Roche-A-Cri State Park, Friendship, WI, July 24-26, 2015

Rock outcropping at Roche-A-Cri

A few weeks ago, my wife asked if I wanted to go camping over the next few weeks, and I responded that I would prefer to go to the backcountry or at least to some places we've never been. Her search found Roche-A-Cri State Park in Friendship, WI. After looking for it on the map, I became a bit concerned because it seemed to just be a tiny spot of green along the highway near a small town, but it turned out to be a pretty nice park.

Roche-A-Cri State Park was basically established to protect a 300-ft rock outcropping and Native American petroglyphs. The park has about 5 miles of hiking trails, 41 campsites and a creek that supposedly has decent fishing. The rock mound supposedly was an island in Glacial Lake Wisconsin about 15,000 years ago. Despite the park's small size, I recommend a visit and would camp there again.

Our campsite

As usual, we hurried out Friday evening to arrive in time to set up camp. I was pleasantly surprised to find that our walk-in site was wooded with flat areas for the tent and plenty of trees for rigging a tarp and my hammock. After putting up the tarp, I built a fire for us to enjoy for a couple hours before heading to bed. It was definitely obvious we were in a small park because we could hear music coming from a bar or something until the wee hours of the morning, but it didn't really affect my sleeping.

The park doesn't really offer paddling opportunities, so on Saturday after a bacon and eggs breakfast, we headed up to Wisconsin Rapids to paddle Nepco Lake. Nepco Lake is a fairly small lake at about 500 acres, but it felt a bit bigger to me. We launched from Nepco Lake County Park, which is a fairly nice but small park with a sand swimming beach, boat ramp, playground, pit toilets and a shelter. Instead of using the boat ramp, which seemed more suited for trailered boats than canoes or kayaks, we put in next to (but outside) the swimming area. 

We basically took a leisurely paddle around the lake. Despite the large amount of development along the shoreline, there were not many power boats on the lake. We did encounter a ski boat that produced the largest wake I ever recall paddling in, and it lifted the boat out of the water, slamming us down just in time for the next wave to come over the bow. Surprisingly, Amber declared it to be fun, and I definitely concurred, but I surprised myself by grabbing the gunnels for a moment. I thought I had outgrown that habit, but I guess I have a lot more work to do. We saw a couple cranes, which I think were Sandhill Cranes. We paddled a total of 4.4 miles, which was just enough to feel like we got to put in some work. I got to try out my new Grey Owl Northern Lights paddle, and I like it pretty well, but I didn't think it was an improvement over my Bending Branches Espresso Straight. I think it would help if I actually learned how to use it! 

After paddling, Amber played in the water a bit, then we made the 30 minute drive back to the campground. We had tortilla pizza for lunch and hung out in camp fighting with Amber over who-knows-what. Being a bit tired we decided to go out for dinner, but there were pretty limited options, and we ended up at a pizza place. It was pretty good, but I didn't feel so well afterward and wished I would have skipped eating out. We got back around dark and built a fire to enjoy before heading to bed.

Although Lorraine had already explored the park while Amber and I slept on Saturday, we decided to check out the petroglyphs and climb the 303 steps to the top of the rock mound before leaving on Sunday morning. I was pretty saddened by the amount of graffiti carved into the rock with the pictographs. I never cease to be amazed by the level of narcissism people must have to deface such historic artifacts. After climbing the steps to the top, we took in the views, which I didn't find very impressive, but you can see pretty far, and there are a number of other mounds visible. I'm glad I climbed the steps, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it again.

I definitely recommend Roche-A-Cri State Park despite its small size. There aren't a lot of amenities, but there also aren't a lot of crowds. I hope we continue to explore more of the lesser known parks.