The pandemic has given us a much greater appreciation of county parks. There are so many of them, and they are usually just as nice as the state parks – but quieter and less visited. John Muir Memorial Park  is a dreamy open space, with a vast skies and gentle hills overlooking Ennis Lake. The park abuts the Fox River National Wildlife Refuge. On a peaceful Sunday afternoon, the other visitors were all local Amish residents chatting on the lawn and tethering their horses next to the lake to do a bit of fishing. While he was a champion of the mountains and our national parks, I believe Muir would highly approve of this idyllic place, close to his childhood home.