Tag Archives: camping

Glacial Lakes State Park, Starbuck, MN

Glacial Lakes State Park, 25022 Co Rd 41, Starbuck, MN 56381

Glacial Lakes State Park reminds me of home.  Home  being the Loess Hills of Iowa.  Although the flowers are different.

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We tried our third camping trip at Glacial Lakes State Park.  We took the Oakridge Campground which is near an overlook.  You can camp here, rent a cabin, or take one of the walk in camp sites.  Oakridge is a walking site about a mile past the parking spot they provide.

We grabbed our gear and headed to the campsite.  Everything was pretty great.  We had to hike in our firewood which added some extra weight.

The walk was fine until we got to the turn for the campsite.  It was like walking through a mosquito mine field.  They swarmed and we had to rush to start a fire.  The campsite had three entrances and all three were full of mosquitoes.

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Once we managed to get the mosquitoes somewhat under control we began to enjoy the campsite.  The tent went up and the food came out.  The next day I hiked back to the car just to bring back ham and cheese for our breakfast.

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We tried the trail up to the lookout and were literally chased by the mosquitoes most of the way up the trail and back to the campsite.  It was a nice view.  I think a different time or year might make this trip a whole lot better.

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There are campsites and cabins all around the lake.  Many of them look very nice.  Kids swim in the lake in a designated area.  I even hear there is some fishing on the lake.

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There are some horse trails as well and horse camping sites.  This park doesn’t have any bears the that is sweet.  I actually slept for the first time on a camping trip.

The flowers where nice.  The views were nice.  Anytime without a the mosquitoes would have been really nice.

Hungry Jack Lodge, Grand Marais, MN

Hungry Jack Lodge, 372 Hungry Jack Rd, Grand Marais, MN 55604

A man who once lived in California returns home to run his father’s lodge, Hungry Jack Lodge.  The boy isn’t necessarily the most outgoing, but I do like his influence on the menu.

Let’s start with the restaurant in the lodge.  It is downstairs.  They have pizza.  They are more famous for their burger and fries, particularly their fries.  I agree that they are very good.  Our waitress was new and inexperienced, but the food was good so who cares.  You can get drinks at the bar or the tables.  You can even eat outside is you wish.

June 2016 063 Hungry Jack Lodge

The cabins are great.  They are right on the lake.  You get your own private dock.  They come with all of the items you need for cooking in the tiny kitchen area.  It has a little kitchen, a bed and fireplace, and a really nice bathroom.  You have deck to hang out on and enjoy the evening sunset or morning sunrise.  They are pretty close to the lodge so you can pop out to get a bite to eat.

June 2016 039 Hungry Jack Lodge

June 2016 027 Hungry Jack Lodge

One thing about being this far north, in the summer for sure, is the northern lights.  It never gets dark.  It hardly gets darker inside at night than it is during the day.  Oh, you can hear the loons at night.

You can fish off the dock or rent a boat.  We caught a couple of small fish, but honestly we needed to be out just a little bit further than we could manage to cast.

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Near the lodge there is some playground equipment if you have children.  The swimming area is straight out from the lodge.

June 2016 048 Hungry Jack Lodge

The have many campsites that you can rent.  The sites look pretty nice.  You can even get a shower if you rent a campsite.  The single shower is really nice, better than the one in my cabin.

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June 2016 277 Hungry Jack Lodge

The best part of this particular lodge is the distance to the nearest trail.  Just a little bit down the road you can walk up to a lookout that allows you to see Hungry Jack Lake.

June 2016 118 Caribou Rock Trail

Walk past this and you will find Caribou Rock Trail and Moss Lake Trail.  Caribou Rock Trail is where it is at between the two, but even if you only get to the lookout point you will enjoy the view.

Hungry Jack Lodge is actually a ways past Grand Marias.  If you are looking for a great place to stay I would say this is possibly the place.

 

Wild River State Park, Center City, MN

Wild River State Park, 39797 Park Trail, Center City, MN 55012

We decided to go camping, spur of the moment, and this is the park that had an opening.  It was the 3rd of July, the day was clear, and we were off on an adventure.

We packed our camping gear and headed northeast.  The park is right along the St. Croix River.  Do not use the GSP system to find the entrance.  It will lead you astray.

As we checked in we were told that there had been black bears seen in the park and that we would need to hang our food from a tree.  They gave us a safety sheet and sold us a rope.  Now if you are out camping and they tell you there are bears, black bears are the ones you want.  They generally avoid people, they scare easily, and they are not going to hunt you.  They will steal your food if they can.  We were armed with our information, our rope, and a can of bear spray.

We were told that we could pick up dead wood and us it for our camp fire.  We had a hand saw with us to cut up the wood which was super convenient.  I was glad that there was plenty of dead wood in the area because we had the last campsite on the trail.  This was a hiking campsite which all of the ones along the military trail were.

