The trip to Devil’s Lake State Park was a few weeks ago now, and I’m finally getting around to processing the pictures. Phew. This park might be the most popular in Wisconsin, and with good reason; not only are there some incredible views, a multitude of trails with a variety of difficulties, and the landscaping for every outdoorsy activity from camping to kayaking to rock climbing, it also somehow manages to maintain a feeling of timelessness and wilderness in spite of the fact that it is usually teaming with tourists.

We had a great time, and in the 4 hours we were there we managed to walk entirely around the lake, play at the beach, climb up the side of a cliff, wander around the wilderness and picnic on the lawns. Not too shabby.

Our only complaint? The bugs. Don’t go during the may fly hatching season – they’re harmless enough of course, because they don’t bite, but boy were they EVERYWHERE and in some places the swarms were so thick they looked like clouds of dust(if you look at the first photo you’ll see what I mean) – we inhaled more than a few. On top of that, Dmitri isn’t down with bugs, ANY bugs, so we spent most of our hike trying to outrun the swarms with him shreiking “They’re on me! They’re on me!” the whole way.

Click on any of the thumbnail below to enlarge.