Governor Dodge - Part 1

On Sunday, Josh and I planned a day trip to Governor Dodge State Park. The park is awesome! It has tons of hiking trails, including one with a waterfall, and (located in Dodgeville) it takes only a little over an hour to get there from Madison. Even the drive there was fun due to the pretty scenery on the way, some entertaining podcasts, and my mad crocheting skills put to work. Oh, did I mention that we had to abandon the "camping car" - Josh's car - for the day because he was a dummy and let his car battery go dead? The tow truck has been following him for weeks, he should have known better :)

At the park, we started out with an hour and a half hike on the Pine Cliff Nature trail, then took some time to snack (on the cheddar crackers, some veggies, and a delicious m&m cookie) before moving on to the Stephens Falls Trail, or...the waterfall trail.

The Pine Cliff Trail was beautiful. The pretty scenery changes dramatically throughout the 2 miles, so there was always something new to look at. My favorite part of this trail = the gigantic steps (shown in the picture). These steps lead up to a higher part of the trail (obviously) where we were eventually able to peak at the lake and beach area from a secluded cliff covered with massive trees.

Now, the Stephens Falls Trail... Clearly, the waterfall is the featured sight of this hike. The main part of the trail is pretty much just some steps leading down to the base of the waterfall. The waterfall was very cool(!!!), but this part of the trail was totally invaded by everyone "hiking" at Governor Dodge with dogs and kiddos. The trail itself is pretty short, only 0.5 miles, if you follow the loop to the right. But this trail also branches off into another trail to the left. Naturally, Josh and I ended up being adventurous, and - more in an attempt to get away from all the goofs - we followed the trail to the left and hiked quite a long way on what we think was the Lost Canyon Trail. The entire area is so pretty, lots of green and lots of different things to look at. Quite fantastic.

This state park is also really cool because it has horse trails. And apparently it is possible to rent horses for the day and take them out on these trails. How cool is that?!? Anyway, we finished out the day by sitting at the beach area for a little bit before heading on to eat at the Grumpy Troll.

Click here to check out some pretty sweet pics from the day.