What’s not to love about a name like Mosquito Hill? Especially when it’s the home of Green Apple Hoots, Princess Warriors and a dinosaur called the Hang-tongue.

My kids and I took our first trip to this Outagamie County Parks facility outside of New London this past Sunday. Even though our visit was shorter than a Wisconsin politician’s commitment to fix the economy, the park is definitely on our list of must-return-to.

The full name, for those who’ve not heard of this Northeast Wisconsin jewel, is Mosquito Hill Nature Center. While a major attraction is its fine interpretive center and library/community hall, the building’s limited hours mean many visitors will have to spend time doing what the center is meant to do, which is provide one of the loveliest nearby nature experiences we could hope for.

Understanding the buzz

I read of Mosquito Hill in Tim Brewer’s book “Wisconsin’s Outdoor Treasures,” which hasn’t yet steered us wrong. Given that I had to pick up my son, Sam, and his buddy, Pax, from an overnight birthday party near Waupaca early Sunday afternoon, I took the opportunity to drag the kids along on another outdoor adventure.

Because Pax had to rejoin his dad in Stevens Point by 4:30 p.m. for a trip back to Wausau and the boys’ pickup time was after 1 p.m., we’d have a quick turnaround. It was surprisingly easy to talk 7-year-old Lorena into the outing – a mention of the word “park” was plenty this time – but I was concerned that Sam might have been up too late with video games, birthday food and rowdy friends.

When I presented Mosquito Hill not as an option, but a firm plan, Sam shot me a quick, yet basically-resigned look, and the ever-enthusiastic Pax was plenty game. We were in business.

We didn’t arrive until shortly after 2 p.m., and the weekend hours for the interpretive center are limited to 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays). I sent the kids inside for a lightning bathroom break and a look around, during which Lorena quickly made the acquaintance of the center’s family of stuffed bears and Sam managed to start a game of hide-and-seek without bothering to tell me.

We finally got out on the Lower Deer Path, which would lead us to kids’ choice of the Frog Pond. The small pond is one of a number of water bodies in the marshy area north of the Wolf River, which borders the 430-acre park on the south.

A trail system of approximately 4.2 miles includes the paved 0.6-mile All People’s Trail, an accessible path that winds along a forest edge and through-planted prairie to meet up with other trails. Most of the trails are easy, with the exception of the Overlook Trail, which climbs Mosquito Hill and is 1.05 miles with its loop and ).8 miles with the shorter up-and-back route.

Because Sunday afternoon was brilliantly sunny, the algae-covered Frog Pond was a wonderful bright lime green, and the woods around the pond were dappled with light and shadow.  An active chorus of birds was out, but one loud song made me realize I may have been hearing an American toad, whose vocalization was described on a pond interpretive exhibit as a “long, high-pitched trill” that is frequently mistaken for a bird.

The kids had already run down the path running around the southern edge of the pond and off into the trees. Once I saw that the path looped around, I decided to go in the other direction and meet them, just to enjoy the sounds of the park.

Apparently they missed me, as they came back and called to me before I got far. We decided to walk back through the prairie and climb the hill.

That’s where we saw the Hang-tongue – a four-legged, four-armed, humpbacked and shaggy-haired creature that is apparently quite the hunter, according to Sam’s narrative.

Sam was, of course, the real metaphysical wonder. He simultaneously embodied and described himself as the dinosaur, warning of prehistoric mayhem while he carried Lorena all the way up the hill, whose trail is moderate to difficult for climbing, depending on one’s fitness level.

I realized that the exceedingly good-natured Sam, in agreeing to carry his advantage-taking younger sister, was showing his approval of our afternoon’s entertainment.

The beauty of the sunny woods, the banter of all three kids about dinosaurs, and the smooth switchbacks on the very forgiving dirt path made the hike up almost heartbreakingly pleasant – one of those short stretches of time when we realize how rare a few perfect moments can be.

The kids did make a couple of comments about mosquitoes, but I think those were actually other Wisconsin flying pests, as we’d experienced none at the frog pond and nobody got bitten or buzzed.

While Brewer’s text notes that the hill’s name has unknown origins, it might have been bestowed by loggers working near the swamp. In any event, the only mosquito we confirmed was the quirky metal sculpture of one that graces the walkway between the parking lot and interpretive center.

Mosquito Hill has a surprisingly well manicured feel, making it seem almost like a privately owned facility for weddings and whatnot. 

Its setting just east of New London, among tidy local farms, makes it feel far less rustic and more a simply accessible outdoor experience, like a great city park rather than a get-dirty campsite experience. (It’s not, incidentally, an overnight facility, but it does offer classrooms and its Great Room for a range of community and business activities.)

Poke around its website and you’ll learn about an impressive variety of indoor and outdoor activities, both active and educational – including some fantastic-sounding concerts (“Hoots”) with the Green Apple Folk Music Society, which is based at Mosquito Hill, and such events as the Warrior Princess Mud Run, held annually at the park to benefit domestic-abuse programs.

There’s far too much to mention, especially because – here’s the truth-in-advertising part of the column – I can’t even get the name of the Hang-tongue right. 

I know it ended with “-tongue,” but I didn’t have a chance to ask Sam for confirmation. That was because I’d already ruined the opportunity by pestering him about missing homework assignments shortly after starting this column. 

Even a Warrior Princess wouldn’t save me from his scorn at that point, so journalistic precision will be left for the fossil hunters in this particular case. 

But the rest of this is both accurate and true – especially our desire to return to the other wonders of Mosquito Hill.  It’s a place that has so many good things, and does so many good things, that it seems almost alien; it reminds my family of the Wisconsin we first perceived when we moved here nine years ago, a Wisconsin which now sometimes eludes us. 

Mosquito Hill is a perfection of time, location and purpose that we should all cherish.

Some notes if you go

From most of the Portage County area, it’s probably easiest to take Wisconsin 54 out of Waupaca to New London, then turn south on County S just east of U.S. 45 to reach the park, about a mile and a half to the south and well-marked by signage.

It took us just over an hour to get back to Point, and that was with a drive-through stop at Culver’s in Waupaca for the summer Wisconsin necessity of lemon ice.

Plenty of information about the park is available on its website, which has the easily accessible address of www.mosquitohill.com. Be sure to check out the myriad of events and activities it offers year-round – everything from snowshoeing to fascinating educational programs. 

It’s a truly special place.