Some visitors destined for a Door County vacation head immediately to one of our five beautiful state parks: Newport, Peninsula, Potawatomi, Whitefish Dunes, Rock Island. That’s all they care about this place, all they need to know and love about being here, in the midst of it. To return to that primitive sense of land, water, sky…sunrise, sunset…a silence both holy and profound.

The natural diversity, raw beauty of this landscape is sometimes staggering. From woodlands, to meadows, bluffs, beaches, lakeside, bayside, sand dunes, including a whole island to hike, to pitch a tent, to test the blue Lake Michigan waters, to count the stars and welcome the sunrise… to remind you why some still call it God’s Country, or simply, Paradise. Every season is a new peace offering. A chance to find yourself again.

Add to the five state parks, nineteen county parks plus more town parks than anyone can count.

One of the truths to this place is that it harbors diversions galore in a setting singularly solitary. You sense this on the highways, backroads, and in every little village and town. There is the bustle of shops and restaurants—and minutes away, a road leading you to bluff, water, the crashing of waves along the shoreline.

We, lucky to live amidst this, remain forever grateful to those who came before us, who understood the redeeming nature of this distinctive wilderness and sought to preserve these sacred grounds for future generations.

–Norbert Blei
(1935-2013)