Roche-A-Cri State Park north of Adams-Friendship is expected to open for the 2011 season this weekend, starting April 29. The main entrance will be open then, and there will still also be parking and park foot access at the winter parking area. Camping won’t be available for another 2-3 weeks. Clean-up work is still going on by park staff to get the park ready, but the Friends of the Park will be holding their own volunteer work day on Sunday, May 1, starting at 12:00 p.m. and ending ???

From the press release on the work bee:

“Some potential jobs will be cleaning up the play areas around the office and kiosk, splitting firewood to sell to campers, cutting scrub oak on the prairie, and cleaning up garbage along the roadways. Please dress for the weather, and bring your own work gloves, chain saw or loppers, rakes, and snacks or drinks. We will meet at the office. Call Elaine at 608-847-4104 for information.”

If you missed the WGA picnic at Roche-A-Cri last September, or if you didn’t find all the caches you wanted to then, this would be a good time to be able to search for the caches in the park (approx. 20) and surrounding area. The park will remain open until about the first of October.

If you attend the work bee, introduce yourselves as geocachers who appreciate the park allowing caches to be placed in the park. We won’t be able to attend this work bee ourselves, but mention that you know Pat and Mark from geocaching.

Now, as for the stairway to the top of the mound… This will be closed all of the 2011 season. Bids will be finalized in June, with work to start on the new stairway soon after. There should be an information box available in the park to let you know updates on the construction, plus other activities there are to do in the park. Completion of the stairway work is expected to be done before winter, with a “grand opening” being held in spring of 2012.