Lake Wissota State Park 2010

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Every year for the past few years, we have traveled to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin for a family gathering.  In the past, we would usually camp over somewhere on the route back home.  This year, we decided reserve a campsite at Lake Wissota State Park, and explore the trails and surrounding area.   The lake is a man made lake created by damming up five rivers, that flowed through the valley, and the dam was designed and used as a power generating dam for the surrounding communities.   The lake is alive with fishermen, sail boats, and water activities of all sorts.



Lake Wissota State Park

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Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to explore the park too much.  We reserve the site for one night only, and someone else had reserved it for the night before, so we were not able to set up earlier in the day.  But once we were settled, we did do a little exploring.  The park has a very nice trail system for hiking, jogging, and biking, and is easily accessible.  The trail below was right behind our campsite.  It was easy to get too, but not too exposed that our site would have been visible to people walking by.  On a side note, we were again, not the only Scamp there.  A couple campsites away from ours we found a 5th wheel Scamp.



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As with most parks we visit, we enjoy taking a walk through the campground itself.  One thing I was really surprised by was how quickly the scenery changed around the park.  One minute you are in a leafy gathering of trees, then you find yourself surrounded by tall pine trees with a high needle canopy.  Very nice campground.



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The next set of pictures are from our hike the last day we were there.  We decided to follow the trail behind our campsite north to a group picnic and over look area.



Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

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As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of the visit was a family gathering in Chippewa Falls.  We usually get together in Irvine Park.  Its a wonderful place to visit.  They have some historical sites and descriptions of how the park came to be, as well as several nice shelters, and their very own zoo.



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Here is just a sample of what they have at the zoo.  There is also a petting zoo and small exhibit of monkeys and exotic birds.