Picnic

This past Saturday my wife and I enjoyed a visit and picnic lunch at Devil’s Lake State Park. We tend to visit the park at least once a year. It is the third oldest state park. The park is expansive. It is the largest of all state parks in acreage. It also offers a variety of activities, and has the second most campsites of all state parks. The park is part of what is known as the wider Baraboo Range, a monadnock among which sediment accumulation at the base, and the forces of erosion have reduced the height of a once magnificent mountain range. The range is primarily composed of quartzite, which is a hard rock and is dated at 1.5 billion years old making it among the oldest rock formations in North America. Most of the activity at the park, however, occurs at the large picnic grounds on the north and south shores of the lake, and the trails to the top of the bluffs on each side. The views from the bluff are a sight to behold and on that autumn day hints of yellow and red were showing among the distant trees in the vast bluff-top view. The wide variety of recreational offerings, perhaps as diverse as any state park, combined with its geographic location make it the most visited Wisconsin state park.

Devil's Doorway, photo by author
Some may say the rocks were stacked by aliens

Being the most visited shows not only in the diverse activities offered in the park, but also in the type of persons it attracts. You have left-overs from the 1960’s enjoying the weather. You have motorcyclists and their biker companions in their leather bike gear roaring by. You have young and old alike climbing the strenuous trails to get to the top of the bluff. There are rock climbers sitting next to a mid-level bluff trail awaiting their turn to scale one of the sheer quartzite rock faces. There are young and old enjoying water activities. A number of watercraft rentals occurred on this mild autumn day. The number of persons in the water was not significant, mostly children, but some adults. Some would wade in the water mumbling at the varied stones that make stepping difficult. The coming of age millennials, off-spring of the baby-boomers, show an energy that a boomer can now only admire, or look back on with some envy. The diversity, however, is more than the type of activity, the demographics or even the socio-economic status. It is also ethnic and cultural.

The ethnic diversity was clearly shown this year as my wife and I began our walk to the pot-hole trail. The first three groups we met, as we were just beyond the parking lot, spoke a language other than English. Two of the groups were likely from Eastern Europe, the other from Asia. The Wisconsin Dells area employs a high number of Eastern Europeans to work as guards at their water parks, and clean their hotel rooms. Being from the Midwest we tend to be friendly and provide a greeting to those we meet on the trail. Some would respond in English, although heavily accented, and then carry on a conversation in their mother tongue with others in their group.

Portion of trail map of park, google images

A trip we made to the park in the summer of 2014 was a day the park was very heavily used. People were almost on-top of one another at the picnic grounds. The parking lot, and overflow parking was so full that cars were parking on Southshore Drive as far as one could see. There were people playing Frisbee that we had to duck, you had to navigate a maze of blankets and picnic gear to get from the beach to your picnic table. People being people, piled trash in the restrooms, even though the park policy is carry-out what you carry-in. However, that summer day also showed the aromas emanating from a variety of grills wafted through the air combining to cause a mixture of olfactory pleasure. The fare was not just brats and burgers. Some ethnic groups were grilling food common to their custom. It was like being at a foreign food festival, but without the chance to taste the variety of foods.

Last Saturday a few things took my notice. First, was the Chinese family, a man, two adult females and a small child. They were dressed as if they had an important event to attend, not unlike people would dress today for a wedding. While the man did not have a tie on, he had on a dress shirt, nice dress trousers, and dress shoes. They took it upon themselves to rent a paddle boat. They were fortunate that the concessionaire, seeing their predicament, dried the dew off the seats, and waited for them to load and then pushed them in the water. The return journey required the man to remove his shoes and socks and roll his pant legs up to knee level to get out and pull the boat back to the sandy and stone shore. This was a contrast with the typical attendee in shorts and t-shirts. Also in contrast was the second group we noticed. A group of Mennonites were at the far west shelter in the south shore day use area. There you could see them, women standing in a group outside the shelter, and the men in the shelter sitting down. Some of the women would walk along the shore, their light blue shirts, and white bonnets, one waded in the water. Interesting, is that most we say were young, typical millennial age group or younger. The men in their black jeans and light blue or green shirts would walk by our picnic table perhaps on their way up the bluff. A few young couples walked by together, but that seemed more the exception. One thing I did notice, and was consistent with Mennonites we saw at the top of St. Peter’s Dome was that they did not have individual water bottles but a couple quart sized water containers for shared use. Most others, if they had a water container, had an individual water bottle. The Mennonite group was in contrast to the group at the center shelter, a fair distance off the lake. A birthday party was being held, a typical American event with balloons drawing guests to the shelter.

View from a bluff, google images

Also present were four legged guests. With the water-beach interface occupied by only perhaps 30 persons at the most, some people took liberty and would take their dogs down to the water, ignoring the “No Dogs Allowed” signs. With the number of dogs in the water at the far west end of the beach, perhaps that area was reserved for dogs. The furry creatures would run in the water to fetch a ball and then return to shake themselves out. Some persons took their dog on a canoe ride. Whether the dogs left some undesirable debris along the lake shore, I choose not to check.

Most groups that walked by had conversations, at least those in English, that seemed rather common. There was one millennial, however, who was walking down the path with a female friend, who was trashing his mother. Metaphorically speaking, he said to his partner, that “his mother can take the wind out of my sail.” He would go on to recount how one can be doing really well enjoying the day and then his mother comes along and bam, there is no more fun, there is no more joy. She would destroy his day. She just sucks the life out of the guy. While it made me chuckle a little, my wife had a discernibly different reaction, wondering if that is how her children talked when not in her presence. While moms hold a family together they also get the grief. Perhaps at some point that young man will make the recollection that was made famous (I think by Mark Twain) and apply it to his mother when commenting that he was amazed how much his father had learned over the span of four years from his child’s late adolescents to early adulthood.

Size of Devil's doorway, photo by author

One never knows what you can observe on a picnic at a state park. Our Saturday visit to the south shore showed the richness of the varied cultures that occupy the nation. One does not need go to a large American city to see the diversity of culture, you only need to visit a state park. The cultural milieu of the nation can be observed at Devil’s Lake State Park. Devil’s Lake is within the larger Baraboo Range which, according to the Nature Conservancy, is home to over half (or about 135) of the 226 bird species that breed in Wisconsin. Over 250 species of birds nest or pass through the area. Devil’s Lake State Park may be one of the top jewels of our state park system, but the richness and diversity of its natural environment and activities provided is matched by the human richness of ethnicity and culture of its guests. In the end, our visit was an example of what Pope Francis referred to in his recent US visit when commented that the nation should celebrate its differences.

What I found the most surprising is, how few digital photos I could find of Devil's Lake, considering all the times we have been visited. I thought for sure I had the camera last year, but I could not find any photos