Monson Lake: The Worst State Park in Minnesota

H. Bradford

I am on a slow quest to see every state park in Minnesota. To this end, I visited Sibley State Park with my brother this past weekend. While in the area, we decided to stop by Monson Lake since it was only 17 miles away. There are 75 state parks and recreation areas in the state, so of course, one of them is going to be the worst. Thus far, Monson Lake State Park is the worst on account of its history and size.

The history of why it was established is the worst aspect of the park. Monson Lake State Park was established in the 1920s as a private memorial park to remember the deaths of 13 Swedish settlers who were killed in the Dakota War of 1862. Since the park is small, this history of the park isn’t masked by size, a large network of trails, or other facilities. There is only one trail, a camp site, the lake, and some signs about the white casualties in the Dakota War. The few signs remain stilted towards colonial history. Although there is brief mention that the conflict arose out of the starvation conditions imposed upon the Dakota people on account of late annuity payments, the signs were more sympathetic to the history of settlers. For instance, the informational sign mentioned that the Dakota people were resisting white civilization, which is loaded language which attributes “civilization” to white people, but not to Native Americans. A more accurate word for what they were resisting was genocide. The sign denotes the names and ages of the colonists who were killed, whereas the impact of the conflict on Dakota people is unspoken and far more horrific. If the park remains, it should expand its signs to include more information about Native American history of the region, more information about the conflict, and also facts about what happened after the Dakota War of 1862. The outcome of the Dakota uprising was the largest mass hanging in U.S. history (when 38 Dakota prisoners were hanged in a single day in Mankato) and mass internment. 1,600 Dakota prisoners of all ages were held near Fort Snelling, of which 300 died that winter. Previous treaties were nullified and the Dakota were forcibly expelled from Minnesota, with a bounty on any found in the state and state sponsored scouting parties to scalp those who remained.   

There are several other state parks which have connections to the Dakota War of 1862.  Nearby Sibley State Park was named after Henry Hastings Sibley, the first governor of Minnesota and a commander in the Dakota War. The park itself was established by a survivor of the Dakota war who wanted to see a local park established in the area. Fort Ridgely State Park was also established as a memorial to its role in the conflict. This park features a fort defenders monument and the site served as a fort in the war. As mentioned, Fort Snelling State Park was the site of an internment camp after the war.  Lake Shetek State Park was established from a site where settlers were buried after the war. Flandrau State Park was named after Charles Flandrau, a settler who defended New Ulm. Since many of these parks are in Southern and Western Minnesota, I have not yet visited them and it may happen that they are worse than Monson Lake. It remains to be seen how and if these parks approach this history. However, the sheer number of state parks with connections to the war should demonstrate that the state park system arose out of a movement to preserve and commemorate a certain version of history. It is easy to treat state parks as benign public spaces to preserve nature, but they are largely white spaces.     

Aside from this history, Monson Lake is rather small. It doesn’t seem like a destination in its own right. At 343 acres, it is not the smallest Minnesota State park. However, it featured only one trail, which took less than an hour to explore. The campground and lake seem like they could be locally attractive, but might have been better as a municipal park. The office is not staffed, so visitors must go to nearby Sibley State Park for passes or to speak to a ranger. Again, because of its small size and lack of points of interest, the history seemed like the main attraction.

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The park may have some good qualities. For instance, the lake might offer opportunities for birding. My brother and I saw three snakes within the first few minutes of the hike, so the park seems to punch above its weight in reptiles. We also saw chipmunks, toads, a dead turtle, egret, and several other birds. The park is a small area but seemed to have a large number of animals for its size. Again, it probably is a nice local place for a picnic, camping, or fishing, but hardly worth the drive for visitors outside the area. The fact that it is a state park means that it is a protected area, which preserves it from private development. This should be viewed as a plus. But, the history is uncomfortably colonial and this is something which needs to change. Thus, that is why it is the worst state park I have been to.   

     

Yurt Camping at Cuyuna State Recreation Area

Yurt Camping at Cuyuna State Recreation Area

H. Bradford

11/21/20

I learned this summer, while visiting Glendalough State Park, that some Minnesota State Parks have yurts for rent.  Only three state parks feature yurt rental including Glendalough State Park, Afton State Park, and Cuyuna State Recreation Area. I decided this would be a fun adventure, so I set out to rent one at Cuyuna State Recreation Area.  However, as it turns out, the yurts are pretty popular, so there were no reservations until late October. I nabbed the available reservation, which was for Monday, October 26th. At $70, the rental is not exactly cheap for one person, but would be a pretty good deal for a group. The yurt at Cuyuna State Recreation Area can sleep up to seven people!  In my case, I had the whole unit to myself. 

