RECREATION PARK in Tomah, WI has a recreation building for banquets and weddings, an Adventure…read morePlayground with a playground, zip-line, giant saucer, and barn-themed play structures, and an ice rink for ice hockey and open skating. RECREATION PARK is also the site of the annual Tractor Pull, and the annual Monroe County Fair. The address of this park is 1625 Butts Avenue. Please also keep in mind, that Tomah is eight miles north of another destination-of-choice in America's midwest, namely, the annual Cranberry Festival in Warrens, WI. I've attended the Tractor Pull and the Cranberry Festival in Warrens, and I've also performed on stage (with a clogging group) at Clark Country Fairground in Kahoka, MO. The Tractor Pull provides majestic machines taking the form of customized tractors, and customized trucks. These machines have multiple engines, which together produce horsepower about 100-times greater than that of a typical family car. To view the numbers, one of the competition tractors can have 4 to 6 super charged V-8 engines, or 2 or 3 Allison aircraft engines, or 3 or 4 turbine engines. These engine combinations produce between 9,000 to 12,000 horsepower. The advantages of attending a tractor pull include, the sheer eye candy of these customized tractors, experiencing at close range the exciting noise and puffing smoke of one of the competition runs, the freedom to mingle around parked tractors before the competition event, and simply being in a crowd in the grandstands where everybody is on edge and excited. Attached are a few of my photographs from one of the tractor pulls in Tomah, WI. My motivation for writing this review includes the following. When I was a teenager, I attended a drag race in Fremont, CA where I saw Don Garlits and Tommy Ivo do the quarter mile with a top speed of just over 200 mph. More recently, I attended a drag race in Sonoma County, where the engines were all rear-mounted, and where the top speed in the quarter mile was just over 300 mph. Over the years, I have attended custom car shows in Oakland Coliseum, in Seattle, in New York City, and at Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A. And then, there are the many drawings of dragsters that I made, between the ages of ten and 16 years of age.

We camped here on our road trip back to MN. It was a great experience! I was a little nervous given…read moreall the cuts to funding lately and stories of state parks not having enough staff to keep the parks clean and safe but that was not the case here. The staff were all very friendly and available to help throughout the weekend. There was running water, bathrooms, and showers available. We would definitely stay here again.

Black River State Forest is chock full o' awesome things to do!…read more You can bike, hike, snowshoe, ATV, ride horses, dive, swim, camp, paddle, fish, among many other options. The staff at the main office at the Castle Mound Campground are friendly and helpful regardless of where you may be camping or recreating. I frequently camp with my paddling groups at Castle Mound prior to paddling the Black River. The sites are well laid out, and if you reserve sites 12, 13, or 35, you are closest to both the outhouses and the wood house. Racks of wood are available for $3. Just load up the handy rack located next to the shelter, and deposit your $3 in the collection box. Each site has a fire ring with a cantilever grill grate. Be sure to bring some aluminum foil if you want to cook right on the grate! The showers located near the main office are fairly clean and easy to use compared to those at many other state parks. They have a good potable and non-potable water station you can hit on your way out for the day's activities. The group campsite at the north end of the State Forest is very spacious. They only allow a relatively small amount of people to camp there, considering the space could host a county fair. It used to be a horse camp. Now it hosts group sites with large pads for RVs and campers. The rangers we dealt with at this location were very friendly, and the one high school kid who was assisting was a great help in finding where to access some of the local trout streams (a challenge in this watershed because almost every stream is in a box canyon). The only drawback to camping at the group camp, the East Fork Campground, or the indoor group camp (which I want to try this winter) is that they are pretty far from the paddling locations we use. It's a hefty drive from the Interstate to the north end of the State Forest. If you're in the area and the timing is right, stop in at the Ho-Chunk Pow Wow which takes place on the northwest edge of the State Forest. It's quite an experience, and the announcer is hilarious: "We're doing the same thing tomorrow. The same... damn... thing."

