A frozen Lake Monona.

While camping last week, I took a couple of day trips to see nearby sights. One was to Lake of the Falls County Park in Iron County.

Even though the water drops just 10 feet at Lake of the Falls, it is real nice spot. I even had a good bald eagle sighting there (more on that later).

It was the first time I’ve been camping since last August. Because of my home situation over the past 6 months (moving, fixing up the house I bought) most of my vacation time has been spent doing those things.

Finally camping after a year’s hiatus only reinforced how important is is for me to get to the outdoors on a regular basis.

There is nothing like laying in your sleeping bag and hearing loons call at night, or biking/hiking through beautiful woods and lake shores. The experience of those kind of things are definitely food for my soul.

I’ve mentioned that trail before — it’s my favorite hiking trail in the state. While hiking there, you’ll walk through a thick boreal forest, a bog, a plantation of century-old pine trees, and along the lake shore. You’ll see (and hear) loons and other birds, and if you’re lucky you might get a glimpse of a bald eagle. Beautiful views can be seen all along the trail, but there is none better than the Black Lagoon.

The Star Lake Nature trail is located off of Hwy K, about a mile west of the intersection with Hwy N in Vilas County. Map

Early Wednesday evening, it looked like I’d be in store for another nice sunset. Instead, right before the sun went down, some ominous-looking clouds blew in.

Sure enough, about a hour and a half later, a mild thunderstorm moved over the campground.

Despite the continuing below-normal temperatures, I needed to connect with the outdoors today. Late this afternoon, I visited a frozen Lake Monona.

Taken Sunday at Yellowstone Lake State Park.

As I’ve probably mentioned before, the beauty of this area makes it one of my favorite places to visit.

There is virtually an endless supply of gorgeous scenery there.

The below two photos were taken along the Lumberjack Hiking Trail. You come upon these scenes of the Manitowish River after about a 15-20 minute hike through the woods.

When you emerge from the woods and see this, it’s one of those “oh wow” moments.

I spent a lot of time biking the very nice trails in the area, including the Plum Lake Bike Trail above.

The last two pictures (of Plum Lake) were taken along the trail as the sun was going down.

It was another gorgeous summer day today, so I returned to Mendota, and went for a long bike ride along the lake. One of my favorite places to ride in Madison is where the bike path runs along the lake shore in the middle of the U.W. campus.

I ended up biking for most of the afternoon. I stuck to the shore as best I could, riding through where the rich people live, and made it up to the northern side of the city.

After I got home, I decided it had to be one of the best rides I’ve done this year.

Located about 40 miles southwest of Madison, Yellowstone Lake State Park has some scenic vistas, good hiking trails, and a very nice campground.

While hiking along the aptly named Wildlife Loop Trail, I saw a lot of water fowl, including blue herons, and what I think were trumpeter swans.

I did see about a dozen of the the large, white birds. I was fortunate to catch two swans in flight above another one wading in the lake.

What a nice park! And only about 45 minutes away from home. I’m definitely coming back.