Top 3 Door County Hikes

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TOP 3 DOOR COUNTY HIKES

We’ve spent years hiking the trails here, including Washington Island and Rock Island. Greg shot the first Door County Visitor’s Bureau video and was given, at the time, all of the hidden and unknown areas to explore and shoot. If there’s a trail or area we haven’t hiked, we’d love to know about it, but we think we’ve covered them all. These are the three we keep going back to, again and again, winter, spring, summer and fall. If we want to make the day extra special, we’ll pack the picnic backpack (find it in the entry closet) and a bottle of wine.

CAVE POINT

This is the top spot we take visitors when we really want to wow them. It’s a short hike, but it’s easily the most stunning. And in deep winter, when the splashing waves have formed their sculptures along the escarpment, it’s just divine. Park at the Cave Point park area, explore the views along the edge of the park, then find the unmarked trail along the water’s edge to the south, just past the gazebo. Continue walking into Whitefish Dunes park and make your way to the visitor’s center where there are public toilets and a terrific lookout over the sand beach dunes. If you’d like to do a bit more hiking, the trails continue behind the visitors center, where you’ll find the trail head and a map of your trail options.

GO TO MAP OF CAVE POINT/WHITEFISH DUNES

PENINSULA PARK

The absolute most beautiful trail in all of the park is Eagle Trail. It’s listed as difficult, but we’d say it’s more moderate. Enter the park at the golf course entrance, right before Ephraim and park in the “Eagle Terrace” lot. At the trail head, you can go both left and right. The trail is to the right, but first be sure to go left where the lookout levels are located. On the trail, you’ll walk along the water, under soaring escarpment, and climb over rocks as you pass caves. Towards the end of the trail, after you walk over the boards in the marshy area, you’ll come to a marked point with a bench where you can continue straight or head up – go left and head up and follow the Eagle Trail signs back to Eagle Terrace, where you parked.

GO TO PENINSULA PARK MAP

NEWPORT PARK

This is a bit of a drive, but it’s a gorgeous one, and it’s worth it. Park in Lot 3, walk straight ahead towards the water and take in the view. Europe Bay trail is to your left. Very soon after you start, you’ll be able to veer to the right to walk the trail along the water – watch for it carefully as it comes up quickly and gets a bit overrun with vegetation. We like to turn back on the Fern Trail – it’s a special treat when the fields of ferns are green and lush.

GO TO NEWPORT PARK MAP

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