A recent Saturday morning found me waiting to board the ColSac III with my friend and colleague, Jonathan Rice. We were on a field trip, to visit the scene of one of the climatic events of his first novel The Narrow Gate, in Devils Lake State Park.

As we approached the park, the bluffs were shrouded in their early morning mist, lending an air of mystery to the day. Would we be able to find our objective?

We parked at the park, and had several trails to choose from.

The Balanced Rock trail looked the most interesting.

Very interesting

The higher we climbed, the more beautiful the scenery

Finally we reached Balanced Rock. But that was not our goal.

When we reached the top of the bluff we joined another trail and headed for our goal.

We found it. I think I had better luck this time than in times previous because the signage is better now, and we carefully consulted the available maps. When we got there people were already climbing into it.

The infamous Devil’s Doorway at Devil’s Lake.

This dove was peacefully watching everything.

We descended by another route, The Pothole Trail.

Past devilishly tortured remnants of nature.

As we left the park, we looked back. “Yeah, we climbed that.”

Our next planned stop was overflowing with people on this beautiful summer morning, so we moved on to destination #3, and began hiking the trail up Ferry Bluff, overlooking the Wisconsin River.

As we hiked up the bluff we could hear the voices from the river.

We were hearing the canoers.

A cool place to be on a hot summer day.

Ferry Bluff is off limits during winter months, because of nesting bald eagles. It’s also the home of a lot more interesting flora and fauna, including these outrageously orange blossoms. UPDATE – Just found out this plant is the butterfly milkweed (asclepias tuberosa) blossom, an important plant for monarch butterfly propagation.

Recreation on a summer day with good friends is always fun! Still feeling good despite all of the bluff climbing. Must be that Prairie du Chien upbringing, when I climbed bluffs on an almost daily basis.

And over too soon.

On our way back we found this unattended canoe that seemed to be asking, “Canoe canoe?” It was very tempting but we decided to leave caoneing for another day.