Winter came early to Minnesota, so there was snow on the ground and cold temperatures by mid-October. The night that I planned on camping was particularly cold, with a low of 16 degrees F.  I was a little worried about the wintery conditions.  But, I set out anyway, hoping for the best.  The park itself was a former mining area from the early 1900s to 1960s and is pocked with deep mining pits. It was also the site of the deadliest mining accident in Minnesota history, when a mine shaft of the Milford Mine suddenly filled with water and mud on Feb. 5th, 1924, killing forty one miners. There is still mining equipment, historical markers, old buildings, and of course, the landscape itself, which mark decades of mining history in the park. Some of these historical areas were closed for the season.

The Cuyuna State Recreation Area is located about 100 miles west of Duluth. Many of the trails at Cuyuna State Recreation Area were closed until the ground was frozen, as to avoid damage. In better weather conditions, the park is known for its mountain bike trails. I had thought of bringing my bicycle, as there are also flat trails, but, it worked out better that I didn’t. During my visit, I was the only person in the park. The yurts are located at Yawkey Lake, where there are three yurts and a few trails. My yurt was named Manganese. It was the furthest from the parking lot and the outhouse restroom. Campers can use a cart found at the yurt to haul in their items. Instructions of where to find the key are sent with the reservation, so there is no need to check in at an office. I carted in my items from my car, grabbing firewood along the way. There is a firewood station near the outhouses, where free firewood is available for the wood stove during the winter months. A hand pumped water spigot is also located in that area, but I packed my own water.  I was definitely glad that there was plenty of  free firewood to use in the stove!

My first order of business was setting up LED candles in the yurt. Actual candles are not allowed and I wanted some source of light during the dark evening ahead. I set up a dozen LED candles, unpacked some things, took a few photos, then set off to do some hiking before sunset. As I had mentioned, many trails were closed, but there were a few nearby trails which I explored before it got dark. Upon my return from hiking, I started up a fire in the wood stove. That was my first time using a wood stove, but it was pretty easy to figure out, with a single lever used to control the oxygen to the fire.  The stove was small and it took over six hours for the yurt to become semi-comfortably warm. I also started a fire outside in the fire pit, where I joined a weekly socialist meeting via zoom and ate s’mores. I was happy that my cell phone actually had reception and it is interesting how a person can be in the middle of the woods but also on a video conference.

After sunset, it definitely felt cold. The yurt has a pretty large area to heat, so I found myself huddled by the wood stove for hours in my winter jacket. I even pulled my mattress off one of the bunks so that I could sleep on the floor by the wood tove. It was also dark. The many LED candles, my camping lantern, and small flashlight didn’t provide nearly enough light. I managed to spend a few hours reading, but the room beyond my book was very dark and cold.  Outside the yurt, I could hear many nature noises, such as the yipping of dogs or coyotes from across the mining lake and the flutey call of a saw-whet owl.  I didn’t sleep well, as I woke up throughout the night to feed wood to the stove. A few times throughout the night, I stepped out into the cold and looked out at the stars. By morning, the yurt was toasty and comfortable. I went for another hike in the morning, then packed up my things. I made the mistake of trying to clean out the ashes from the stove, which only brought them back to life and filled the yurt with smoke. I had to fan out the smoke with the door. Outside the yurt, the sun shone brightly on the cool morning and there were many chickadees and juncos fluttering about the campsite, perhaps eating leftover crumbs from my s’mores.

Overall, I had a fun time. It was my first time “camping” in cold weather and my first time using a wood stove. Although many of the trails were closed, I enjoyed the time spent hiking alone. There wasn’t a single car in the whole park. The early cold weather really seemed to scare people away from nature. I was happy to hear a saw-whet owl and would try winter cabining again. My main advice would be to bring plenty of light. The night is long and dark. While the LED candles provided some ambiance, they did not shed a lot of light. I relied on my camp flashlight for my reading. Another thing I learned was not to clean out the ashes in the morning. I was trying to be thoughtful, but it ended up being a smoky mess. Also, I went through a lot of wood! I used almost all of the wood that I had carted in, which was more than I expected to use. So, I would definitely try to overshoot the amount of wood needed, as it wouldn’t have been fun to fetch more in the middle of the night. On the way home, I stopped in Aitkin, where I ate lunch at the Block North Brew Pub. I had a PLT sandwich (portabella, mushroom, and tomato) and it was great! They also have a wild rice black bean burger. I would definitely recommend Block North for a post-camping meal.

