Wedding Travel Unveiled New Beauty

Out of town weddings are a great excuse to check out new campsites and hiking trails in a city you’ve never been to. We recently spent a weekend in Wausau, WI to attend a friend’s wedding. The wedding was at the Rothschild Pavilion which sits right on the Wisconsin River – a beautiful and peaceful setting for a wedding ceremony. There was also a view of Rib Mountain, which was our destination hike for the weekend. We spent the night camping at Marathon Park in the center of Wausau, WI. It’s a public park with many amenities so during the daytime it’s full of people grilling, picnicking and it even has a horse camp in the park. The campsite bathrooms stay clean however because they are reserved for campers only requiring a code for entry. No campfires are allowed in the park. It’s an easy and accessible place to stay if you’re around the Wausau area and want a cheap place to tent camp/bring an RV/camper.

A ski hill in the winter and plenty of hiking trails to explore in the summer, Rib Mountain State Park is worth the visit. The visit to Rib Mountain was a reminder of not judging before you’ve had the experience. We’ve never had high expectations for Wisconsin hiking, maybe because we don’t visit enough, but Rib Mountain proved us wrong. We’ve often thought of Wisconsin as green rolling hills and didn’t think it offered trails that resembled the North Shore of MN. With the exception of Lake Superior views, it’s very comparable to some North Shore scenic views. The park has scenic views of Wausau to one side and green rolling hills to the other side.

This park offers trails for all levels of hikers. In addition, there is plenty of opportunity for biking. We only bought the hour-long park pass for $5. For a longer day, you can purchase a day pass for $11. The 1-hour permit was plenty of time to check out the views the park has to offer along a hike that’s a bit more than a mile.

We chose to do the grey loop since it was short and covered all the main sightseeing in the park. The trail took you to a lookout tower, a handful of scenic overlooks, many boulders along the trail that have a long history, and along the top of the ski hill. You’ll end up back at the parking lot in roughly 45 minutes.

Overall, this trail was an easy hiking trail. There was one area where you need to scale up large boulders but that was just one part of the trail. The remainder of the trail was easy to hike on for beginner hikers/families.

Who thought you’d see snow in May?!? From the highway, the snow looked like a light-colored rock on the mountain. To our surprise, it was still snow that had not quite melted yet! We found this out when we got off our trail route, and had to hike back up the ski hill through the piles of snow.

Our warm up for the hiking season ahead! We forgot to pack our snowshoes 😜

Rib Mountain is a place we’d definitely go back to explore more! They don’t offer camping but there’s plenty of camping in the Wausau area. While in Wausau, be sure to check out these breweries after you’ve completed your hike at Rib Mountain!

Peace, love and hike thru life!