Mirror Lake State Park: an oasis in the Wisconsin Dells
Last week I decided to check out a short program at the Mirror Lake State Park located in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, a short 30-minute drive from where I live.
Scrolling through Facebook and a listing of events going on that particular day, I came across a reoccurring event hosted at the park called the “Echo Rock Nature Hike”. I had never truly explored the park and decided it was time to get my feet wet (no pun intended). The process of establishing the park began in 1962 and the park officially opened on August 19, 1966. While situated right in the Dells, it is amazing how such a beautiful place exists with all the development over the years.
2,179-acres make up Mirror Lake State Park. The lake itself has a surface area of 137 acres, and is surrounded by huge white and red pines, an array of hardwoods, and plenty of fauna.
I arrived on Indian time and had to catch up to the group already a bit into the hike. When I caught up with the hikers, Natural Resources Educator Cindy Cseri was talking about a 300-year-old White Pine next to her that towered over a sandstone outcropping. It was a small group that was on the hike, which was nice; it felt more personable. Cindy shared an immense yet easy amount of information to digest.
One of the neat inclusions of the park is the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired, privately owned, and award winning Ishnala supper club situated within the park. Ishnala is Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk) and translates to “by itself alone”.
After about an hour or so of learning about the park and the sacred connection the Hoocąk tribe has with the park land and its surrounding area, I had a chance to get Cindy’s perspective on the park and her connection to it.
She said the nature hike she leads is nothing new. “Oh, it's been a around as long as we've had a naturalist program. My predecessor is the one that actually taught me to do the hike and then I've just expanded on it. As I've looked at other things out there that I've wanted to learn and know about and I've educated myself about, I've expanded on what kind of information is shared during that hike. So that's been around for a long time.”
Cindy sees the informative hike as a hands-on and personal way of sharing the beauty of the park with the public. “I teach them about the flora and fauna and a little bit about the history, the people’s history with it. The other big piece is for them to just be enjoying nature. Being out there and listening and seeing and discovering and smelling, just using all the senses outside to get that sense of relaxation and enjoyment out of the natural world,” she said smiling.
The land the park encompasses started out as a as a trading post, and then the traders sold it to somebody who bought and built a private residence. From there, somebody came in and said, ‘Hey, this would be a great setting for supper club.’ As it evolved into the supper club, and as part of the ownership of the supper club back in the 90’s, that's when they decided to parcel off 95 acres and sell it to the state to increase the land and add to the enjoyment for park visitors.
I was curious as to some of the questions Cindy is asked by visitors on the hike, and with a chuckle she responded, “Um, are there bears? That's one that that comes up. What kind of fish are in the lake? How many {types of} owls are in the park? I can tell you that we have definitely have the Screech owl and also the Great Horned owl and f you're real quiet, sometimes you can it hear over by the amphitheater. And then the other thing is, is they want to know how many turkey vultures are in the park and if they will carry them away,” she said with a laugh.
I had to ask Cindy if there was one place in the park that was more special to her than others. “I would say being on the water down by Pulpit Rock because that's in the upper narrows and there's a lot of cliffs in there. It's physically quieter and physically cooler down there. Because the way that the gorge is there, it funnels the cooler air right through there across those rocks. So, if you're really still and quiet and you get really close to where that opens up you can literally feel the breeze coming at you. And it's just really peaceful for me there. You've got the giant pines, you've got the great cliffs, you've got that little bit of a gentle breeze in there. There's not a lot of traffic back there”.
Cindy believes that the more that can be shared with people about the gifts that nature gives us, the more likely they are to protect it because they want to be able to share that with other people. “I think the younger that we can get the kids involved in asking those questions and making those discoveries, the better off it is for us down the road. That's why I do the one o'clock drop-in session because that's mostly kids, and we talk about ‘what did you find today and how do you think that's important to the world’. Just that whole educational piece of getting them to be excited and passionate about, ‘hey, this is really cool, and we got to protect this’.
There is no doubt I will be bringing my whole family back to enjoy this and the many continuing programs Mirror Lake State Park has to offer.
For more information on programs you can experience, visit: dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/parks/mirrorlake
The programs are free but you will need either a day pass or annual Wisconsin State parks sticker that is available at the park’s entryway or online at: yourpassnow.com/ParkPass/wi
