Perrot State Park

The last camping trip of 2018! Woah, it has taken a while for me to work through that backlog! Perrot was a great final camping trip of 2018, a great park with great hiking and my family came up to visit while we were there! Excuse all the greats, but can I say it was great?

Part of the Wisconsin State Park system

Located ~30 mins from Winona, MN

Map of Perrot State Park, courtesy of WI DNR

It was the first weekend of October, so just as the weather was starting to turn cooler with hints of winter on its way. I love camping during this time of year, I get to wear all the cozy warm clothing without freezing too much, like I have during attempts at winter camping. Anyway, we came down from the Twin Cities on a Friday after work. This park is a good option for those sort of trips because it’s about 2 1/2 hrs away from the TC, so definitely something you can drive to on a Friday after work. As I mentioned earlier, our family came to see us during this trip, but they weren’t stopping up until Saturday, so that gave us plenty of time to get set up and relax.

The campsite with a view, the BF getting the fire going

We had a great site in the only campground in the park, there are plenty of options, but we got a site on the bay where you can see Trempealeau Mountain. Some sites are more private than others, but given how many sites are in the campground I don’t imagine it feels too busy there unless the campground is completely full. There are plenty of miles of trail within the park, but some of the most notable trails are the ones scale the bluffs within the park.

Riverview trail

Saturday morning we got up fairly early since we knew we were going to have company we didn’t want to laze about camp like we tend to do. We got up, made our breakfast, got camp tidied up, and went to get more firewood before the fam started showing up. They were only up for the day, but we wanted to do at least a few miles of hiking, particularly one of the Brady’s Bluff trails. We hung out for a while and shot the breeze before heading out on our hike.

Interesting rock outcroppings along the Riverview trail

First we hiked along the Riverview trail, which is 2.5 miles long and heads basically along the length of the park. We used this trail as a way to get from the campground to the Brady’s Bluff West trail. The Riverview trail is nice, as the name suggests, it follows the Bay and Mississippi River. We then took a quick detour and walked along the Black Walnut nature trail, which is a short 1/2 mile trail that includes signs about the trees / plants of the forest. We then doubled back and continued on the Riverview trail until we got to Brady’s Bluff West.

Heading up Brady’s bluff on Brady’s Bluff West trail

Hiking in the midwest is usually a pretty easy affair, flat to rolling hills and not much in the way of rocks. The hikes to get to the top of the bluffs in Perrot are not those hikes. They are difficult for a couple reasons, rapid ascent with significant elevation gain and if you’re afraid of heights, it usually involves narrow stairs. So be warned, but the views are 100% worth the work! As mentioned, we huffed and puffed to the top Brady’s Bluff. Boy, were we rewarded with a view when we got up there. Pictures do not do it justice.

View of the river valley from the top of Brady’s Bluff

We hung out at the top for a while, just enjoying the view and keeping an eye on the kiddos. We don’t need to be the feature of one of those tragic hiking stories you read online. Once we headed back down we took the Riverview trail back to the campsite and had lunch, which included a thermos of hot chocolate. See? Nice and cozy!

After lunch we went over to the Nature Center to see what they had to offer for the kids. Given the time of year, there wasn’t a ranger there or anything, but they had some nice exhibits in the building on the people that originally lived in this region of Wisconsin. There is a small trail by the Nature Center that talks about some of the plants in the area that was also interesting. Soon, the fam had to head out. Only my brother, the one from such adventures like Nerstrand, was staying the night.

Along the trail by the campground, still green & lush at this time!

Since we had company, we ended up going out for dinner that night and gave the camping food a rest. The next morning, after sufficient lazing about camp we packed up. Not quite ready to leave we walked the short trail that goes around the campground. It loops along the bay and to the backside of the campground. It was just enough walking to stretch out legs before the drive home.

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip. This is a great park within short driving distance of the Twin Cities. There are many more trails that we didn’t explore within the park. If we’re in the area again, I could definitely see us stopping to make another ascent up Brady’s Bluff.

‘Til next time!