High Cliff State Park

October 8, 2006

One of the fun things about starting up at Lawrence is the chance to get to know some new people. Peter-John Thomas is the new faculty hire for the Russian department, and has his office up on the fourth floor along with me. Yesterday we went out for a fall hike at the High Cliff State Park, on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago. Pictured from right to left is Max, Peter, Emily (looking pregnant), Benjamin, and Leah.

Fall is certainly upon us. Looking out into the trees to the side of the trail you can begin to glimpse the bare winter treescape that will soon confront the visitor.

Why is it called "high cliffs"? That is obvious. But why are there high cliffs? I wish I knew. Mental note: buy book on geology of Wisconsin. Those cliffs also allowed for some nice look-outs over Lake Winnebago:

A little suburban neighborhood has sprout up near the state park, complete with golf course. Looking beyond the houses in the midground one can see a few buildings in the distance.. that is Appleton, sitting on the Fox River which runs out of Lake Winnebago.

These big lakes are something new to me. Again, not a great lake.. but large enough. Peter and Leah say that in the winter there will be ice fishers out there.. which will be an event worthy of a blog.. or a video.

But for now no one is ice fishing, just trying to catch a memory of one of the last really beautiful days of the fall.

If you would like to see the site for the High Cliff State Park, then click here for the .kmz file. [You need the free Google Earth download to see it.]