Big Bog with My Brother

Big Bog with My Brother

H. Bradford

8/1/20

I promised my brother “it would be the Disneyland of bogs.” In my mind, the Big Bog State Recreation Area was a big deal. It had been on my bucket list for a few years and a July visit with my father in Bemidji provided the perfect opportunity to make the journey. So, I coaxed my brother into abandoning his family and coming along. As a spoiler, it was not “the Disneyland of bogs,” that I had promised. This has happened before. As a teen, I visited the amethyst mines by Thunder Bay, ON.  I imagined fantastic caverns of sparkling lavender hued crystals. Instead, it was a giant open pit mine of dusty brown rocks. Last summer, I visited the Forestville Mystery Cave, which was epic in my imagination with twisting caverns of fossil embossed walls. It was a large cave, but the standard tour visited only a small portion, and it was much more mundane than the cave I had imagined. Big Bog State Recreation Area was indeed a very large bog. It had all of the impressive qualities of a very large bog, but it was not the orchid bejeweled paradise with towering mounds of moss and giant, carnivorous plants. Big Bog was big in my imagination and big in real life, but it is best appreciated for exactly what it is…a large bog with an impressive, mile long bog walk.

To begin, bogs are a type of wetland or water saturated environment. They are furthermore a type of peatland, which is an environment wherein organic material has built up over time because cool (usually) low oxygen conditions have inhibited the decay of these materials. Among peatlands, bogs are characterized by peat or partially decayed vegetation that has built up over time. According to basic definitions of bogs, this built up peat landscape is not nourished by groundwater, and instead derives its nutrients from precipitation. This results in water with low nutrient content and high acidity. This means that bogs host uniquely adapted plants such as carnivorous plants, orchids, and stunted, slow growing trees.

Minnesota has 6 million acres of peatlands, which make up 10% of the state. It is second only to Alaska in peatlands. According to the Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota’s peatlands began forming 5,000-6,000 years ago during a climate cooling period that saw increased precipitation. Big Bog State Recreational Area, which is also known as The Red Lake Peatland, was formed in the part of the basin of Glacial Lake Agassiz.  Nearby Upper Red Lake and Lower Red Lake are remnants of the lake.  Richard Ojakanga’s Roadside Geology of Minnesota states that Big Bog itself formed about 3,000 years ago as vegetation began to overtake low lying areas of Glacial Lake Agassiz. The average thickness of peat is ten feet. Big Bog is 50 miles long east to west and 12 miles wide. It is the largest bog in the lower 48 states. The Red Lake Peatland is also unique in that it is located only 50 miles from prairie.  

Big Bog State Recreation Area was added to the Minnesota State Park system in 2000. It was established through a local effort to boost the economy after the collapse of walleye fishing on Red Lake.  Fishing was the main tourist attraction for the nearby town of Waskish, which saw resorts close in the late 1990s. When I told my brother this, he was skeptical that a large bog would attract tourists.  After all, there is a difference between the type of tourist who wants to stroll through a bog and those who want to go walleye fishing.  In other words, people who like bogs might be a bit more on the nerdy side. I had read that several years after opening, there were 75,000 visitors to Big Bog, a number that was expected to grow (but cannot find the source). Since walleye fishing resumed in 2006 after efforts to restock the fish and a moratorium on fishing them, the two types of tourism actually coexist at the moment. 

Big Bog State Recreational Area attracted me for a number of reasons. One, I want to visit all of Minnesota’s State Parks (and Big Bog is part of the state park system). Two, I like big bogs and I can not lie. Really, I like bogs of all sizes. Bogs are interesting. They are full of interesting berries, carnivorous plants, orchids, and unique trees. In Europe, they have preserved corpses.  There are also opportunities to see unique birds. Three, it is the biggest bog in the lower 48 states! Four, it has a great board walk. Speaking of which, the boardwalk really is amazing. The mile-long boardwalk was completed in 2005. The DNR states that it is the longest boardwalk  in the U.S.  The Bemidji Pioneer reported that the boardwalk was constructed in a way which allowed for 60% of sunlight to reach the plants under the walkway (Wikipedia reports 38%). Sixteen foot sections of boardwalk were installed without machinery, as to avoid damage to the fragile ecosystem. Work was done in the winter to minimize damage and the boardwalk itself stands 18 inches above the bog on anchors drilled fifteen feet into the peat. The boardwalk itself is worth the visit.

