WI State Parks - Pattison State Park

Pattison State Park is located in the north western part of Wisconsin near Superior. We spent the 4th of July week here graced with beautiful weather. Even the high winds of the first two days were okay. We were protected enough from the worst of it by the trees and it honestly provided a nice relief from the humidity.

The campsites here are almost all pull through though some are more difficult than others to get into with large rigs.  Neighbors are close and can be seen but only through fairly thick foliage. Of course thick foliage and a lot of rain in the area meant spraying ourselves constantly with mosquito repellent. I don't like that stuff but it was absolutely necessary the week we were there. It seem to be the theme this year everywhere in the state though so it is unavoidable. Our site was very roomy and comfortable. 

The path to the bathroom was between two other sites across the street but it was closed. It appeared a water main break caused quite a bit of damage to the ground in the area and it had not been repaired but appeared to be in the process of such. Unfortunately that meant walking into another persons site to use their path, something I don't like doing but was necessary.  The bathrooms were kept very clean, surprisingly so considering we were there over the 4th of July holiday weekend. The bath and shower house did need some upkeep but nothing a bit of paint wouldn't help.  The ADA amenities were adequate but could also have used a bit of improvement. It's difficult to shower our son without a hand held shower head so the addition of that would have been nice. I don't know if there are fish in the small lake but a nice pier to fish off would have been great too. The beach was excellent though the walk down was quite steep for us with the wheelchair but it was doable as were the hiking trails to two of the state's beautiful waterfalls. We hiked to them both. 

While on the trail to Big Manitou Falls we encountered many stairs, we found there was a stairless path if we'd gone the other way. I don't know if their trail maps had that info on it, we explored without one, but if it doesn't it would be helpful to have known in advance. Little Manitou was easy to get to as well although my husband hiked there from the campground which was significantly longer and not wheelchair friendly. The boy and I got there the easier way.

We took several side trips during our week. I'll get to posting about those separately when I have a bit more time.  Over all this was a wonderful vacation. The 7 hour drive prevents us from coming for a weekend which is too bad because I'd love to visit this area more often. There's no question we'd return to the area again for a weeks vacation.  The entire area is very beautiful.