We parked as close as we could.  The road leads right up to the river with a perfect place to launch a boat into the St. Croix.  The trail was an old military road so it is nice and wide.  We marched our two full backpacks and the tent all the way to the end of the trail.  The trail itself seemed perfect for horses.  In fact everything about this park seemed ideal for horses.

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There are stables right next to the entrance of the park for the avid rider who wants their horse close to a great riding trail.  There are horse camp sites.  Most have electricity.  Overall this place has a ton of campsites and most of them you can drive to and car camp.  There are even six cabins.  Some have electricity and some do not.

Even with all of the stuff that we brought the hike down to our campsite wasn’t terrible.  There was a picnic table at the perfect spot so that we could rest a moment before finishing the hike.  I didn’t get a lot of pictures along the way, but the campsite was amazing.

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We were right on the St. Croix River.  You could watch boats travelling up and down the river.  The boaters were so joyous with the 4th being the next day.  There was a little tree that provided us some welcome shade.

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The campsite had a fire pit with a grate for cooking.  There was a picnic table and a couple of spots to choose from for the tent.  We picked the spot under the tree.  The tent went up and then we were off to find firewood.

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There were dead trees all over so picking out a few to drag back to the campsite was easy.  I cut up the firewood with my handsaw.  Some of the wood burned extremely fast.

The bathroom, the vault toilet, was just a little further down the path and had a privacy wall.  Don’t forget the bear spray and toilet paper because you might need them.

We made mac chili in a bag which was pretty good.  We brought snacks, but we only ate the cashew nuts for fear of drawing in the bears with our jerky.  All of the trash went into a plastic bag and that went into my sleeping bag carrying pouch along with the other food we brought so that we could hang it all from a tree.

We setup some music and enjoyed the view of the river and the fire and as it got dark the stars.  You never get to see the stars in the city.  We could hear fireworks going off all around us, but none of them were visible to us.  Instead we were treated to a show from the fireflies in the area.

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As we finally settled in for the night all we could think about were the bears.  This was my second camping trip as an adult and lets just say I have yet to have a great night in a tent, ever.  Every rustle outside sounded like it could be the bear coming to get us.  Something kept eating grass really close to our tent and it was so loud.  All of the noises were probably squirrels, rabbits, or something else completely harmless, but we didn’t sleep and couldn’t just pack up and go home.

We got up the next day, completely fine.  Our food bag was still in the tree where we left it.  Nothing came into our tent and ate us.  I still have no idea what was eating grass near us.  We packed everything up and hiked back to our car so that we could go home and sleep.

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If we could have slept instead of being paranoid and feeding off of each others paranoia I think the whole trip would have been great.  I loved the campsite.  The trail would have been better suited for a horse.  I have no idea how the rest of the trails are, but from what I saw I would only want to enjoy this one on horseback.

I wouldn’t necessary be opposed to camping here again, but then again I do not like worrying about bears.  I loved that the site was far from the next campsite.  We couldn’t even hear them.  I assume the bears have been seen near the other sites where more people would be cooking and possibly dropping food.  If I could have slept the camping experience would have been great.

If you do not fear black bears I highly recommend camping here.  If you have a horse I highly recommend riding through this park.  If you are looking for a good hike, go somewhere else.

Whitewater State Park, Altura, MN

Whitewater State Park, 19041 MN-74, Altura, MN 55910

Did someone say stairs?  Whitewater State Park has stairs and great views from high places.  It has a river with a swimming area and plenty of places to fish.  The trail goes through some amazing wooded areas, possibly the most beautiful wooded areas I have ever seen.

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There are easy trails and even easier ways to walk some of the more difficult trails depending on where you start.  We started near the camping area and looked at the nature center with the stuffed animals.  The area has timber rattle snakes, but it isn’t much of a concern.  Outside on the opposite side of the parking lot from the ranger station is a place to get drinking water.  No need to get water directly from the well just outside.

Next we drove over to the picnic area.  If you wonder into that area there are plenty of tables and a swimming hole.

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There is a trail called Chimney Rock Trail which we didn’t get to, but we could see from the trail we took.  It is mostly uphill, but if our view was any indication of their view, it looked amazing.

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We took the Dakota Trail which starts with stairs, lots of stairs.  You climb up and up and up.  We say some hawks flying around when we got to the top.

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What you step as you walk along the edge of the cliff.  The path is plenty wide and a tree would probably stop you decent, but you do need to pay attention.  What an amazing view at the top and all along this part of the path.

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The path splits, but we stayed on the Dakota Trail down to the river.  The flowers along the way were very pretty and I just loved walking through those trees.

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Walking through these trees was so peaceful.  They were spread out just enough that they didn’t feel imposing.  Other than the views it was my favorite part of the trail.

