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In May, this Wisconsin peninsula on Lake Michigan is as gorgeous as ever, but you don't have to share it with crowds. Venture beyond the shops to the headlands, estuaries, beaches and nature preserves. Many endangered and rare wildflowers bloom among the sandy ridges and boggy swales of Ridges Sanctuary (pictured) in Baileys Harbor.
What to do: Hike in Whitefish Dunes and Potawatomi state parks. Paddle or hike in the Mink River Estuary. Bicycle in Peninsula State Park and on pastoral county roads. Tour some of the 10 lighthouses. Go on birding and blooms field trips during the Festival of Nature, May 22-24.
Other events: Lighthouse Walk, May 16-18. Fine Art Fair in Sturgeon Bay and Maifest in Jacksonport, May 24-25. Birding Festival on Washington Island, May 31-June 1.
Where to stay: The luxurious Blacksmith Inn is
near Ridges Sanctuary. In Ephraim, the Village Green
Lodge in Ephraim is less expensive and very pleasant.
Past fast plans: Touring Trempealeau, Happy trails in Lanesboro, A Muir Tour of Wisconsin
Syttende Mai in Stoughton, Wis., south of Madison, celebrating Norwegian constitution day, the largest in North America and probably the world, May 16-18, with Norwegian parade at 1:30 p.m. May 18.
Syttende Mai in Westby, Wis., southeast of La Crosse, May 17-18, with parade (including trolls, pictured) at 1:30 p.m. May 18.
Morel Mushroom Festival in Muscoda, Wis. This town along the Wisconsin River calls itself the Morel Mushroom Capital of Wisconsin. Fried morels are available May 17-18 from 10 a.m. till they're gone, and there's a parade at 2 p.m. May 18.
Afton May Fair in the village on the Minnesota side
of the St. Croix. Fine arts, Maypole celebration with Swedish folk dancers, music and wine sampling on
May 18.
Fresh Art Tour of artist studios on the Wisconsin side of Lake Pepin on the Mississippi, between Maiden Rock, Pepin and Durand, May 16-18.
Rivertown Art Festival in Stillwater, Minn., along the St. Croix riverfront, May 17-18.
Stand Still Parade in Whalan, Minn., just east of Lanesboro on the Root River State Trail, with music, food and games 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 17.
Far End of the Lake Rendezvous at the Galloway House in Fond du Lac, Wis., with a fur-trade encampment, period music and old-time taffy pull, May 17-18.
There's something unusual about Wisconsin — but no one knows what.
In the middle of the last century, ordinary people began populating the roadsides with figures of
concrete and glass. A former lumberjack created 203 of them next to his northwoods tavern, including Paul
Bunyan, Sacajawea and the whole Budweiser Clydesdale team.
Along the Mississippi, a farmer who couldn't even put up a clothesline suddenly began to build lifelike dinosaurs and a beautifully arched concrete fence, with conical red posts tipped in gold. In the south, a cheese-maker with a sly sense of humor adorned his yard with fairy-tale figures and his house with glass "jewels.''
Why? No one knew, though some called it "dementia concretia.''
These folk-art sculptures began to crumble, but they were rescued by the Kohler Foundation and now are maintained as art environments. This summer, with an “American Masterpieces” grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan is offering special programming at six of them.
In summer, only the foolhardy travel without reservations.
Big events can eat up every room and campsite in an entire region, especially if the event is in a small town — say, the central Wisconsin town of Iola, which has a population of only 1,300 but will bring 135,000 people to its Iola Old Car Show July 10-13.
In northwest Iowa, 100,000 people go to Tulip Festival in
Orange City, May 15-17. In northeast Iowa, 75,000 people will come for Decorah's Nordic Fest, July 24-26, filling rooms between Lanesboro and La
Crosse.
Bigger cities can absorb more people. Still, plan ahead for the Chicago Air & Water Show Aug. 16-17. It attracts 2.2 million people in a regular year, but this is its 50th anniversary. In Milwaukee, 1 million people will go to Summerfest June 26-July 6. And more than 200,000 people browse through Madison's Art Fair on the Square, which celebrates its 50th anniversary July 12-13.