Swim meet review:…read more The actual pool is lovely! If you park when you drop your swimmer off, you might get a spot that's not a hike. I dont mind walking, but swim meets often happen in winter and it's cold and windy here, and space inside is very limited. If you're here for a big meet, there will not be enough space in the stands or the gym. The home team might not have enough people to be timers and will ask for volunteers. The bathrooms are old, and the swimmers say the locker rooms are also meh. The gym is also very small and unless you grab a spot right away, there will be nowhere for you to sit, not even on the floor.

- attended the 2025 Central Zone 14 & under swimming championships event held at the Rochester…read moreRecreation Center - web site says seating at the pool area accommodates 1,294, but a person attending their orientation was told 800 by site personnel - it was a crowded mess - limited parking, so we took an Uber every day. Some people were told to park in a lot that was a 15 minute walk away. - construction mess was going on while we were there - overall, the event seemed pretty disorganized. - they ran out of wristbands on day 1 - very limited concessions - very limited seating in the gym to view swimming heats via video (for people who couldn't/wouldn't use seating in the pool area; the seating in the pool area was tight, and for this event, was inadequate) - simply LOVED (not) the woman sitting immediately behind me screaming in my ear. Next time I'll remember ear plugs. - no event t-shirts day one; T-shirts not available to purchase right away starting on day 2, and, up a flight of stairs of course. Moved downstairs starting on day 3. Limited size selection being sold. - quite a few stairs to climb for access to pool seating area - rules not enforced (many times people got away with standing at railing blocking view of pool contestants, even though the railing was marked "no standing"). People perpetually went down the up stairs and up the down stairs. - during several heats you couldn't see the contestant in lane # 1 from the stands, due to the line of people standing at the pool edge down below. - narrow/tight seating (packed in like sardines). I've never been bumped and knee'd in my back so many times as I was at this venue. - no handicap access to seating area that I could see. - loud speaker announcements hard to understand/make out - helpful friendly personnel ("Tom" in particular) - EXTREMELY LONG line to get in on day 1 - nice pool - Rochester itself was a good city to hold the event in (easy to get around in, lots of restaurants to choose from, everything a short drive away, nice hotels, friendly people) - I appreciated the National Anthem at the start of day one, and at the start of day 2's late afternoon relays. I may have missed any others there might have been. - overall, I think the Rochester Recreation Center could have been better prepared for the event, and in my opinion, was overwhelmed by the number of people attending.

Maiden voyage at this location was quite the surprise. In the middle of rolling luscious green…read morehills. It felt pretty safe with the warden and Ranger making frequent passes. The host was very friendly and helpful with the 411. The sites are close enough together that it doesn't feel very remote though. Unfortunately, it was very extremely high temperatures so I didn't get to explore the hiking trails. But the beach and amphitheater were definitely worth checking out. Educational programs and food truck Saturdays. Wi-Fi is a little spotty so they recommend cash. The grounds are very clean as well as the restrooms and showers. Definitely feels like you're someplace else even if you're from the state of Wisconsin.

What a hidden gem of a state park. They have a beautiful beach with yellow sand. The lake was huge…read moreand looked perfect for skiing and fishing. There are tons of picnic tables and plenty of people had parties meeting up at the beach. The bathrooms by the beach were pits, but were well maintained. The pit toilets did have a good amount of coop flies. The campground had very nice bathrooms, and has showers for after your swim. Many of the campsites were further from the road which made it a bit more secluded and gave us a sense of privacy. Will definitely be back!

We love this gym! We have been going here for almost 2 years and have never had a bad experience. I…read morewatch every practice and open gym. I have never heard anything derogatory or unprofessional from gymnasts coaches or spectators. Both of my gymnasts love it as well. Great equipment, positive energy poured into the gymnasts, professionalism, and the owner is wonderful. I have also appreciated all of the extra work all of the staff is putting in during COVID to keep the gym open and running while keeping everyone safe. I would give them more stars if I could.