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At the river you got to cross over a floating bridge.  It isn’t nearly as scary as it looks.  The water isn’t deep so if you do fall off you can just walk out.

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Overall it is a pretty calm river.  Even at its wider points it isn’t too deep.  At least not from what I could see.  Looks like a great place to caught trout possibly.

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I had a good time.  Even with the stairs the trail wasn’t bad.  We saw some other people pretty far on the trail.  The views are worth the climb.  The larger birds were pretty neat.  The views on the trail varied a lot which was nice.  I would like to return and see the views from Chimney Rock.

If you live near this park go and check it out.  Take a picnic.  Swim if you like.  Walk the trails.  There was an area near the picnic tables perfect for a game of kickball or Frisbee or football.  Overall this is a pretty great place.

The camping areas seemed a bit close together as we drove through that part of the park.  There really isn’t a reason for anyone to be driving around there except that the roads are a little confusing through the park, at least the first time that you are there.

Overall I would recommend visiting this park and snapping some of your own pics.

William O’Brien State Park, St. Croix, MN – Camping

William O’Brien State Park, 16821 O’Brien Trail N, Marine on St Croix, MN 55047

The last day of April 2016, the weather looks as if it might rain, but it doesn’t smell like it.  We head out with a car load of stuff for our car camping trip.

Driving into the park we sign in and get our site tag.  We made reservations online.  The process is simple.  We drive past all of the cabins and campsites with electricity until we find our simple sight.  This particular park has bathrooms everywhere so just pick a site where you like.

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We setup our tent and head out for a nice walk.  A trail starts a little ways up the road, or if you keep going down the road you will meet the trail.  The main trail is a large loop with a few offshoot loops.

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The camp site has a spot for your car, a place for your tent, a picnic table, and a fire pit.  You can purchase wood at the entrance.  Bring something to light it and some skills to get it going.

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When you return from your walk have fun around the campfire.  Use the grate to cook yourself a meal.  Make yourself some marshmallows.  Enjoy the evening.

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Our trip was a bit cold.  Make sure you bring a good enough sleeping bag or extra sheets.  The nice part about car camping is that you can drive in plenty of supplies.  Take advantage of it.

The site was nice.  The trails were convenient, yet far enough away that people do not randomly walk through your site.  There is some group camping closer to the middle of the park.

Afton State Park Lodging

Afton State Park – a great place to stay if you like camping, cabins, or yurts – website and information

If you are looking for an outdoor adventure Afton State Park has something to offer you.  Sometimes you want to take advantage of both the trails and just sitting around with friends.  That is where staying at a campsite or renting a cabin or yurt comes into play.

Afton State park has both individual campsites for yourself or you and a friend and group sites in case you want to bring the whole family or multiple friends.  Each site is out of the way enough that you don’t feel like someone else will stumble into it (I only stumbled into a group campsite once I swear).  Most of the individual campsites are up the hill where a lot of the 200 yarders dare not tread.  They are out of the way yet close to the main section of Afton alps.

Afton State Park campsite

The cabins are all along the same little road and located a bit further south.  Only other cabin renters and yurt renters should venture into the area.  You get a parking spot or two right by the cabin so if you do not want to walk too far you can always drive from the cabin to the main area.

There are a couple of yurts just past the cabins.  They are setback and you will need to walk a short distance from your vehicle, but there is a little red wagon black wagon for transporting items to the yurt(ok it’s black) at the yurt for you to use.
What is a yurt you ask?  A yurt is a round building made of wood and covered in a canvas.  At the top there is a skylight which allows a ton of light into the yurt during the day.  The skylight of the yurtWhen the sun is out there is no place to hide; I mean it allows a ton of natural light into the room brightening up your day.
There is also a wood stove in the yurt to keep you warm, but you will need to add fire to it often as it is small.  Something to keep in mind if renting in the winter.

Wood burning stove in yurt

The yurts can hold a ton of people.  They come with 2 bunk beds and a futon bed.  There is even a kitchen table in the middle.  Bring your own bedding and pillow.

Futon and bunk in the yurt

Bunk beds in yurt

You can have a campfire.  Make sure you put it out completely before you leave.  Minnesota has some strange rule against alcohol in parks.  If you plan on drinking understand you cannot be rowdy, you cannot be obvious, and you may need to hide it and act sober like a teenager at a kegger.  The bathrooms are outhouses, but they are clean.  There are also places to get drinking water from a spigot.  What they do not have are showers.  I considered sitting under the spigot, but decided against it.  The best part about staying at Afton State Park is being able to get up and go straight out for a nice long hike.

Deer Run Trail wooded area

If you are looking for a place to setup camp and sleep close to nature I would highly suggest Afton State Park.  More for the close assess to great hiking trails than anything else, but also because the accommodations are well maintained.