Door County, Wisconsin - July 10th to 12th, 2021
When you search for things to do and see in Wisconsin, Door County on Door Peninsula is always near the top of the list. What is there to see and do in Door County? There is no singular main attraction, but the beauty and variety is what draws the people in. A Wisconsin resident friend of ours provided us with a list of recommendations in Door County which greatly guided us to a wonderful sampling of what the peninsula has to offer.
Saturday was a driving day. We drove from Devil’s Lake State Park to Potawatomi State Park in Door Country near Sturgeon Bay. As we approached Potawatomi, we stopped at Renard’s Cheese Shop. They have a couple of locations in Door county. The one near Sturgeon Bay is a store and a deli. The one in Algoma is a store and where their cheese factory is located. They normally conduct factory tours, but have suspended the tours because of the pandemic. They do not say when they will resume tours again.
At the Sturgeon Bay store, we bought several different cheeses to try. One is brick cheese. This one reminded us of mozzarella. Another is beer cheddar cheese. Everything tastes better when you add beer. And, of course, we bought cheese curds. No trip to Wisconsin is complete without cheese curds. Cheese curds are un-aged cheddar. Wisconsin state law requires cheese curds to be sold up to one day after production without being refrigerated (6 Things You Might Not Know About Cheese Curds).
There were some shaded tables outside the cheese shop, so we ate our picnic lunch there. As we tried some of the cheese curds, we noticed that they would squeak when we bit into them. It turns out that the squeak is an indication of a fresh cheese curd. They lose their squeak within three of four days. When we ate some of the curds the following day, our curds had lost most of their squeak.
We arrived in Potawatomi State Park in the early afternoon. To get some exercise, we took a short hike from our camp site along the Ice Age Trail a couple of miles to the eastern terminus inside the park. The Ice Age Trail is a National Scenic Trail that extends 1200 miles across Wisconsin from Potawatomi State Park to Interstate State Park in St. Croix Falls. It also happens to pass through Devil’s Lake State Park, where we were the night before. The campground we stayed at in Devil’s Lake is called the Ice Age Campground and the Ice Age Trail passes right by it. However, we did not hike any of it while we were there.
The part of the trail we hiked in Potawatomi State Park follows along the rocky shoreline of Sturgeon Bay before turning inland and up to a tower at the eastern terminus of the trail. Surprisingly, despite how close it was to the shore, it was shaded by the dense woods. We thought we would have more views out across the bay, but they were few and far between.
Unfortunately, the tower at the eastern terminus is in need of repair and permanently closed, so we could not climb it for a view. Instead, we continued a short distance further along Tower Trail up to the Old Ski Hill Viewpoint. There was a nice view from there. There was also a selfie stand to put your phone on to get a nice picture of yourself with the view in the background. What a nice feature! A person at the viewpoint informed us that Wisconsin has these selfie stands all over the state. Cool! We’ll have to keep an eye out for them.
We counted the hike as hike #25 of our 52 Hike Challenge. It was four miles with an elevation gain of 213 feet in an hour and 50 minutes.
On Sunday, our first stop for the day was Cana Island. It is just north of Baileys Harbor on the “Lake Side” of the Door Peninsula. There is a lighthouse on the island that has been in operation since 1869. To get to the island, there is a rocky causeway that is under about a foot of water. You can walk across in ankle deep water, kayak over, or ride the wagon being pulled by a tractor. We chose the wagon. The wagon makes a round trip about every 15 minutes, so the wait was not long. There was a young couple walking across, but even they looked like it was an effort to keep their balance on the ankle twisting rocks while the waves lapped against their ankles. There is no charge for the wagon ride, but there is a $10 per person fee to visit the island.
Luckily we noticed on their website the day before that the climb up the lighthouse tower was only open Friday through Sunday. If we would have waited until Monday to go, we would have been out of luck. Normally the lighthouse is open all week, but it was supposed to be closed this summer for renovations. However, due to the skyrocketing prices of building materials due to the pandemic, the renovations were put on hold to raise more money. But that meant they didn’t arrange for enough staff for the summer to keep it open full time. They struggled to find enough people to open the tower on weekends. We feel grateful that we were able to visit it this year.