As I mentioned in my introduction, the Big Bog Recreation Area didn’t quite live up to the hype in my head. One reason for this is that we wanted to see orchids. My brother and I had visited Lake Bemidji State Park the previous day and saw two species of orchids. The Showy Lady’s Slipper was past its prime and wilted. I was hoping that by going an hour north to Big Bog, we might catch some fresher specimens. We didn’t see any. Also, we were attacked by deer flies. This made it difficult to stop and enjoy the nature around us. We saw many different species of butterflies, but I was unable to stop and identify them because I would be immediately assaulted by flies once I stopped moving. The most comical example was when a Mourning Cloak butterfly landed on my butt, but I couldn’t stop to photograph it because of the flies. I also didn’t see many birds that morning. The boardwalk was impressive and certainly a feat to build.  It was also pretty astonishing to see what seemed like endless bog in all directions. But, my brother pointed out that we grew up in a boggy area and it really didn’t look that different. Perhaps it is hard to take in all of the small details of such a large area, especially while attacked by flies. 

The interpretive signs were full of useful facts. For instance, I learned about efforts in the early 1900s to drain the bog for farmland. Millions of dollars were spent to dig 1,500 miles of ditches in the Red Lake Peatlands. This project failed as farms were abandoned during the Great Depression, but the bog is still scarred in some areas due to the drainage ditches that were constructed earlier in the last century. I also learned that Big Bog was home to remnant woodland caribou into the 1930s. The population was cut off from its Canadian calving grounds and ultimately failed to thrive. The boardwalk might be better appreciated in the spring and fall when the bugs are less bad. It might also be better enjoyed on a guided hike, where a naturalist can point out the plants, butterflies, and birds. Due to Covid-19, Minnesota State Parks have not been offering naturalist programs. I think this would be a great way to get to know the bog.

Another interesting fact about the Big Bog State Recreational Area was that it was used during the Cold War as a bombing/ammunition test site. Between 1947 and 1951, the U.S. army used Big Bog as Upper Red Lake Firing Range for gunnery and bombing training. Later, the Naval Reserve dropped over 50 bombs to create wallowing holes for moose. From 1948-1953, the National Guard set up targets in the bog for aerial bombing based on the Cold War fear that Duluth was a strategic target for the Soviet Union. Some of the bombs that were dropped in the bog were inert bombs or non-nuclear parts of bombs otherwise developed as nuclear weapons.  One of these non-nuclear bombs weighed 11,000 pounds, was detonated 3000 feet above the bog, and seen 60 miles away in Bemidji. This history was uncovered when researchers in the 1970s began to suspect that a meteor may have created Hillman Lake and a bomb casing was later found in the bog by a naturalist. Despite the fact that the bog was abused for military and agricultural purposes for most of the century, in 1975 it was designated a National Natural Landmark. Of course, the bog was a source of food, tools and housing supplies, and medicine to prehistoric Native Americans to Ojibwe. For instance, many Native American tribes have made medicinal beverages from Bog Labrador Tea. Yellow eyed grass is also one of the 150 medicinal bog plants utilized by the Ojibwe.

While the bog is not a magical wonderland, it is scientifically, ecologically, and culturally important. Had we visited a few weeks earlier, we may have seen orchids. Even without orchids, the simple vastness of the bog and engineering feat of the bog walk are worth the visit. The bog walk begins at Ludlow Pond and a wet mixed forest. This slowly transforms into the open expanse of tamaracks, spruce, and mounds of sphagnum moss. We were the only visitors on the bog walk during our short hike. The walkway is a unique opportunity to delve deeper into a bog than what is typical. The morning was noticeably quiet of people, cars, and the sounds of society. As a whole, it was a good experience. At the same time, there are many short bog walkways where it is easier to get a more condensed, but detailed experience. Because of the length of the bog walk and size of the bog, it was hard to focus on the tiny details around us. After a while, everything becomes moss. Perhaps that is the shortfall of “big things” as they are harder to comprehend and take in. A highlight of the experience was catching a glimpse of a bog lemming and stalking a park ranger for my collectable state park patch.  Maybe I will revisit the bog one day when programs resume.  Really, not matter how great the bog was, I was just happy to have a fun morning outdoors with my brother.   

