How are you? Instead of being outdoors on this lovely morning, I'm writing a blog post. Oh well!
We had a great one night camping trip in Southwestern MN. Camden State Park was much lovelier than I expected. The 3.5 hour drive went by quickly (although Highway 212 through Eden Prairie is a CF; no wonder I haven't been out there in years) and the park was in a very hilly and scenic region. Highly recommended!
Our campsite:
The path and the Redwood River behind our campsite.
R hung our hammock right over the water!
Here he messes with the newly-discovered macro lens on our camera. (We've had the camera for four years! Thanks to Maven and JH in CO for the macro tips.)
We took a hike, which was partially thwarted by the fact that some of the portages were out because of high water.
There were a lot of natural springs.
Check out these morels we found on the horse path!
The Wild R and his Garmin GPS!
Our first geocaching excursion was sort of a crisis. We missed the 1:00 pm geocaching tour, and when we took our GPS out around 4 we think the rangers moved the cache. On the way to the site we did startle two deer, however!
The deer jumped right into the river! The first one made it easily across, but the second deer got caught in the current and dragged downstream a few yards! R caught it on camera as it successfully made it out of the river and followed its buddy up the hill.
There were deer everywhere. Can you spot the one in this photo?
We also saw a wild turkey, a pheasant, and tons of orioles.
R and I have only been to this State Park, William O'Brien, the Boundary Waters and a less-than-thrilling State Park in Alexandria, MN. Can any of you recommend some of your MN favorites?
Have a great week!
xoxoxo
Wendell
4 comments:
Oh man, I'm now obsessed with your hammock (ham hock) and have to get one before we go to Montana.
I love all the North Shore state parks (obvs), especially Temperance and Cascade. It's unfortunate that they're all so close to 61, but at Temperance a lot of the campsites are right on the lake front, so you don't have to cross the highway to get to the lake (not that that's such a huge deal). Of course, you have to book them like four months ago in order to get into them, too. Or go in the off-season--I camped by myself once in early Sept and it was fab.
Also, I've never stayed there, but Maplewood SP up on the way to Fgo/Moorhead looked pretty cool the one time I stopped to hike around. They have cabins and shit, which is maybe not your thing.
Nice use of macro lens.
fab post wend. hunting for the deer in the photo was glorious. took me a while...
our favorite quick getaway is afton state park. jog out 94 e almost to the st. croix and then a bit south.
all sites are hike in though. this is why we love it the way we do. once your go hike in, you never go back (at least we didn't). the privacy you get at each campsite is amazing. can't usually see any other sites from your own. you have to hike a huge hill to get to the campsites and at top you choose from either very wooded isolated sites or prairie sites. they have wild berries to pick, you saw your own fire wood, and they have a beach for swimming the st. croix. GORGEOUS! the hiking around there is sweet too.
so those are my 2 cents. i hope i am not letting my cat outta the bag with my public admiration of this lovely state park!
i am getting a cold so i just gobbled up your green health smoothie. like grass. yet so tasty. bring me to victory greeny.
big love, kt
Nice! I have some Stryker Jay photos for you.
R
I slept on a hammock for a whole semester in college. I think they are much more suitable for leisurely use. Did you see any hawks? We only saw two on our adventure to Copper Falls. Ho hum. The chart I consulted indicated that it was a good time of the year for hawks. Maybe if we hadn't missed summer and gone straight to fall the chart would have been accurate. Hope your school year is wrapping up nicely.
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