The metal spiral staircase up to the Fresnal lens of the lighthouse is narrow. There is only enough room for people going in one direction with no room to pass someone going the other way. Therefore, they send about 20 people up at a time, with the next group waiting for the previous group to come down before going up. From the landing at the top, you can see about 17 miles out over Lake Michigan before the curvature of the earth prevents you from seeing any further.
Besides the lighthouse tower, you can explore the attached lightkeeper’s house along with several outbuildings. Even though the lighthouse is still in operation, the Coast Guard controls it remotely and a lightkeeper is no longer needed to reside on the island. The lightkeeper’s house is unfurnished. Perhaps that will change after the restorations are completed. After we took our turn climbing the lighthouse tower, we took a short trail through the woods that followed the island’s shoreline from the lighthouse back to the visitor center and causeway.
After Cana Island, we drove back to Baileys Harbor. We picnicked in the van in Baileys Harbor Ridges County Park. The park is just a small strip of a sandy beach. There were picnic tables, but they were in the full sun. However, there were restrooms and the view from our van of Lake Michigan beat the views if we had parked along the side of the road in town.
Then it was time for ice cream. We drove back into town and walked up and down the street. Harbor Frozen Custard caught our eye. They have frozen custard, gelato, and sorbet. We were rather boring with our selection. RB had a waffle cone of chocolate frozen custard and LB had a vanilla shake. They satisfied our ice cream fix for the day.
Now we needed to burn off some of those calories, so we headed south to Whitefish Dunes State Park. We hiked the red, yellow, green, and brachiopod trails for a total of 4.5 miles in a little over two hours with an elevation gain of 171 feet. We counted this as hike #26 of our 52 Hike Challenge. We started from the picnic area near the lake shore. We were surprised to see how densely wooded it was right along the shore. It made for a lovely shaded area. There was also a display of some shipwreck artifacts in the picnic area which were interesting.
We started out on the Red Trail because the map showed it was in the sand dunes. However, it didn’t look like sand dunes to us. The trail was a wide gravel trail surrounded by dense woods on both sides. At the start of the trail, there were a few replicas of shelters that early native Americans would have used in the area.
The sandy beach is accessed from the Red Trail in a few spots. At the first access, a board walk with steps takes you up and over a rise to reach the beach. We finally figured out that the two ridges we were hiking between are in fact the dunes. They are just not what we are used to seeing. The dunes are covered with trees, vegetation, leaves, and a layer of soil. But the mound underneath all that is probably all sand. It is sand that created the hills.
At the other end of the Red Trail, we took the boardwalk up to the Mt. Baldy Overlook. There are more patches of sand in this area so you can get a better sense that you are on top of a dune. From there we picked up the Yellow Trail. The Yellow Trail was more interesting. Much of the trail itself was sand. There were less trees and more wide open fields. A variety of unusual vegetation surrounded the path.
After the Green Trail joins the Yellow Trail, we crossed Lake Clark Road and took the Brachiopod Trail through the wetland area and eventually brought us back to the picnic area. The wetland area was teaming with dragonflies and a variety of small flowers on top of the marshy water.
It felt like we had a full day. We headed back to Potawatomi to make dinner and rest up for another day in Door Country. The homemade lemon cream pasta was refreshing and filled our bellies.
On Monday, we concentrated on the “Bay Side” of the Door Peninsula. First up was the newly opened Eagle Tower in Peninsula State Park. It replaced the tower that was taken down in 2016. What was cool was the ramp up to the top of the tower to make it accessible to more people. The tower is 60 feet high and the ramp is 850 feet long, winding down around through the trees. We chose to climb the stairs on the way up to the observation deck and take the ramp on the way back down.
The views out over Green Bay were spectacular. The tower gets you up above the tree tops. Living up to the tower’s name, there was a bald eagle perched in a tree top nearby.
From the tower we headed over to the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse which is also in Peninsula State Park. The lighthouse was built in 1868 and is still in operation. The lighthouse was automated in the 1920’s so a light keeper is no longer needed. The light keeper’s house was turned into a museum in 1960. You can climb the lighthouse tower but only to just below the Fresnel lens, so you can see the lens but not the views out over Green Bay.
