard trail, with only one way down. By the time we got up to the top, Liam was tired, rightfully so. We had brought our toddler carrier and I was fully prepared to wear him down. Until I started down this rock mountain. I went into a full blown panic attack. There was no way I could climb down this mountain, with a 35lb 5-year-old strapped to my back, without us both dying! In all seriousness, it panics me just to think about it. I was frustrated, embarrassed that we hadn't paid more attention to the trail we had followed, and scared to death we'd be stranded up here forever. We eventually found another way down. We had to walk the entire perimeter of the park to get back this way. Okay, fine by me, as long as I don't have to risk falling down a mountain with my baby!
The easier walk back ended up being 5 miles! The walk itself wasn't nearly as difficult as the way back up or down would have been, but it was long, as you can guess. At this point, the kids needed to be carried, there was no way around it. Luckily we had lunch, but had forgotten our waters in the car. This had me even more panic stricken. Now, it sounds ridiculous. There were people around, we had a working cell phone, all that, but when you're scared, in an element, and situation like that, it doesn't seem ridiculous at all. I'm also grateful we went so early in the morning. We finally made it to the North Shore. We got some waters, had a snack, and used the bathroom. We prepared for the final two miles to the south shore. Now that I had seen civilization and realized we would not be dying, those last two miles were not only enjoyable, but absolutely stunning. Honestly, I wish we had been more careful and informed. We went into it very naively. Walking around here at home isn't much, as most trails are only a few miles combined. It definitely made us reconsider blindly following trails in the future with two small kids in tow. In the end, we view it as a blessing in disguise. The mountain was so amazing at the top and the last leg of the journey was worth it all. I just wish we could erase that middle part!
This all took around 5.5 hours. Much more time than we thought or had planned on. We were all exhausted and ready for dinner. We went back to the hotel, showered, changed, and headed out. We were finally able to eat at the Cheeze Factory! Don't let the name confuse you, it is an all vegan restaurant! It's a bit pricey, but it was part of the push that helped us decide to go to the Dells. We all got an entree (aside from Nolan who ate a PB sandwich) and dessert. Our bill was around $60 including tip, which is extremely high compared to what we usually spend, but very much worth the splurge. We also had planned for it, which helped our budget.
Since we had been at the park so much later than planned, after dinner we didn't have time for much else. We had thought about hitting Kalahari again, but now there was no way. Our motel had a sweet kiddie pool, with a water slide. We realized it was heated, so we let the kids go for about half an hour. Honestly, I wish we had realized that sooner because I think that was their favorite part. We never saw anyone in that one, just the larger one, so they had it all to themselves. After we were done, we got ready for bed, and all fell fast asleep!
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