We are at Goose Island County Park in La Crosse, campsite #4 of 16. We feel so lucky that we stumbled upon this place. It has to be one of the best kept secrets in Wisconsin. It’s absolutely beautiful. We are also fortunate enough to have the best site here (thanks to the friendly park manager). It has water and electric, the most shade and a lot of space around it. All great features when it is 98 degrees! The park is probably about the size of Stony Creek or Kensington Metropark. There is a 7+ mile canoe trail, numerous boat ramps, a small sandy “beach”, picnic areas, as well as campsites. It is a popular place to fish for bass. We rode our bikes through every inch of the park. It feels like a remote wilderness location.
We went to the popular attractions in the area. Shrine of our Lady of Guadalupe is quite beautiful and Dave agreed it’s worth going just to see the flowers (as beautiful as my sister’s garden!). Sorry my photos do not capture the beauty. We didn’t go inside because I was wearing a tank top and flipflops (I’m not Catholic, but expect that would be disrespectful). We also went to Grandad Bluff Park, which overlooks all of La Crosse, including the University of Wisconsin campus. Surprise – Wisconsin is not flat!
La Crosse is a very cool town and we wish we could experience it without the pandemic. We also enjoyed the IPA at Turtle Stack Brewery and ate dinner twice at Bodega Brew Pub. Everything is homemade there (including the pesto and thousand island dressing) and NOT typical bar food. I can’t remember Dave ever being so happy with a meal, as he was was today. He had their spicy Reuben sandwich. The La Crosse aloha is similar to the Detroit aloha and we plan to return .
Now we are off to Minnesota!
