JBtheExplorer
Native Gardener
I left Friday afternoon for two short days at Governor Dodge State Park. Two days is not nearly enough for this large park. Unfortunately, the weather also wasn't ideal, so I didn't get to do nearly as much as I hoped to do, but I did get a couple hikes in.
Here's Stephens' Falls.
From the waterfall, the water continues to flow east through a canyon, as it constantly drops in small increments. I think this stream is called Mill creek.
Eventually, the creek reaches the first of two man-made lakes, Cox Hollow Lake.
From there, it falls down a cascade and continues flowing east.
It then flows into the second man-made lake, known as Twin Valley Lake, before continuing to flow out of the park.
My longest hike of the weekend was to the park's largest of three caves. On my previous trip here in 2013, I visited the small cave and hidden cave, but this was my first time seeing the big cave. "Big" is only in relation to the other caves in the park. It's still a pretty small cave.
It may be the biggest cave in the park, but it has the smallest entrance of the three, only about two feet tall. The metal frame on the entrance is fairly new, and I know the caves did not have these frames years ago. I'm not exactly sure why it's there, but my guess is that it allows the DNR to attach something to it to prevent humans from entering the caves during hibernation season, to allow bats to hibernate in peace and to help prevent white-nose syndrome from spreading.
Once I decided to crawl in and took some time to look around, I took some photos. The cave was very wet. The air was misty, so I didn't have the option to use my camera flash, so I had to use my headlamp.
After leaving the cave, I took some time to explore the many other interesting rock features in the area. There are a lot of areas that look like caves as you're walking up to them. I suppose most of them would be considered rock shelters.
As much as I wanted to keep exploring, I knew rain was coming with potential storms, so I made the safe decision to hike back to camp. On the way back, I took this photo of an immature Bald Eagle. There were a lot of eagles soaring over the lakes. I rarely get to see eagles, so it was a nice treat.
In the end, it was a fun trip to an amazing park, but I'm a little disappointed I didn't get enough time to enjoy it. The weather really held me back from hiking the many trails in the park. I'm hoping I'll be able to get back there in the next couple of years. Until then, I've got one last camping trip planned later this autumn that I'm looking forward to.
Here's Stephens' Falls.
From the waterfall, the water continues to flow east through a canyon, as it constantly drops in small increments. I think this stream is called Mill creek.
Eventually, the creek reaches the first of two man-made lakes, Cox Hollow Lake.
From there, it falls down a cascade and continues flowing east.
It then flows into the second man-made lake, known as Twin Valley Lake, before continuing to flow out of the park.
My longest hike of the weekend was to the park's largest of three caves. On my previous trip here in 2013, I visited the small cave and hidden cave, but this was my first time seeing the big cave. "Big" is only in relation to the other caves in the park. It's still a pretty small cave.
It may be the biggest cave in the park, but it has the smallest entrance of the three, only about two feet tall. The metal frame on the entrance is fairly new, and I know the caves did not have these frames years ago. I'm not exactly sure why it's there, but my guess is that it allows the DNR to attach something to it to prevent humans from entering the caves during hibernation season, to allow bats to hibernate in peace and to help prevent white-nose syndrome from spreading.
Once I decided to crawl in and took some time to look around, I took some photos. The cave was very wet. The air was misty, so I didn't have the option to use my camera flash, so I had to use my headlamp.
After leaving the cave, I took some time to explore the many other interesting rock features in the area. There are a lot of areas that look like caves as you're walking up to them. I suppose most of them would be considered rock shelters.
As much as I wanted to keep exploring, I knew rain was coming with potential storms, so I made the safe decision to hike back to camp. On the way back, I took this photo of an immature Bald Eagle. There were a lot of eagles soaring over the lakes. I rarely get to see eagles, so it was a nice treat.
In the end, it was a fun trip to an amazing park, but I'm a little disappointed I didn't get enough time to enjoy it. The weather really held me back from hiking the many trails in the park. I'm hoping I'll be able to get back there in the next couple of years. Until then, I've got one last camping trip planned later this autumn that I'm looking forward to.
