“Promise me you will never go near that quarry” my mom implored me and my siblings. It was the mid-90s and we had just moved to Wautoma, Wisconsin about seven miles west on State Highway 21. The Redgranite quarry was notorious for drownings and so, as an anxious teen, I largely avoided it. That’s not to say I never swam there, I most certainly did, but I was always cautious. Redgranite Quarry Fast forward thirty years and today I took my own kids to explore the quarry. The ci

Almost every year we journey to Wisconsin’s Northern Highlands American Legion State Forest, not far from Sayner, birthplace of the snow mobile, for a camping trip on the shores of Crystal Lake. Crystal Lake is an almost seventy foot deep seepage lake of glassy, tropical-looking, turquoise waters. It’s surrounded by campsites tucked among the pines, with two public beaches and a boat launch for non-motorized boats. On a bright summer day you’ll see kayakers, paddle boarders,