 

Glacial Lakes State Park with My Brother

Glacial Lakes State Park with My Brother

H. Bradford

7.1.20

One of my goals is to visit every state park in Minnesota.  To this end, I try to visit a few new state parks each year.  The most recent park that I visited (this time with my brother) was Glacial Lakes State Park, which is located about an hour and a half west of St. Cloud, Minnesota, five miles south of the small town of Starbuck. The drive from St. Cloud is a pleasant journey across farmland, bypassing Sauk Center, and passing Glenwood and Lake Minnewaska.  Sauk Center is the birthplace of Sinclair Lewis, and features an interpretive center, plaque, campground, and park in his honor.  I recently read, “It Can’t Happen Here,” a fictional account of fascism arising in the United States under the leadership of a Trumpish president named Buzz Windrip. We didn’t stop in Sauk Center, but if I visited the state park again, it might be worth a brief visit. In fact, one of his books might be the perfect reading material for a camping trip to the park!

Glacial Lakes State Park appears as a bit of an anomaly in the landscape. Until arriving at the park, the landscape was mostly flat farmland.  But, as we turned off HWY 29 to HWY 41, we were suddenly met with a landscape of rolling hills. These conical hills are called kames and were formed when sediments accumulated in depressions located within the ice of a retreating glacier. Other glacial features of the park include eskers and kettles, which can be read about on interpretative signs. According to “Roadside Geology of Minnesota,” the glacial features of the park were formed by the Des Moines Lobe. The Des Moines Lobe was the largest lobe (blobby, jutting feature) of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The Laurentide Ice Sheet was a large sheet of ice which covered most of Canada and the Northern Midwest United States. This itself was a part of the Wisconsin Glaciation, the most recent glacial period which lasted until 11,000 years ago.  I have not studied geology or climate history, but suffice to say the park features interesting glacial formations and history. Because the park is a transition between hardwood forests and prairies, it is also a unique ecosystem which blends flora and fauna of both ecosystems. To a science novice like myself, it feels like a special place, with wooded and prairie hills, lakes, and diverse plants and birds. My immediate impression when I was greeted with a view of rolling hills from the visitor’s was that the park indeed deserved to be a landscape set aside as a nature reserve. My brother and I were both glad that someone had the foresight to create the state park.

While visiting the park, my brother and I explored two trails. The first was an interpretive trail/boardwalk which hemmed the east side of Signalness Lake.  The boardwalk was partially submerged, so watch out for water! This shorter trail leads to the Oakridge Campground and then to the High Peak Trail. The High Peak Trail offers two loop options and we opted to take the slightly longer loop, which nears an unnamed lake on the map. The unnamed lake featured ducks, great egrets, and other birds. There were also many butterflies fluttering amongst the prairie grasses and flowers. A highlight of the hike was the discovery of a patch of Showy Lady’s Slippers near the lake.  According to the DNR, these orchids are uncommon in the state,but can be found in bogs, wet prairies, damp woods, and wet meadows. It was my first time discovering Minnesota’s state flower in the wild. They can live 100 years and takes 15-20 years from germination to flower. Because they need particular soil and fungus to grow, have lost habitat over time, and were once over harvested, the flower is uncommon, but not rare or endangered. It is illegal to uproot or pick them in Minnesota.

The High Peak Trail continued along to an overlook at the top of a hill. At 1,352 feet, it is the highest point in the park. The overlook offers a bench for resting and a view of Kettle and Baby Lake, as well as the hilly landscape.  From this high point, we took a .5 mile loop back to the main High Peak Trail, this time taking the shorter route back to our parking spot. This brought us back through the campground and across the soggy boardwalk once more. Along the way back, my brother raised the question on why the last ice age happened in the first place. I didn’t know at the time. According to the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, over the past 2.5 million years, the Northern Hemisphere has fluctuated between warm and cool periods. Over the last 700,000 years there have been 100,000 year climate cycles of warming and cooling. This is related to shifts in the axial tilt of the earth and the shape of earth’s orbit around the sun. The most recent ice age began about 100,000 years ago and ice sheets didn’t retreat fully from Minnesota until about 11,000 years ago. So, there you go. The earth’s axial shift and orbit is believed to be the cause of these ice ages over the last few million years.    