Unlike the Cana Light Keeper’s House we visited the day before, the Eagle Bluff house is fully furnished. They were lucky enough to furnish it with pieces from one of the former keeper’s family. The self-guided tour of the lighthouse is $5 per person.
Heading north to Sister Bay, we had lunch at Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant. It turned out to be a late lunch since it took over an hour to get a table inside. We thought that the outdoor seating was only for drinks, but we found out later that the Stabbur Kitchen has a different food menu from the indoor dining. We both had a Swedish meatball sandwich with pickled cabbage along with lemonade with lingonberries to drink. In addition, RB had a beet salad and LB had a cucumber salad. Being a Swedish restaurant, we were expecting more Swedish items on the menu. The rest of the menu was burgers, fries, various forms of fish and a reuben. What we ate seemed pretty Swedish and the fish dishes may have been prepared in a Swedish style, we don’t know. They also have an extensive breakfast menu that they serve all day (until 3 pm), but we did not look closely at that menu. The Swedish pancakes looked very good with fruit and whipped cream, but we were saving room for ice cream later.
As good as the food was, the main attraction were the goats on the roof of the restaurant. When Al renovated the restaurant in 1973, he added a sod roof. A friend of his put a goat on the sod roof as a joke. As this attracted the attention of people walking by, Al decided to expand on the idea and added more goats. It is quite a whimsical thing to see in the middle of town.
We didn’t feel like hiking or cycling that day, so we went for a drive instead. We drove all the way up to the northern point of the peninsula, where the ferry is to take cars from Northport over to Washington Island. Just to the northwest of Northport is Porte des Morts Park. It is a small county park. There are stairs down to the water where you can view the rock formations of the bluff.
As we headed back south, we stopped at Lautenbach’s Orchard. Since Door County seems to be known for cherries, we felt like we had to pick up some. Cherries were in season and you couldn’t go two miles in Door County without seeing an orchard with a Pick Your Own Cherries sign. Lautenbach has an extensive market with all kinds of fruit products as well as their wines. There is also a tour available of their winery and a wine tasting room. Out back behind the store is a cherry pit spit, where you can try your skill at how far you can spit a cherry pit. We did not partake in any of that. We just bought fresh cherries, fresh cherry juice, corn on the cob, and a cherry strudel.
Now it was time for ice cream. As we drove through Egg Harbor earlier that day, we noticed an ice cream shop called Grumpy’s. You may wonder if Grumpy’s is a good name for a store as it might turn people away. For us, it was the name that attracted us. OK, call us weird, but we like fun, quirky names. They did not have shakes, but LB had a root beer float with some good draft root beer. They had a deep, dark chocolate along with some kind of mint chip. That was all that RB needed. We were satisfied and ready to call it a day.
Door County has a lot to offer. Door Peninsula is covered with farms, orchards, and vineyards, which means lots of farm markets, cider mills, and wineries. What isn’t farmland or golf courses is covered with dense woods, which means nice hiking and cycling trails. There are four state parks on the peninsula: Potawatomi, Peninsula, Whitefish Dunes, and Northport State Parks. We went to three of the four, making good use of our annual Wisconsin State Park pass. Door Peninsula has several small bays or harbors on both the lake side and the bay side. Each one has its own marina surrounded by a touristy small town. There is plenty of boating and fishing opportunities, whether you have your own craft or rent one from the numerous companies in Door County. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even go on a kayak cave tour. Each town is full of unique shops, restaurants, cottages, and hotels. Shops range from antiques to apparel and from craft cheeses to art galleries. No matter what your interests are, you will most likely find something you like.
As we were driving around the peninsula, we noticed that some of the barns had quilt patterns painted on them. At first we thought this was unique to Door County, but we discovered there are quite a few counties in Wisconsin where this has become a tradition (6 Barn Quilt Trails to Discover in Wisconsin). Barn quilts actually started in Ohio back in 2001.
A big shout out goes to our friend, Judy! Her Door County suggestions did not disappoint. Following her advice provided us with a great experience. Thank you!
Check out our related video: Door County, Wisconsin
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