Door County, Wi

We are currently at Potawatomi State Park along Lake Michigan at Sturgeon Bay. This park is pricy at $40/day and a daily park usage fee of $11, there is no water or sewer hookups. The only reason we came this far up the peninsula was to experience Door County, an area we heard was a “must see” in Wisconsin.The park is conveniently situated to explore Door County.

On our first full day we picked out a driving loop of over 100 miles to explore all that Door County could offer visually. We started by heading up the western side of the peninsula and headed across one of the several bridges over Sturgeon Bay into the small town of the same name. There we visited the Maritime Museum. As part of the museum was a fully restored early 1900’s diesel tug boat. The guided tour brought back a lot of the similarities of my time in the Navy. We plan to explore the town of Sturgeon Bay later since we are so close to it but this day the plan was to drive completely along the coastline of Sturgeon Bay to the waters of Green Bay.

This area is cottage country as this area is without a doubt  a summer vacation boater’s paradise. We passed countless waterfront lots and slips of motorboats and sailboats. As we drove along the coastline we were reminded of parts of Michigan’s lake front as it was similar to this part of Door County. That is until we got to Egg Harbor where the congestion of cars and people picked up dramatically. We stopped to look at their quaint harbor but decided it was much too crowded to enjoy a stroll.

Further north we passed into the town of Fish Creek and then into Ephraim where we found both towns also were hustling and bustling with people. We were surprised to see so many folks during the middle of the week but considering summer is about over for everyone here maybe it shouldn’t have surprised us. We stopped in Ephraim and viewed their harbor area. The color of the water was gorgeous. Next up were the towns of Sister Bay and Ellison Bay.

These towns were more laid back, less crowded and more designed for those looking for a little more solitude. At the northern tip of the peninsula is the small town of Gills Rock and just west of there is Northport which is nothing more than an auto ferry landing. We stopped at Gills Rock and caught a passenger ferry over to Washington Island.

As we headed south we drove along the eastern side of the peninsula along the shore of Lake Michigan but most roads along this side don’t allow us to see much along the shoreline. We did find at times gravel roads that hugged the shore line with the most beautiful water front ordinary homes. We drove back across the lower peninsula through the town of Sturgeon Bay and back to the park. In retrospect the drive was enjoyable but not as scenic as we had had hoped.  Because it is cottage country nearly every inch of shoreline is occupied with little or no turnouts for water viewing.  Therefore every village we did find was quite crowded yet we are still really glad we experienced the beauty here in Door County, Wisconsin.

As I mentioned before we are staying at Potawatomi State Park. While walking around the park I noticed Ice Age Trail. I first encountered this trail in Wausau, WI and have now picked it up once again. The Ice Age National Scenic Trail is a thousand-mile trail that is entirely within the state of Wisconsin and it highlights the Ice Age landscape features.

Our last evening we drove over to the Fish Creek, we had reservations at 5pm for a fish boil at the White Gull Inn. A tradition only done in Door County features freshly caught Lake Michigan whitefish caught by local fishermen and cooked outside over an open fire, just as it was one hundred years ago by the Scandinavian settlers of the Peninsula. The fish is cut in chunks and cooked in boiling water with small red potatoes. Fish oils rise to the surface of the boiling kettle, and when the fish is perfectly done, the Master Boiler tosses a small amount of kerosene on the flames under the pot. The great burst of flames causes the boilover, spilling the fish oils over the side of the pot and leaving the fish perfectly done, steaming hot and ready to serve.

‘Camera in Tow’ Photo’s