Cairns

Since Door County is where our family vacations will be happening, several years ago I purchased a paperback book titled 101 Things To Do In Door County by Richard R. Rusnack. It sat on the book shelf last year because I forgot all about it, but this year it was a travel guide to places we hadn't seen before.

My oldest daughter Amy went through the book and wrote what year we had accomplished the suggested activities, it is now our goal to do all 101 things in Door County. Some of the activities will require winter visits, but most can be achieved during the summer months.

When we first started going to Door County, we discover Sunset Park in Fish Creek. It's a small park with a trail that leads down to the waters of Green Bay. What we saw dotting the beach took our breath away. Cairns or rock balancing structures surrounded us in various sizes. Cairns or rock balancing is done by rocks being balanced on top of one another in various positions. No adhesives, wires, supports or rings are used to aid in balancing the rocks.

It was fairly early in the day, well before 9 am. We wander around the area enjoying the beautiful creations while taking photos, we were mesmerized with these astounding rock creations.

My oldest daughter Amy with my
granddaughter surrounded by cairns.

My sweet granddaughter LuLu Belle standing by a
cairn in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, Sunset Park, July 2010.

My sweet sister and her husband were due to arrive that morning, and we were anxious to show her the cairns. After she had settled in, we drove over to the park to show her this wondrous site of hundred of cairns. We were shocked and saddened when we saw that someone had destroyed all of the rock formations.

This year after a picnic lunch we decided to find Cave Point County Park a recommended place to visit in the book 101 Things To Do In Door County. We parked our car and hiked a short distance before we say the water of Lake Michigan and all of the cairns that were built up and down this rocky beach area.

Smiling I gingerly climbed down the wall of rocks to the beach area, we wandered around looking at all the cairns, from the simple to the complex. It was an amazing sight to see. My grandson even built a small cairn of his own.

Declan decided to build a cairn of his own.

My two oldest grandsons July 2013.

For the past three years, we stop by Sunset Park in hopes of seeing cairns decorating the beach area again and we have been disappointed all three years. I am so glad we found Cave Point Park and got to see cairns on the beach.

Finding Sunset Park and those astounding cairns is one of my favorite Door County memories.