Exploring Minnesota - Jay Cooke State Park - Wild River State River State Park

Day 5

We had a long day ahead of us with plans to stop by Savanna Portage State Park on the way to Jay Cooke State Park. We finally arrived at Jay Cooke around 4pm.

After we set up our tent, we spent the early evening hiking by the swing bridge on the St. Louis river. Jim got lots of opportunities to take pictures of the roaring river and numerous falls. In 2012, the bridge had been destroyed and it was recently restored. Later that evening, we biked on the Willard Munger trail heading towards Duluth.

 

Miles Biked: 11


Day 6



It rained during the night so our campsite was rather wet when we woke up in the morning. We decided to pack up early and head to Wild River State Park to ensure we had a campsite for the weekend where Lisa would join us.

 

We arrived at Wild River late morning and we found an open campsite. We investigated the campground by bike and saw the interpretive center, trail center,  and the St. Croix river. We signed up for a canoe trip on Saturday that involved helping clean up the river. This event was through Friends of the St. Croix River Association and Wild River State Park. It was a part of the River Awareness Week.

Miles Biked: 10

Day 7

We got up early, broke down our campsite, and prepared to head out for our canoe adventure. We met at the boat launch and we headed out with 8 canoes, 20 people, and the state park naturalist. This canoe trip was nine miles long and would take around four hours.

We spent the majority of the day on the river and we were surprised at how clean it was. There was a lot of tree debris from the high waters and we did pick up some garbage along the shore, but not as much as we would have expected. It was a great day on the water!

Finally, we returned to the state park and we decided to head to Nelson's ice cream as a trip finale. Pirate's Booty was delicious. Yum!

Miles Paddled: 9

 

Trip Recap:

Number of State Parks: 10 (66/76 parks visited)

Miles Driven: 1,100

Miles Biked: 49

Miles Hiked: 2 (too buggy...)

Miles Paddled: 9

Pages Read: 1,800

Mosquitoes: Thousands

Helicopters: Hundreds

Ticks: 3

Ice cream cones: 3

Exploring Minnesota - Scenic State Park - Bear Head Lake State Park

Day 3

 

We ate, packed, and showered before 930AM and we took off for Schoolcraft. We caught up on our blog as we drove and took turns driving so everyone got the opportunity to read.

We drove through Schoolcraft, then on to Hill-Annex Mine State Park (unfortunately, we found is only open on the weekends).  We got our stamps and continued on our adventure with our camping spot at Scenic State Park (located 30 miles from Grand Rapids). 

 

 

 

 As we traveled along today, we had bursts of rain, making it difficult to find a somewhat dry campsite for the night.  We quickly set up camp and then went to investigate the park; checking out the boardwalk along the lake, the boat access, then off to hike the Chase Point Trail.   The Chase Point Trail started out very swampy, but quickly climbed to higher ground and took us out to a peninsula located between 2 lakes.  We had donned our rain jackets and doused ourselves with bug spray, but the bugs were still quite bad here at Scenic.  About halfway down the trail, we found relief with the wind blowing and chasing the mosquitos away.

 

We worried about how to have dinner with so many mosquitos, but remembered our Zippel Bay trip and searched out the picnic grounds to see if they were more open and less buggy.  Well, it surely was a find, as they have a lodge that was open and we were able to eat inside, read and play games.  We headed back to campsite #2, looking forward to a good nights sleep.

 Miles Hiked: 2 miles

Day 4

 We packed up early and headed to Bigfork (Heather was able to visit with Linette & family - a college friend), and we also had an unexpected Paul Bunyan sighting!

 

 

We then headed to the Soudan Underground Mine State Park (the oldest mine in Minnesota).  Along the scenic road we had numerous deer sightings and were able to capture one on camera (2 fawns were in the tall grass with her).

 

 

Unfortunately, the underground mine was closed due to elevator issues; however, Pete (our tour guide) gave us a complimentary above ground tour detailing the history to the present of mining in the Iron Range area.  We really enjoyed our time at the mine!

 

 

On to our campsite for the night - Bear Head Lake State Park (voted America's #1 State Park in 2010).  Tonight we are enjoying a camper cabin.  Bear Head Lake State Park is a beautiful park with natural shoreline around the lake, a great swimming beach and kayak/canoe rental.  The lake is a favorite for the fisherman (walleye, crappies, northern pike & bass)!

 Miles Biked: 5 miles
 

 

 

Exploring MN State Parks - Lake Bemidji State Park

Day 1

 

Fourth of July weekend was again a success. We enjoyed strawberry picking, pontoon rides, mini golfing (Heather), and a phenomenal fireworks display. We also got to do some fishing and played several games. Nonetheless, we were excited to start out on our second annual week long camping trip after this amazing weekend.

 

We stopped at Itasca state park so that we could stretch our legs, walk in the Mississippi River, and try out the new bike path that is under construction. We also stopped by LaSalle Lake state recreation area (SRA) on our way to spend our first night at Lake Bemidji state park. LaSalle was a nice park with two large cabins overlooking the lake which would be perfect for a future trip.

 

 

We got to Bemidji in the afternoon and we were glad we chose this park because there weren't too many mosquitoes.

 

 

 

We went on the bog walk and saw several pink and white lady slippers in bloom. Jim took some pictures of the bog.

 

 

Then, we went to watch the sunset down at the beach. The water was cold, but the wind kept the bugs away and we returned to our tent to play farkle just after ten o'clock.

Miles biked: 5

 

Day 2

After a fantastic meal of egg sandwiches, we rode our bikes along the Paul Bunyan trail towards the town of Bemidji. We stopped to have some DQ and then headed back to our campsite to relax. Then, we decided to bike back to the bog walk to take some better pictures of the lady slippers. Unfortunately, there were more mosquitoes this time and we were unprepared without bug spray. It rained a little bit when we returned and we retreated to the tent to read and take naps.

 

 

Jim had cooked our chicken earlier in the day so dinner was quick make. We all agreed that chicken wraps were a good decision. Heather wanted to do geocaching so we did this after dinner with only a small section at the end that was buggy. This time most of us changed and used bug spray. We spent the last part of our night the same way as the night before. We went down to the beach and then played farkle. These long days were perfect for camping.

 

Wildlife spotted: one thousand mosquitoes, hundreds of helicopters (dragonflies), and two ticks

 Miles biked: 18