Camping at Harrington Beach State Park, October 6-8, 2017

This was our fifth annual cold weather camping and we chose to try a walk in site at Harrington Beach State Park.  Our site (W1) was a decent size site.  It was a nice walk from the parking lot (we brought a cart which made a world of a difference hauling our stuff).  The site has very little shade but is quite secluded in tall grasses and bushes (and is a bit of a ways away from the other walk in sites).  A decent pit toilet is shared with site W2 but the very nice flush toilets and showers are not that far of a walk.

The pit toilet shared with site W2

The split to sites W1 and W2

As you can see from the photos, we dealt with a fair amount of rain and even wind.  Fortunately, the rain was on and off enough so that we were able to cook all our meals over the fire and even get a hike in Saturday morning and then Saturday evening the sky cleared and the stars were amazing.  Until the moon came up, it was so dark we even were able to see the Milky Way.  When the wind was off the lake, we could also hear the waves from our campsite.

On our hike, we saw some deer along the Whitetail Trail.

Then we walked the Quarry Lake Hiking Trail which is a really neat trail.

We also checked out the waves of Lake Michigan.

Back at the campsite, the rain picked up again in the afternoon but we were rewarded with a beautiful full rainbow.

Finally, who can't resist a good campfire, something we were really able to enjoy Saturday night.

Lions Den Gorge Nature Preserve

I realize this blog is meant more for our travels but I just had to share a day trip we took last weekend.  We went to Lions Den Gorge Nature Preserve south of Port Washington.  It is a beautiful park right on the shores of Lake Michigan.  You can walk along the bluffs overlooking the lake and take the stairs down to the beach.  It was just breathtaking the day we went last weekend with the fresh snow.  We had meant to bring our snowshoes but forgot which wasn't a big deal because most of where we hiked had been hiked by a fair number of people. I plan to go back and see the place in different seasons.  Here are some pictures: