1000 Islands

Thousands Islands is a nature reserve in Kaukauna. I've been here before. I visited here with Grandpa Muddy and the path in the lower woods I would say is NOT stroller friendly and parts of it are baby carrier friendly. 

This stairway is the way to the "upper woods" of 1000 Islands. The stairway is probably the most baby friendly part of the path. These pathways would probably be best for kids who listen well and can walk pretty well, like the 8 or 9 range or a very well behaved 6 or 7 year old. The outer loop of the trail is about 2.25 miles with a few trails intersecting back and forth so you could make this quite a good hike. 

Who can resist a selfie in the woods???

This is Baby Muddy and myself. I had just gotten done with an overnight shift and figured a quick walk was the best thing to do before going to bed. We did not see even one bit of wildlife because... ahem... someone... ahem baby boy... was being VERY loud! Baby Muddy was very excited the morning of this walk and squealed all the way to the end of the path and back. He had a great time!

Baby and I walked this path below. It's the Valley Bike Trail and runs 1.25 miles. Because even in the carrier, I couldn't walk the trails of the upper woods with Baby Muddy, we stuck to the bike path. The bike path would have been stroller friendly with the very well packed crushed stone/gravel pathway. Though the bike path ran along some homes, it was still quite a scenic walk in the woods.  

Sunset Park

Sunset is a park in Kimberly with a boat dock and also a swimming beach. I used to do a lot of swimming there as a kid. The beach was closed and water drained when I was there this past weekend, so no pics of that. 

I walked with Baby Muddy and Grandpa Muddy. We ran into an old friend as well! 

Trails, very stroller friendly. It's a nice scenic area, maybe 2 or 3 miles of trail altogether, but not certain on that.  

There are a few smaller trails that go into the wooded area more that are not stroller friendly but still appear to be generally baby carrier friendly. There are a couple hills that can be a little hard to push a stroller up, but Grandpa gave a helping hand there. 

There are two play areas, the one in the photo is the smaller one. The other is at the top of the other hill and near a pavilion and bathrooms. This smaller one is a bit away from bathrooms, but near enough to see the pavilion from this spot. 

The day was a little hotter than anticipated but it was absolutely beautiful out. This is also a good park for professional family photos. Lots of bridges and a nice build up stone area. 

Overall, very stroller friendly for walking, also dog friendly on the pathways, and great for the bigger kids too so they can get a break to play as well. 

Thousand Islands in Kaukauna

This is a nice little environmental reserve with some paths to follow. I was with Grandpa Muddy so we did a short path. Next time I'll head into the "upper woods" path and see what the trails are like. However, starting at the nature reserve, the paths really are not good for strollers. Or really for baby carriers either. The wooden path (shown above) has lots of overgrowth and no railings. It's difficult to cross paths with another stroller going the opposite direction since the wooden paths are off the ground and are not very wide. 

I could have worn the carrier (and should have but my back hurt) but if you go off this path and onto the next path it is wood chips and very uneven. It does go along the water and is pretty, however strollers can't be rolled easily though the wood chips and tree roots that make this path difficult to traverse. Wearing baby in a carrier would definitely have increased the risk of me falling and hurting one or both of us since it would have limited the visibility of the path (I front wear still). Tripping over a root would not have been ideal. There are also some steps along the path (not marked on the map) along the water to the observation deck. These steps are not something I would have wanted to do with the carrier and were difficult with the stroller (but Grandpa helped carry the stroller up/down them :) ). 

The water level is low this year and looking through the nature is really beautiful. We saw a deer though I didn't get a picture. There were some deer tracks along and across the low water areas. 

I'll be heading back to the "upper woods" area in a couple weeks and we'll see if that area is better for strollers or carriers. The "upper outer" loop runs along the Valley Trail (trail that runs through multiple cities) so I'm sure the Valley Trail will be paved even if the upper outer loop is not. 

So, my recommendation if you start from the nature reserve itself is to take kids that can walk steadily on their own and are not so young that they will run off on the paths.