This was our second visit to Door County. Our first visit was in the summer of 2017. The name of the county intrigued me enough to do a little more research this time, partly because I wanted to know if it actually specialized in making high quality doors in the past. It turned out the name referred to the dangerous passage between the tip of Door Peninsula and Washington Island. The Potawatomi and Winnebago tribes dubbed that passage the “Death of Door” after many members from both sides died trying to cross it in canoes during an inter-tribe battle. Given that tourism is the main economic driver here especially in the summer, it wouldn’t make sense to call it “Death of Door County”.

This trip took a little extra planning because it was an off season and most restaurant hours were impacted by the holidays. We didn’t have any fish boils since they were mostly available from Friday to Sunday. Our snowshoes were swapped with ice cleats due to the lack of snow on the ground. We still spent most of our day time hiking in various places where we were usually the only souls in the woods. This time, we hiked in 4 state parks (Newport, Peninsula, Whitefish Dunes and Potawatomi), 2 county parks (Ellison Bay Bluff and Cave Point) and 2 off the beaten path trails (Björklunden and Walt’s Woods Natural Area).

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Knowing that most trails have little to no shade, we visited TRNP in the early fall instead of summer to make the hikes a little more bearable. Still, it was unseasonably hot during our first 2 full days in the park. While it was very chilly in the morning, the temperature quickly rose up to the 90s before noon. We chose to stay in Dickinson instead of Medora even though the latter was literally right outside the park and the earlier was a half hour drive away. We were initially concerned that Medora would become a ghost town during the off season, and we were right. While still limited, there were more restaurant choices in Dickinson since it is the largest city near TRNP with a population of 20K whereas Medora has less than 130 people.

TRNP is the only national park named after a US President and it consists of 3 units (North, South and Elkhorn Ranch). We spent a day in the South Unit, a day in the North Unit, half a day in the Petrified Forest and skipped the Elkhorn Ranch Unit because it is located in a very remote area and may require a high clearance vehicle on unpaved roads. Although the South Unit is twice as large as the North Unit and has more visitors due to its proximity to I-94, we very much preferred the North Unit due to its rugged landscape. One interesting fact is the North Unit operates on Central time while the South Unit operates on Mountain Time. So, while we arrived at the North Unit’s entrance at 8 AM Mountain time, it was actually 9 AM Central time… just in time for the visitor center to open for us to use the restroom. Our most pleasant surprise was to witness the fall colors in TRNP with plenty of hardwoods wrapping around the long winding Little Missouri River. Although we visited Badlands National Park in South Dakota before, the North Dakota’s Badlands are older, look different and have heavier vegetation.

Many oil pumpjacks could be seen in the western North Dakota due to the existence of the Bakken Formation in this area — one of the largest contiguous deposits of oil and natural gas in the US. Unsurprisingly, North Dakota is also one of the largest producers of oil in the US. It is also worth mentioning that most lakes in the western North Dakota contain brine. As the water levels declined at this time of the year, the rings of white salt were visible along the shores of these lakes.

Unbeknownst to us, half of North Dakota’s population has German-Russian roots. Originally recruited and welcomed into Russia in the 18th century, many German people immigrated there looking for better lives. However, due to changes in Russian politics, poor economic conditions and a series of famines, many of them moved on to America in the 19th century, especially to the Great Plains to continue farming. Intrigued by this tidbit, we had lunches in Fargo on our way to TRNP and back home to try some German dishes, such as jägerschnitzel, currywurst, knoephla soup, kuchen, cabbage rolls and fleischkuechle.

To be truthful, we honestly had a very low trip expectation, but this trip turned out to be rather enjoyable — apart from the 9+ hours of boring drive. We had several memorable hikes, enjoyed the fall colors, stumbled upon wildlife and marveled at the rugged badlands in TRNP.

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There are 4 main regional BBQ styles in the US: Carolina, Kansas City, Memphis, and Texas. Kansas City is the closest to our place. Our trip planning practically revolved around BBQ places. Being the “BBQ Capital of the World” with more than 100 BBQ establishments to choose from, we solicited recommendations from websites and coworkers. Our AirBnb owner recommended us to have seat-in meals at non-traditional times to beat the crowd.