After returning to the parking lot, we decided to explore Mardy’s Trail.  Mardy’s Trail flanks the west side of Signalness Lake.  This trail was less interesting, but brought us past a boat landing and by a number of thirteen lined ground squirrels. We did not do the complete loop, as this would have circled us back to the High Peak Trail. We hiked as far as a second overlook, which was less impressive than the first, but offered an overview of the other side of the park. The only downside of this was that my brother decided to trail blaze his own path down the hill, as a shortcut back to my car.  He boldly proclaimed that it wa “Lonnie’s Trail.” Unfortunately, “Lonnie’s Trail” was a guantlet overgrown poison ivy.  I was wearing long pants, but he was wearing shorts. Thankfully, he was able to avoid a rash by immediately applying rubbing alcohol to his legs. He dabbed his legs with hand sanitizer, which may have broken up the urushiol.  So, as a note to other hikers, pack rubbing alcohol or a preventative cream to avoid a rash. We weren’t really prepared, but both narrowly avoided a rash (I washed my clothes after).  From now on, we will take poison ivy more seriously!

After a fun day of hiking at Glacial Lakes State Park, we headed off to Morris, Mn, where my brother went to college. I never visited him in Morris, so we took the opportunity to venture there as it was 30 minutes from the park. Although the campus was closed, we wandered the grounds and past the buildings where he embarked on his life journey. There is something melancholy about touring the places of long ago, where new, young, hopeful students will gather in the fall. It is sad to think of all that was or wasn’t and how time moves us forward, relentlessly towards death, change, and loss. But, on a happier note, we also enjoyed some delicious Mexican food at Mi Mexico. Mi Mexico was a Chinese buffet when my brother was in college. Although I never visited him while he was at Morris, at least we revisited it years later after a pleasant day of hiking. I was happy for the opportunity to visit a new state park and spend the day with my brother. I hope that we have many years of hikes together!   

  

 

A Review of Three Minnesota State Parks

A Review of Three Minnesota State Parks

H. Bradford

7/27/18

This past week I visited three Minnesota State Parks.  My goal is to one day visit all 66 state parks.  Usually, I try to visit a few new ones each year, so it is a long term goal.  The three parks that I visited are each located in central Minnesota and are each within one hour driving distance from St. Cloud.  I chose the parks since I visited my brother this past weekend (who lives in the St. Cloud area) and it was a way to kill two birds with one stone.  Well, really, I don’t want to kill birds at all.  Typically, I prefer to watch them.  Violent idioms aside, here is my review of the three state parks that I visited.

Lake Maria State Park:

Lake Maria State Park is located near Monticello, Minnesota, about three hours south-west of Duluth.  There was some road construction along the way and when I stopped at a gas station about 10 miles away from the park, the staff and a customer had no idea where Lake Maria State Park was.  The customer reckoned that he had heard of it before.  This did not bode well for the state park.  When I arrived not long after the stop, I found that the park office was closed.  It was a Friday, which I assumed might be a busier day of the week for a state park.  With the park office closed, I decided to do some hiking, then check back later (since I like to collect state park patches).   My first hike was to Little Mary Lake.

(Sorry to disappoint anyone but Lake Maria’s sign is not this sparkly in real life.  I just had a sparkle setting on my camera by accident.)

Almost immediately, I was attacked by deer flies.  I did not think to wear my hat, so during the course of my hike, I picked dead deer flies from my hair in a demoralizing journey to the lake.  Had I counted the number of dead deer flies, I would not be surprised if at least 50 found their death in my hair.  The hike itself was hard to enjoy, as my constant battle with the flies made it impossible to stop for photos or bird watching.  The trail was dotted with many swampy pools, which seemed like the perfect environment for breeding insects.  The forest itself was unique, as it is a remnant of the “Big Woods” that once covered that part of the state.  The surrounding area near the park is either farm fields with corn or big box stores along I-94, so the park is a piece of what once was.   The forest also seemed unique to me because of the large number of basswood trees.  I might have appreciated the park more had my hike not been marked by the incessant attack of deer flies.

One of Lake Maria’s swampy pools.

