'Tis the Season

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: A red backpack with Minnesota State Park badges and pins on it.

Normally, on Fridays I have a Zoom with some of my writer friends. But, with Mason home for the summer, we're really trying to get as much practice driving in as humanly possible... while also making it fun.  As I've said before, my clever plan is to combine the driving with one of our favorite things: State Parks. Today, we're planning on making a longer return trip to yesterday's driving foray, Afton State Park. Afton is one of the closest State Parks to my house (Fort Snelling State Park being the closest, being only just by the airport.) The driving isn't terribly exciting at Afton, although with winding hills, Mason got in a lot of practice regulating his speed through turns and inclinations. We also *ahem* got in some very tiny practice getting one's wheel up out of the ditch when we semi-failed a y-turn on a narrow backroad. All important stuff, mind you!

Today, we're hoping to make more of a day out of it, stopping to do a little hiking and check out the park more thoroughly. 

I also wrote down a list of some of the other nearby (nearby meaning within 2 hours of us) parks:

• Banning State Park, a place we've hiked at least one, but long ago,
• Charles A Lindberg State Park, a place I have never been,
• Crow Wing Sate Park, another new one, and just at the very edge of 2 hours to get there,
• Father Hennepin State Park, a big giant question mark of a park,
• Frontenac State Park, which Shawn and I checked out during fall colors... last year? Year Before? But which might make for good driving practice now,
• Interstate State Park, which, I have, and there isn't--at least on the Minnesota side--much actual driving to be done there
• Lake Maria State Park, which I have never been to,
• Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, another one that is just under 2 hours, but which I've never explored,
• Nerstand Big Woods State Park, another complete unknown,
• Saint Croix State Park, which we've walked, but never driven,
• Wild River State Park, which we recently drove, but could return to to hike, and
• William O'Brien State Park, which I also have never fully explored.

So, this could easily keep us busy if we try to hit a new State Park every Friday. I think it would be especially fun to see just how many of these would CAN see, but, looking at the maps some of them would really not net us a whole lot of actual driving experience. We'll see what Mason thinks. My other thought is that, as he advances in his ability, we could always head to one of these more remote ones and try driving on county highways.  We'll see. He might also get bored of this exercise way faster than I will. Plus, in the next week or so, he's going to have a friend  (Mason's very best friend, actually,) in town, with whom he will then go visit in their hometown. So, maybe I will end up exploring some of these places entirely on my own.

Any of you local folks who spend a lot of time in State Parks who have advice or recommendations about good places either for me or for me and Mason, please drop in a comment!

In addition to continuing to try to fill-in my passport book, I've also started collecting either buttons or patches from the State Parks we visit to add to my hiking backpack. This is the one pictured above. It was Mason's old kindergarten backpack, so it is actually very child-sized small, but it fits a couple of emergency medical kits, sun screen, bug spray, a flashlight, umbrella, State Park guidebook, Kleenex (and a plastic baggies), a bear whistle, and other such sundries. (You might be laughing at the bear whistle, but I wore it religiously up at Bearskin Lodge, so it stays in the pack.)

This weekend Shawn and I are hoping to go to Deutsche Tage at the Germanic American Institute this weekend, here in Saint Paul, because: why NOT? It also looks as though rummage and estate sale season is in full-swing, so perhaps we will also check out some of those. We also have to do some boring mundane things like buy new shoes, but, honestly, I kind of enjoy that kind of shopping with Shawn. 

Anything fun planned for your weekend??

Comments

[sabotabby]

That sounds really fun.

I have nothing that fun planned—an MRI tomorrow night. A haircut Sunday, which will actually be fun. Theoretically Writehive on Discord but it sounds exhausting.

[lydamorehouse]

I totally get bailing on exhausting sounding events.

But yay for haircut!

[pameladean]

My state park experience is heavily weighted towards finding lots of dragonflies, wildflowers including native orchids, and birds, and I am not necessarily familiar with how much driving is possible if that's what you need to do.

That said, Banning is rocky and has a river and lots of woods and we once saw a fisher there. We like it, but like the St. Croix River parks better.

We once broke a trip from Itasca State Park up by stopping at Charles Lindbergh. Huge trees and lots of pileated woodpeckers.

Crow Wing has the remains of a trading town, right by the larger river, and contains the confluence of two rivers and some really lovely wooded walks with bridges and various river views. I don't know about the driving part. It is too close to some military thing that periodically makes really loud noises with cannons, or something. I'd really like to find out their schedule. This is another good way to break up the drive to or from Itasca. Lots and lots of orioles by the river and an amazing variety of dragonflies, including clubtails, which are just emerging now.

