#3951. Go to Peninsula Sate Park in Door County

I not so casually mentioned to Rick and Shannon I’ll go hiking any time with them and kind of invited myself to go hiking with them on Saturday. Luckily they let me come. They wanted to go to Door County and at first Rick mentioned Potawatomie State Park. I didn’t have a real preference since the three they were thinking about were all on the bucket list. We ended up going to Peninsula State Park.

Peninsula State Park is between Fish Creek and Ephraim on the bay side of Door County. It is an extremely popular 3700+ acre state park that features hiking, biking, an 18-hole golf course, a lighthouse, a sandy beach, plenty of camping and summer theater performances. There are high bluffs and rocky shoreline. Up until a few months ago, there was an observation tower but it had to be taken down to do being structurally unsafe. They plan on rebuilding it.

When we got up to Peninsula State Park, we decided to have lunch before going hiking. We stopped at the first picnic area we found and had a nice picnic lunch. It was right on the water which made it chilly. We were the only people there when we got there but after our hike the place was full of people. It only had 4 or so picnic tables. I’m glad we ate when we did.

We wanted a short trail to hike. Every trail on the map we came to said 5+ miles. I joked we could walk a mile and turn around. Then we found the Eagle Trail. It was marked difficult. The map showed that it made a giant loop and didn’t seem all that long. It seemed like a fairly popular trail. We decided if it was too difficult we would just turn around.

I am not sure what they meant by “difficult”. The trail was easier than the Lime Kiln Trail at High Cliff and way easier than the trial Tanya and I hiked at Devil’s Lake last year. I think it was difficult because it was “rugged” and not a flat trail lined with gravel or wood chips. There were

Stones and rocks walk on

Stone steps to climb

Muddy inclines to navigate

Tree roots to avoid tripping over

Dead trees to climb over (and sit on)

This was my kind of hiking. Yes you hiked down to the water level but unlike High Cliff or Devil’s Lake, it was more of a gradual descend/ascend rather than all at once.

My favorite part of the hike was the “caves” or openings in the bluff. Once I realized what trail we were on, I was hoping that we would get to see the caves.

Some of them were small that you could barely fit in them.

Others I could walk into.

They are not very deep and aren’t really worth exploring but are still cool to see. I believe there are more “caves” down on the water level that you can actually kayak into. Yes, it’s on my bucket list.

It was also a great day to take pictures with the leaves starting to change. I always love posing for pictures and so does my niece. We had fun taking pictures. I won’t recommend lying on the stone beach for long though. Those rocks hurt.

Out of all the State Parks I visited this year, this one is my favorite. I loved the ruggedness of the trail, the scenery, and caves. I want to go back and explore other trails (which I’m sure I’ll be disappointed by the lack of difficulty) and find the water caves. I know the hubby won’t go hiking and exploring with me so I jump on any chance I get.