Open the Door

This is the account of our vacation to Door County, Wisconsin, from June 4 through June 9, 2023. If that doesn't completely turn you off, read on...it's mostly pictures.

Sunday, June 4 - Arrival

Karen worked (at the local KT) until 2:00, so we didn't leave home until shortly after that. We'd heard (as you likely have too) about the Door County fish boil, so I had called to reserve a spot at the 6:30 edition at The White Gull Inn in Fish Creek.

There are several restaurants in the area that do a fish boil. We picked this one randomly. We later heard from multiple sources that the one hosted by The White Gull is considered the best of them all. Without having a point of comparison, it's impossible to judge, but it was quite good.

This gentleman (I don't recall his name) was our host for the boil itself.

By the time we arrived, the potatoes were already in the kettle and cooking.

After a short Q&A, our host told us to get our cameras ready, called out a 3-2-1 countdown, and added the kerosene.

I snapped these next four shots in quick succession. Other than eating the food itself, this is why you come to a fish boil.

The food was ready soon after and was carried off to the kitchen. The preparers deboned the fish for us. (Apparently this isn't automatically done at every boil in the county.)

The fish, which is whitefish, was very good - and this comes from someone who normally only eats perch.

After our meal, we continued north (technically, northeast) to Ellison Bay where we stayed at the Parkside Inn for the week.

There was WiFi, as the sign says, but it didn't reach to Room 16. The hotel itself was fine, but I wouldn't stay there again unless I could get a room closer to the office.

Monday, June 5

One of the main reasons we came to Door County was to visit the state parks located there that we hadn't visited yet in our quest to hike in all of Wisconsin's state parks. (We had previously hiked Potawatomi State Park on an earlier outing.)

The first park we had planned to visit this week was Rock Island State Park. It takes some preplanning to get to this park and back "home" in one day. (For all the details about our visits to each of these parks, click the appropriate link.)

You first have to take a car ferry from the mainland to Washington Island.

We were one of the first vehicles to drive onto this ship.

We left Northport and headed out to "sea".

We passed Plum Island on the way to Washington Island. You are now allowed to visit Plum Island, but you have to get there on your own.

Upon arrival at Washington, you drive off the ferry, across the island, and park at Jackson Harbor. From there, a foot ferry will take you to Rock Island.

Following our hike and return to the mainland, we walked across Highway 42 by our hotel to see why it was called the Parkside.

Ellison Bay Community Park is a nicely kept area with tennis court, playground, and gazebo.

There's a pier jutting into the waters of Ellison Bay. Here's a view from the end of that pier to the north.

Door County residents often mention that you are (usually) on the Niagara Escarpment. It feels like they are proud of this fact, almost as if they had something to do with its creation.

Here's a so-so sunset picture from the shore of Ellison Bay. I suppose it's technically not a traditional sunset yet at this time of day, but it's the only one I took that comes close.

Tuesday, June 6

Park #2 was Peninsula State Park, one of the most popular in the entire state. It was a difficult hike but worth the effort.

Later that day, we attempted (successfully) one of our more adventurous non-park excursions.

Yes, that's us commanding Segways. It was just the two of us and our guide, Brian, tooling around Fish Creek. Brian has us pose for a few still shots on some of the docks in the area.

We drove through the ritzy part of town - past a house where Curly Lambeau once lived. It was a lot of fun. We'd do it again.

Wednesday, June 7

Park #3 was Whitefish Dunes State Park near the Whitefish Bay of Door County - not to be confused with other, arguably more famous Whitefish Bays elsewhere. This involved our longest drive - 25 miles - of the week.

Whitefish Dunes had lots of dragonflies. Perhaps this is the reason for this large metal one on the opposite site of the peninsula.

After our hike, we tour a boat tour from Sister Bay up to the tip of the peninsula - Death's Door - and back.

One of the homes along the shore includes a (mostly) glass office. (Sorry, didn't have my zoom lens.)

We passed the Ellison Bluff overlook. You'll see the view from there later, if you keep scrolling.

I expected to see plenty of seagulls in the area. After all, you even see them in restaurant parking lots virtually everywhere. But I didn't expect to see so many pelicans! This was the closest we got to one on this trip.

At the tip of the peninsula, we saw the Washington Island car ferries - one headed out and one headed in - we had ridden on earlier in the week.

We passed Plum Island that has an interesting feature you can't see from the ferry. There is a large red marker with a white stripe on the island's lighthouse and a similar one on the shore. When you sail to where they line up with each other, you know you're in the middle of the channel. Ingenious!

Nearby was what's left of Pilot Island which has been despoiled by the cormorants that live in the area. Virtually nothing grows there anymore due to their droppings.

On the way back to Sister Bay, our captain seemed to shrink (and change gender).

Thursday, June 8

Our final major park was Newport State Park, a Dark Sky Park. We went there twice - once in the daytime and once at after sunset.

After the first visit to Newport, we drove down to Egg Harbor to take a trolley tour.

We would have taken the one that involved chocolate and wine, but that one wasn't running yet this season. This tour was nearly full.

Our bench seat was reserved.

Our guide drove us up through Fish Creek, Peninsula State Park, and Ephraim. In the park we got views of the Strawberry Islands from Sven's Bluff.

We got a view of the harbor by Nicolet Beach (I think).

In Ephraim, one of the more interesting sites was the Goodletson Cabin (now a museum). We didn't stop there, nor did we visit it on foot at any other time, so this is the best shot you'll see here.

At the end of our trolley tour, we learned that this was our guide's first effort. Not bad, if a little rough around the edges.

Back at the trolley tour gift shop, we picked up this puzzle.

Friday, June 9

By Friday we had run out of state parks, so before heading for home, we took in a couple of county parks. The first was Door Bluff County Park. I think that at one point we were as far north as you can realistically go on the mainland of the peninsula.

There was a little signage at the start of the trail - not bad for a county park.

The first few feet of the trail took us down this steep incline. (I took the shot from the bottom looking back.)

The trail isn't as curated as most in state parks, though we've seen the equivalent there too.

We unexpectedly came across this marker.

And approximately 50 feet later, we found this.

Again, not too bad for a county park.

Here's one of the better views of the waters of Green Bay through the trees.

We didn't go any further along the trail than that geodetic marker. Instead, we returned to the car and headed to Ellison Bluff County Park - the one I mentioned earlier in connection with the boat tour.

There's a nice stairway down to the overlook and benches for those who plan to spend a little time there.

Perhaps at one time the furthest point of the overlook was worth going to, but now there are trees blocking most of the view. We didn't actually go down there, even though it's just a little farther than where we stopped at the end of the main staircase.

The view seemed better from where we were.

On the way home, we stopped at two Historical Markers and famously failed to see a third. During the week, we'd also visited three others (including one WELS marker) near Jacksonport and one in Fish Creek. We skipped one at The Clearing near Ellison Bay because it felt like a creepy place to me. It's probably not.