I've been to Interstate once or twice but never got over the discovery that you have to pay again if you go to the Wisconsin side. It's like there's a very cautious armed truce but nobody is giving up their perogatives.

Lake Maria has gorgeous woods with some pretty large trees, a huge lake full of dragonflies and ospreys and bald eagles and any small bird you may wish to hear, though it might not be easy to see them. There's a trail from the picnic/fishing dock area that leads up a small river flowing into the lake, and it's beautiful if not too soggy to use at all.

There's also a stop on the road the picnic area where Blandings turtles hang out and it's generally full of dragonflies, including the species that will land on you. We've seen beavers there, but not reliably.

Nerstrand was one of our most frequently visited parks for years. It was spectacular in both spring and fall. Now it's flooded every spring and they're worried about the survival of some of their landmark trees, because if this keeps up the climate will just be too wet for them. It's pretty in the summer, too, but awfully buggy. Then again, so is Banning, so is Wild River, etc.

We go to William O'Brien probably four or five times a year. It's enormous and we haven't explored very much of it either, but really like the pocket prairie near the Visitor Center -- you get a condensed prairie experience, and then can go up a steep path through the woods to the upland prairie, which is less relentlessly sunny and more tallgrass than shortgrass, with periodic interruptions of pine, birch, or mixed hardwood groves that help with the sun a little. Very birdy. The picnic and boat launch area is packed with dragonflies.

From the upland prairie you can either go roundabout and end up at the beaver pond -- beaver lodge! Beavers coming and going with leaves in their mouths! -- or else just go down the other side of Wedge hill and the beaver pond is right there, with trails going all over.

P.

[lydamorehouse]

THIS IS AN AMAZING RUNDOWN. Thank you so much!

I've long wanted something similar to Yelp for State Parks and this is basically what I wanted.

Though I will say that I thought about your comment about Nestrand so much that I actually woke up with no small amount of environmental existential dread the other night. Not your fault. Politics will keep me up at night, but the thing that will just irrationally freak me out is the environmental collapse. It feels so big and so beyond me....

[dreamshark]

I can tell you about Father Hennepin and Kathio, which should probably be considered as one park trip because they are so close together. Father Hennepin sports a magnificent white sand swimming beach on Mille Lacs, with two caveats. The main one is that for some reason one of the biggest beaches in the state is set up to be incredibly awkward for day tripping. There is NO PLACE TO CHANGE - not even a bathroom! The only restroom facility is a nasty vault toilet a hella long walk and up a steep hill from the beach. If you want to swim there you should stop in one of the campgrounds and change in one of the campground toilet/shower rooms. The other caveat is that because it is such a gigantic lake, it can be choppy on a windy day. If you manage it correctly, it's a lovely place to swim. If you don't care about swimming, there's nothing particularly compelling about it.
Kathio is kind of the reverse - the worst "beach" I have ever seen in a state park but some other fun things to do. Judging from the interpretive center, it is a prime park for birding and other wildlife. And geology if you are interested in the relationship between that big glacier and Lake Agassiz and how the River Warren cut the path for the Minnesota river. This park also has the most hilarious name origin story ever (no spoilers here - just be sure the Interpretive Center is open on the day you visit). It's a small, under-appreciated, understaffed park with iffy hours, but it has a great 100-foot fire tower to climb. If Richard and I made it to the top, you certainly can too.

It's not clear to me what a "good driving park" means to you. But if what you are looking for is maximum mileage, St. Croix Park is the park for you. It's a very pretty park on the St. Croix River with lots of fairly easy scenic walking trails, and it is HUGE. You can drive for hours without ever leaving the park. And probably will, whether you want to or not. Just make sure your gas tank is at least half full when you enter, because there are no gas stations in there and very limited cell phone coverage if you need to call for help. There's a fire tower here too, and a perfectly decent swimming beach on Lake Clayton. Best onsite rental cabins outside of Itasca if you can manage to get a reservation.

[lydamorehouse]

Thank you for all of this! I'm always interested in what's available at State Parks and even though I own a lot of the guides, nothing beats lived expreience.

As for you question: For me, right now, "a good driving State Park" means a lot of roads INSIDE the State Park. Mason is not yet up to driving to these places. He is still interested in just practicing in a place with very little traffic, a few turns, etc., at 20 - 25 miles an hour.

[dreamshark]

If you want something closer to home, just drive around Lakeview Cemetery. I think there are about 15 miles of roadway in there. And (unlike St. Croix Park) all of it is paved.

[lydamorehouse]

We did cemeteries the first time we did driving lessons and they're not quite what we're looking for. It's a good idea? Just one we already tried.