The great thing about the Wisconsin sites is their location. Very close to Minnesota and all in the mostly northwest area of the state, so we tacked them onto the Minnesota trip.
There are only four badges, and they are all print ahead. Spreadsheet here.
Apostle Islands
This is definitely our favorite Wisconsin National Park. We wished circumstances were different and we could have taken a tour of the islands. That might have taken two days, though. We had to pay parking at the site, and it was crowded so get there early when the weather is right. Only four activities are required to complete the badge, but you have to hear a ranger demonstration, which happened at roughly the half way point of the hike. The hike was quite worth it and the ranger was very nice. They got the badge right in the middle of woods. Can’t say that has happened before. Activities were different for ages. The olders had to do some math, unscramble some words, or break a code. Youngers can do a maze or draw lines to connect an animal with its Native Ojibwe name. This booklet is printable.
Ice Age Trail
Crazy easy printable booklet–draw what you see, map, draw lines from supplies to the backpack. Requires crayons. We were unable to get the badge at the St. Croix site like they said. So we had to email back and forth and jump through some hoops. Hopefully that process is fixed now.
North Country
We were excited to get this badge. The kids’ great-grandfather used to call the parlor the North Country. Maybe because it was the coldest room in the house? I don’t know. There are multiple states to complete the activities. Thought we could grab this at St. Croix, but it’s a mail in. Came quicker than they said though. The printable booklet has questions like counting the blazes, drawing what you see, a scavenger hunt, marking a map, and filling in the blanks.
St. Croix
This printable booklet requires 10 completed activities. There are a few math pages, a maze, a fill-in-the-blank, and a spot to draw your interpretation of a poem. It was less traditional, which means it’s either more fun or less depending on your kids’ opinions.
Don’t forget to grab the spreadsheet here.