Our trip covered 4 museums: Federal Reserve Bank’s Money Museum, National WWI Museum and Memorial, National Museum of Toys and Miniatures and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. At the Money Museum, we watched endless stacks of bills loaded into large machines to be checked for worn out and counterfeit bills before the robots moved the money crates into the massive cash vault. We drove past rows of huge mansions in Sunset Hill West — the wealthiest neighborhood in Kansas City. Every late afternoon, the constant deafening buzzing sound from cicadas was very apparent. A restaurant server told us this year has been the worst as most cicadas emerged from the ground every 17 years.

In short, we tried 3 BBQ places: Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque, Q39 and Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que. They were all excellent. It was difficult to compare one against another because we tried different cuts of meat each time.

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Prior to our departure, the Air Quality Index reached the Orange or Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups category due to the smoke from the wildfires located north of the Canadian border in Ontario and Manitoba. We revisited a few attractions in the Iron Range by driving through several small mining towns such as Hibbing, Chisholm, Eveleth and Virginia. When we told a retired mining worker at Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine that we visited this place exactly 20 years ago, he paused in disbelief and I had to gently remind him that we Asians look much younger than our true age.

Our campsite in Bear Head Lake State Park was very spacious and quiet. We spent a full day kayaking and hiking in this lovely park. The loud loon wailing could be heard all day long. Although the ranger warned us about recent bear sightings upon arrival, we didn’t stumble upon one except the bear head logo at the entrance of the state park. On the second full day, due to the forecasted thunderstorm in the afternoon, we started our day earlier and hiked the entire 6-mile Bass and Dry Lake loop located north of Ely. Thankfully, the storm never arrived and we managed to chill out in Ely before heading back to our campsite. Our initial plan is to explore the nearby Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park, but we were exhausted from the earlier 5-hour hike. Instead, we checked out several lodges in the vicinity in case we plan to visit Ely during fall season in the future.

As we headed home on the final day, our vehicle began to act up. The “check engine” light lit up on the dashboard, the acceleration jerked as if the transmission was slipping and at times, it lost the ability to accelerate. Given we were still 2 hours away from home, we pulled into an auto repair shop just north of the metro area to run a quick diagnosis, but the mechanics weren’t able to pinpoint the problem right away. We decided to push forward very slowly through the heavy storm just south of the metro, praying that our vehicle wouldn’t stall on us along the highway. We got home safely, albeit a very stressful drive. Apparently, the accelerator pedal position sensor had gone bad and it caused a small fortune to replace it.

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We visited a few city attractions before noon, including admiring the Minneapolis skyline from the iconic Stone Arch Bridge and taking pictures with the giant Spoonbridge and Cherry in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. After having voluminous yet satisfying Vietnamese meals for lunch, we drove to the nearby Bde Maka Ska — “White Earth Lake” in Dakota language and the largest lake in Minneapolis. This lake and the surrounding streets went through a name change in 2020 where they previously named for pro-slavery former Vice President John Calhoun. In the afternoon, we hid from the scorching hot weather by sipping cold beverages at the nearby coffee shop before dropping cousin Troy off at his hotel at 3 PM.

From there, we cruised along the West River Parkway on the west bank of the Mississippi River to Minnehaha Falls located in Minnehaha Regional Park. Frankly speaking, the visit was a little anti-climactic because it was a very short walk to the crowded waterfall from the parking lot that we had to pay the minimum $2 for. We spent just 15 minutes over there before heading to yet another crowded Lake Nokomis where most visitors delightfully sunbathed on the beach under the scorching afternoon sun while we scrambled to stay under the shade like vampires. We didn’t stay for long before deciding to head home.

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Upon arrival, we hiked to the top of the 340-foot Barn Bluff and apparently, many people shared similar thoughts too as it was quite a crowd in the morning. After the hike, we wandered around downtown, took pictures with the world’s largest boot, visited a Scandinavian shop, bought some donuts from a popular bakery shop and learned about the fascinating 19th century pottery industry here. With the mask mandate recently lifted, it was weird to say the least to see people’s mouths, noses and teeth in crowded places, and not witnessing people wearing masks avoiding people NOT wearing masks like same-pole magnets — baby steps back to normalcy.

In the afternoon, we burned off our donut calories in Frontenac State Park. We also discovered a short trail that brought us to the shore of Lake Pepin. Before heading home, we enjoyed some splendid tacos in Lake City. We hiked a total of 7 miles, hit 20,000 steps and supported several local businesses on a beautiful chilly Saturday.

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