Little Mary Lake features a wildlife lookout, wherein visitors can take a moment to enjoy the swans and other waterfowl on the lake.   Further ahead, there is a boat landing and interpretive trail.  I enjoy interpretive trails, though the Zumbrunnen Interpretive Trail was overgrown with sedges and other vegetation.   Upon finishing this trail, I headed back to my car to eat a snack, put on a hat (to guard against flies), and wait for the visitor center to open.

The wildlife lookout area

My second hike of the day was to Lake Maria.  I took a meandering path instead of a direct route, which took me to a bluebird restoration area, then back to the lake.  The lake itself was actually much smaller than Little Lake Mary, despite the fact the larger lake is called “Little.”  Once again, I was pestered by flies. Despite wearing hat (which I retrieved after the first hike), they flew at my face and under the brim.  This made for an exhausting day, as my hike seemed like an endless battle with flies.   However, I think that the park would be more enjoyable in the autumn or spring when the flies are not as thick.  Since the park is almost entirely forests and lakes, I am sure that it would be particularly nice in the fall.

Pros:

The park was almost entirely empty.  I hiked from 11:30 am to about 3:30 pm and only encountered one other hiker.  There were several other people in the park, but I can count on one hand the number that I saw at various points during the day.  The park also features backpacking campsites.  It seems that it is a great park to visit if someone wants solitude.  I assumed that since the park is only 22 miles from St. Cloud and 45 miles from Minneapolis that it would be much busier.  This was not the case at all.  Lake Maria features lakes, forests, and plenty of birds.

Cons:

The flies were insufferable.  The natural ponds and lakes and surrounding farmland seem to be the ingredients for a lot of flies.  I would definitely have arrived more prepared for flies had I been thinking about it.  They bite any exposed skin, making taking photos difficult as they would land on my hands.   Another con was that the park office did not open until 2pm.  I wanted to purchase a year long park sticker and an embroidered patch, but had to wait until the park office opened.  Stickers can be ordered online, but I wanted the sticker right away as I had planned on visiting two other state parks that weekend.

Charles Lindbergh State Park:

Do you like aviation history and relentless swarms of mosquitoes?  I sure don’t.  This made Charles Lindbergh State Park a bit of a disappointment for me (heavy emphasis on the mosquito swarms).   Charles Lindbergh State Park is located about an hour north west of Lake Maria State Park, or about 30 minutes south of St. Cloud Minnesota.  The park was established with donated land from Charles Lindbergh Sr., the father of the famous aviator and a state congressperson.  Upon arriving at the park at about 9am on Monday, I found that the office was closed.  Bugs and closed park offices were a theme over the weekend.  I had intended to camp there, so I dropped off some money for firewood and set off to explore some of the historic buildings around the park.

 

Because the park was created through a land donation of Charles Lindbergh Sr., visitors can walk around the family farm house.  The farm house was not open during my visit, but the grounds were open.  Visitors can also view a dilapidated house which was used by tenant farmers on the Lindbergh property.  There are some signs which tell the story of the farm, which seems oddly situated in a wooded strip of land between the Mississippi River and Pike Creek.  Near the farm, there is a museum dedicated to Charles Lindbergh Jr., the famous aviator.  The museum, like the farm house, was not open.  In the opposite direction, there is Weyerhauser Museum, but once again, this museum was not open.   Although the museums were closed, there are a few interpretive signs and a pleasant trail along the Mississippi River, which connects these sites.

Tenant farmer house

 

After viewing these historical sites, I decided to do some hiking within the woods.  This was where I was bombarded by mosquitoes.  It is little wonder, since the trail followed Pine Creek, a wonderful breeding place for the blood thirsty plague.  I sprayed myself with DEET, but this would not defeat the relentless mosquitoes, which prodded my skin and clothes for any DEET free areas.  On the bright side, it caused me to hike very quickly as the mosquitoes pushed me forward.  I hiked a 1.5 mile loop which took me through the forest, along the creek, and to the landing site of Lindbergh’s “Jenny” airplane.  I am not really interested in aviation history, but the clearing was the only mosquito free area of the hike.

I would have hiked longer, but the mosquitoes were making me miserable.  Instead, I headed to the park office, which was again closed.  I decided that I would leave the park, head to Little Falls, find some lunch, then go hiking elsewhere (at Crane Meadows National Wildlife Reserve).  This 3.5 mile hike proved to be bug free and greatly improved my bug bitten morale.

