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 The best places to go when visiting the Northwoods of Wisconsin...

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Rib Mountain, Wausau  

I started thinking about things to do as this would be more like a long weekend for both of us. Since we both like hiking in the woods, what better place than Rib Mtn State Park. Though we had been there as kids, we never, (according to my memory), never hiked much of the park in detail. We had always climbed the observation tower, which in itself was thrill to see the 30 miles or so radius of beautiful patchwork colors of the land that spread out. So, the next day, Saturday, we stopped off at the local grocery store, picked up some supplies and drove up to Rib mtn. The weather held out for us, as it was a sunny morning, but according to the forecast, the weather would be closing in by sometime in the afternoon. The drive into the Wausau area was nice, you could see the leaves were just about at their peak for autumn. The drive inside the State park roads climbing up the side of the Mtn. was like a gentle snowfall with a continous falling of leaves. The colors were bright, I think that, that was the last weekend we'd get a chance to see the leaves changing. We parked the truck just after buying a park pass, in a lower parking area to get out to walk around before going up higher. There on the North face, we found auditorium like seating facing a stage area, the back drop was the magnifiscent view Northward of the surrounding area. We imagined how great it would be to conduct various ceremonies here.
We drove a couple more minutes to the upper parking area. Here we started the days hikes around the top of the mountain. There was plenty of parking here and the you could find the trails easy enough. We spent almost 3 hrs hiking occasionally stopping to admire a view and take some pictures. The trails are easy to navigate and there are some boulders to climb on, if you feel like it, on the North side of the Mountain. On the south side we relaxed on a couple of rocks that resembled a reclining chair. Though this was the Middle of October and quite windy, we were never cold. The breeze was blowing up the side of the mountain from the farm lands below bring with it pleasant temps. We made it around to the otherside of the Mountain top to the parking area and to our surprise, there was not a place left over to park anything. It seemed that everyone decided that this was the last weekend for the changing of the leaves. We sat down at a picnic table and had a late lunch. Looking upward and South, we could see that the weather was starting to close in and decided to head back to Stevens point shortly. We had a nice day at the Mountain and another place for memories.

If you need map directions to any of these towns,
please use this link: Yahoo Driving Directions

For more information about Rib Mountain State Park or other Wisconsin State Parks, please go to this DNR page:
www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/specific/findapark.html

Thanks from Caught In Time
to Michael Savickas for this great recommendation!