This place had good equipment but when we were in line for the Olympic trampoline we were being…read morecalled f*ggots and the coaches running it were very unequal when we told the story because Gymnastics girls were nearby and they said we cussed and apparently he believed "his girls" were trustworthy and we almost got kicked out for "harassment" and on the way out a grown man called us an a*shole we reported the incident but they didn't give a crap and other coaches were smack talking about parkour and flippers they thought we were retarded doing flips I am never going here again.

Went with our free passes that came with our hotel stay for a half a day. The pace has gotten so…read morebig as I haven't been there in 20+ years. Go early, park close and be done by noon. It gets VERY busy fast.

I've been coming to Noah's Ark since I was a teenager, and I used to love it soo much. As an adult,…read moreI don't mind it too much. The parking is crazy if you come later than noon. We had to walk almost 10mins just to get to the door. Once inside, the lockers were easy to navigate and for $15 (small one) it wasn't overly bad. The wave pool wasn't too bad. The waves came crashing for 5mins probably and it was a lot of fun. The only thing that I didn't like was how hot the water became later in the afternoon. It just made it less enjoyable when it is 95 degrees outside. The lazy river seems shorter than I remembered. It was okay, but definitely not too deep because I found myself scraping up against the floor. They do have a lot of water slides, which is nice because there is a nice variety for everyone. They even have a little tadpole section for younger children that may not want to do waterslides but can still play with the water and a shorter slide. The food was outlandishly priced, but I guess that's too be expected (kind of). Paying $12 for a regular funnel cake, $8 for a pineapple soft serve, and almost $5 for a bottle water was kinda crazy. The tickets getting in are already expensive plus $15 for the locker and $25 for general parking that spending that much more on food is just a bit much. Lastly, you can tell the water park is a bit dated since they made limited updates since I've been here as a teen.

My fav place to be on rainy crappy days like today. Its so huge you can spend hours here, nice pool…read moreand exceptional work out areas. I take classes too once in while. but not always.

Has a full basketball court, a long course swimming pool, and two ice rinks with skate rental…read moreavailable. Conveniently located near several restaurants/bars for pre-hockey dining or a post-game beer. Also located on one of the several bike trails in town.

This is a hidden gem! The campgrounds offers sewer, water, and electric to all their sites, some…read morecement parking pads but the rest are nice and level, and great spacing between the sites. There are plenty of nicely mowed trails to hike, short and long distances, and it's set in beautiful limestones bluffs and tall grass prairies. So quiet, far away from any busy road.

We went here camping in the Horse Camping portion (Albany Equestrian Campground). The camp sight…read morewas very spacious. I was pleasantly surprised by how well maintained the camp sight was. The grass portion was well groomed, the roadways were in good repair and all campers were well behaved. The only thing different I could have hoped for was cooler temperatures which obviously isn't the park's responsibility. As most who come here to this camp sight already have their own camper/trailer, the Latrobe was basic. If you want to take a shower, you just get In your car and go over to the regular camp sight. We were able to do a bit of tubing on the Volga River just 2-3 minutes walk from our campsight. The River was a bit low due to lack of recent rains but again, that is not the park's responsibility. There is a wine tasting place just 200 yards outside the main entrance which is a nice place to visit. Fayette, Iowa is just 10 minutes south by car with a very well stocked Dollar General story (kind of like a mini-Target.

Trails were well groomed. Morning it wasn't as busy. Once afternoon hit, it was much busier. At…read moreWelch rest area they had a stand to greet people and had music. Nice touch.

WONDERFULLY maintained trail. Enjoyed my time running here, starting in Red Wing and going 10 miles…read moreout and back. Was moderately busy on a weekend - mostly bikers. You do need to make a 5$ donation if you are biking that gives you a sticker to put on your bike while riding. No light posts so I wouldn't recommend going at night. Will be back!!