Day 127 - The Great River Scenic Road & Devil's Lake State Park, WI

We left Minneapolis and headed towards the town of Hastings where we had planned to pick up the Great River Scenic Byway. Having spent a lot of my childhood in Hastings, East Sussex, I was looking forward to seeing Hastings, Minnesota. Both of these towns are located near water (one a seaside town and another on the Mississippi River), that is where the similarities end.

Hastings, Minnesota is a small town with a pretty little high street but we enjoyed the parks the most. There are small parks dotted all over the town with a larger park, called Harmony Park located on the waters edge. After a little walk around, we hit the road again.

The Great River Scenic Road follows the Mississippi River for 3,000 miles from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The scenic route passes through 10 states and hundreds of river towns. The small section we had planned to do between Hastings and La Crosse actually runs on both sides of the river. After researching online we were still unsure which side of the river we should travel down, Minnesota or Wisconsin so we contacted Eric for advice. Eric suggested Wisconsin and it was good advice as the drive took us through some interesting little towns including Stockholm, Pepin, Nelson and Alma - the latter being vaguely Swiss-themed which Lee loved.

We stopped off at the Nelson Creamery, located in the town of Nelson for lunch. The sandwiches were excellent and Lee finally got to try the infamous Spotted Cow which can only be purchased in Wisconsin. So many people we had met told us about this beer, Lee said it was good!

After travelling through a few more towns, we entered Alma and noticed a huge barge going through one of the Mississippi locks. There are 29 locks and dams located on the upper section of the Mississippi River and we were so lucky that we managed to see one being used.

After a quick stop off at a Walmart for some supplies, we then headed to La Crosse to see the largest 6 pack in the world. Neither of us really knew what we were expected to see here. Lee was expecting a 6 very large cans of beers and I was hoping for non-beer related 6 pack. We were both disappointed when we turned up at an industrial estate to find 6 storage tanks which had vaguely been decorated to look like beer cans.

Our final stop for the day was at Devil's Lake State Park where we were camping for the night.

We’ve been very lucky with campsites until now, maybe a little too lucky so we were due a bad experience!

We turned up just as it was getting dark and headed straight to the visitors center. It was 6:50pm and according to the website, it should have been open until 11pm. Just as we pulled up, the park employee was locking the visitors center door and completely ignored us on purpose, he pretty much ran to his car and drove off before we could even shout "hello".

Annoyed, we looked around and saw a self service machine and signs directing that all visitors including those with camping reservations must pay the $16 entry fee. We followed the signs, paid our $16 and decided we’d have to visit the park tomorrow morning once it was light. The ticket that came out of the machine showed we have bought the ticket at 6:55pm and that the pass expired at 11pm on the same day. WTF! We’d just spent $16 on a pass that expired in 4 hours time and it was too dark to do any exploring! Even more annoyed now, we headed to the campsite.

Luckily we had pre-booked a site, site 23 so we didn't need to worry about finding a space. Normally when we pre-book, there is a little note or sign at the campsite to show it has been reserved, that way no one who just turns up accidentally takes a reserved site. There was no note here. Worried that we had the wrong site or even the wrong campsite, we then hunted down the camp host to check. With no map or signs around the campsite, this involved driving around until we finally spotted an RV that looked like a host.

The host told us to go to the Visitors Center to check in. When we said we’d already been there and it was closed he was surprised. Normally it does shut a little earlier at the end of summer but it should still be open at 8pm he said. We were told to just pitch on the site and if anyone else turned up, come back and see them.

Then we tackled our next problem, firewood. With the visitors center closed and all the down wood soaking wet, we needed to find some firewood to cook dinner. In most of the parks we have visited, the host sells firewood but not in this park. The host told us there were some places outside the park we could try.

We jumped back in the car, drove out the park and eventually found a roadside seller. It was $5 for a bundle of supposedly dry and aged wood. Not too bad we thought. We headed back to the campsite and finally in the darkness, pitched and started the fire for dinner.

The wood was damp. Lee struggled to get it lit and when eventually it did catch (with a little help of some self lighting charcoal), it hissed and struggled to flame. Some how Lee managed to get dinner cooked, the vegetables tasted awesome but the chicken ended up going back on the fire 3 times, the final time wrapped in foil and thrown right in the heart of the fire where it eventually cooked.

The toilets at this campsite were disgusting. There were two vault toilets within walking distance to our site. One located in the woods and involved walking right through someone’s campsite to get to them which is something you don’t do in camp etiquette. These were old, smelly and full of dead and alive bugs. The second were a longer walk away and looked newer but were just as smelly and dirty. Sitting on the toilet with bugs flying around you is not pleasant, I would rather pee in the woods! There were flush toilets and showers but they were quite a walk from our pitch and given how disgusting the vault toilets were, we didn’t expect these to be much better. At $35 per night (excluding the $16 per day entrance fee), this was one of the more expensive campsites we have stayed in, the facilities should have been a lot better!

The next day we packed up and headed off straight away towards Chicago via Milwaukee. We weren’t willing to spend another $16 for a day pass when we’d been robbed the day before so we didn’t get to see the lake.