And then there are the really big events. If you're going through eastern Wisconsin between July 28 and
Aug. 3, you'd better know about the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh,
which draws 700,000 to 750,000 people. Or maybe you're planning a vacation in the Black Hills in early
August — and so are 250,000 people on Harleys, in the area for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Aug. 4-10.
In southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin, shady forests and sunny hillsides are erupting in spring blooms.
The varied terrain of bluff country provides the region's best and widest array of wildflowers, all within a 50-mile radius. Here's a mid-May road trip on which you can see them all.
Start in Carley State Park, four miles south of Plainview, Minn., to see masses of Virginia bluebells. Then drive east to the woodland canopies of Whitewater State Park, where you'll find the full array of ephemerals: trout lilies, spring beauties, hepatica, bloodroot, false rue anemone, bellwort, marsh marigolds, Dutchman's breeches.
From Whitewater, drive southeast to Mound Prairie, a state natural area between Houston and Hokah, just north of the Root River. On this dry goat prairie, you'll find wood betony, blue-eyed grass, prairie smoke, Indian paintbrush and hoary puccoon (watch for rattlesnakes; they like full sun, too).
In Wisconsin, the best guide to bicycling is free.
Destination bicycling began in Wisconsin, which became the pioneer of rail trails when it opened the Elroy-Sparta State Trail in 1967. It's still the leader, and every year, it gives away 50,000 to 75,000 copies of its excellent Wisconsin Biking Guides.
The seventh edition is hot off the presses, and avid cyclist Phil Van Valkenberg has included a fresh batch of trails and routes in his biennial guide, which spotlights 10 touring trails, 10 mountain-bike trails and 10 on-road tours.
This year, he's featuring the new Badger State Trail, 34 miles from the Madison exurb of Fitchburg to the Illinois state line, where it connects with the Jane Addams Trail and continues 13 miles to Freeport, Ill.
It's a trail for fans of craft beer and Swiss treats, he said. The Sugar River State Trail connects it to the Swiss tourist town of New Glarus, where New Glarus Brewing Co. will open its new brewery and beer garden this fall. At its southern end, the Badger goes through Monroe, the capital of cheese country and home of Minhas Craft Brewery.
And like the Elroy-Sparta, the trail has a long tunnel.
"It's a neat tunnel in that it's got a curve, so you can't see the end,'' Van Valkenberg says. "It's a
little on the spooky side.''
All across the Upper Midwest, the message boards are buzzing: Where are they?
According to the Iowa guestbook at Morels.com, they're plentiful in northeast Iowa if you know where to look, which always is the tricky part. They're in southern Wisconsin, too: "It seemed that every tree we looked under there were morels!'' But most Minnesotans still are waiting.
We've had the rain; now, we need warmth. Usually, morels pop out about the same time lilacs bud. Look first at the top of sunny hillsides around dying trees, especially elms, though morels can be found under many kinds of trees and also in meadows and on sandy bottomlands. The season lasts two or three weeks; toward the end, look on the northern edges of woods and in ravines.
For hunting tips, see Out of the forest and into the frying pan. And watch for ticks: See Preventing Lyme disease.
If you're trying to get a tourist's attention these days, it's apparently not enough to brag about your pristine lakes and fragrant forests.
Ontario is giving away the seven-day
Great Ontario Outdoor Adventure of a Lifetime, worth $12,500, including air fare to and from Thunder
Bay in August. Also included: a charter sailboat tour, a float-plane wilderness flight, a visit to Fort
William Historical Park (pictured), Nikon cameras and binoculars and a hiking, paddling and camping
adventure with renowned Canadian photographers Joanie and Gary McGuffin. Enter through May 31.
Minnesota is promoting its Summer of Fun
Giveaway, where prizes include a two-year lease on a Toyota Prius Hybrid, a getaway at Cragun's
Resort near Brainerd, a Specialized mountain bike and a $500 Mall of America gift card. Enter through
June 30.
In Wisconsin, the Department of Tourism is offering a Spring Getaway Giveway to subscribers of its newsletter. Winners receive one of three two-night getaways, one to Madison worth $585, one to the Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake worth $1,200 and one to the Waters of Minocqua resort worth $1,500. Winners are selected randomly, though entrants are asked to tell how they'll spend their tax rebate on a Wisconsin vacation. Enter through May 25.