Take a quiet walk with photographer Bobby Badboy, who visited Wisconsin's Brunet Island State Park as autumn infused it with a rose-gold light.

Lying at the confluence of the Chippewa and Fisher Rivers in northwestern Wisconsin, the park consists of a large island with campsites, and several smaller undeveloped islands easily visited by canoe. It displays an abundance of natural beauty in a mixed hardwood forest of oak, aspen, birch, pine, maple and basswood. There are also several splendid stands of tall old-growth hemlocks, which are rare now in Wisconsin. The hemlock stands, reduced by tornado damage in 1977, are not reseeding themselves, and are being encroached upon by birch, aspen, and oak: this is an ecosystem in transition.

A quiet road lit by a profusion
of color on Brunet Island.

The park is is home to hundreds of different plant species, including great carpets of club moss that blanket the woods in some spots, and a wide variety of colorful mushrooms. In summer and early fall, black-eyed susans brighten the roadsides and open meadows and New England asters, in shades of purple with orange centers, bloom in profusion until the first hard frost.

Brunet Island is well known for its large deer population, and it is not uncommon to spot deer roaming the park. On any visit, as well, you have a good chance of seeing small woodland animals - raccoons, foxes, skunks, squirrels, and woodchucks. A silent walk along the banks of either of the rivers could yield sightings of beavers, otters, muskrats, or mink.

Spring and fall are excellent times of the year to view the many migrating birds that pass through the area. It's not uncommon to spot a bald eagle or an osprey, soaring high above the rivers.

The park has occupies 169 acres, and offers some four miles of footpaths for those wishing to walk and hike. Shall we take a stroll, this fine afternoon?

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