A mosquito breeding area

When I returned to the park in the early evening, the park office was still closed.  I set up my tent at the campsite, took a short jaunt into the mosquito infested woods, then settled down at my campsite with a fire and some reading.  A wasp flew into my tent and I could not find it.  This caused me some concern.  Another source of concern was the nearby campers, who seemed to be very rowdy and loud.  Because of the loud neighbor campers and the mysterious disappearance of the wasp in my tent, I decided to sleep in my car.

Sometime after midnight, a police officer woke me up.  He questioned me about the behaviors of the nearby campers and if I had witnessed anything unusual or anyone in distress.  There were several squad cars parked near my campsite.  I only said that they had been loud earlier, but I didn’t hear any fighting or anything more concerning than the ruckus of loud conversation.  The officer left, but sometime later I was roused again, this time by a sergeant who wanted me to make an official witness statement.  I really hadn’t been paying attention to the other campers, their conversations, or what they were up to.  I have no idea what sort of crime happened on the other campsite.  I never heard anyone in need of help or anything that sounded like an argument or fight.  So…I don’t know.  But, it made me feel uneasy for the rest of the night.  The officers also seemed surprised that I was camping alone and in my car, rather than my tent.  I explained that a wasp had entered my tent and I could not locate it.   The rest of the night was a fitful sleep of wondering if someone had been hurt or if I failed to help someone.  I had a dream that a woman came knocking on my car door asking for help.  In the morning, the park office was still closed as I left…

My shirt says…camping is in-tents.   Owing to a wayward wasp and concerning crime, it was a little too intense, even if it was not in-tent.

Pros:

Charles Lindbergh State Park features museums and historical buildings, melding history and nature into a unique state park.  The park is located along the Mississippi River, so it is also a good place to visit if a person wants to take in a section of the second longest U.S. river.   However, most of the trails are not along the Mississippi.   The park is conveniently located near Little Falls, MN which has a historic downtown and several local attractions, including the Minnesota Fishing Museum (inconveniently closed on Mondays as well).  The town has a variety of restaurants and stores, making it easy to restock or recharge while camping.  The park is also less than 10 miles from Crane Meadows National Wildlife Preserve.  Location and history seem to be the best features of the park.  Like Lake Maria, the park was fairly empty.  While the campground was active, I didn’t see any other hikers on the trails.

Cons:

The park was not staffed between 9 am Monday and 9am Tuesday when I left.  I checked the office numerous times, but I saw no one there.  This meant that I could not collect an embroidered patch from the park.  It also meant that no one was around to attend to the campground, which in the case of my stay, was the site of some kind of crime.  Obviously, visiting the park on a Monday was not a perfect idea, since the museums were closed.  There were also a lot of hungry mosquitoes.

Crow Wing State Park:

The final park that I visited was Crow Wing State Park, which is less than 30 minutes north of Little Falls near Brainerd, Minnesota.   Of the three, I spent the least amount of time here, since I was simply stopping by on my way home.   Crow Wing State Park is the park that I would most likely revisit and was my favorite of the three.   I spent under three hours at the park, hiking around on Tuesday morning after leaving Lindbergh State Park.  Once again, the park office was closed.  It was closed throughout my visit (though I saw staff poking around the park- just not attending to the office).  Thus, I was unable to obtain a collectable embroidered patch once again…since….once again, the park office was closed.

 

Much like Charles Lindbergh State Park, Crow Wing State Park was a breeding ground for aggressive swarms of mosquitoes.  The mosquitoes were actually far worse in some areas of this park.  Once again, DEET didn’t do much to deter the menacing cloud that followed me around the park.  My 100% DEET spray, which is potent enough to remove my nail polish and destroyed the fabric of my leggings, didn’t bother them that much.  The mosquitoes mostly bounced off my skin, looking for a clear spot to feast.  I can only be thankful that the mosquitoes here do not carry tropical diseases as we would all be doomed.  At some points, I actually jogged down the trail, hoping to out run them.  I didn’t.  There were just too many.   Oh well.

More mosquitoes…

 

Insects aside, there was a lot to like about the park.  For one, the trails were accessible and could easily be visited by families.  The trail that I visited passed through the remnants of the former town of Crow Wing, which was established at the confluence of the Mississippi and Crow Wing rivers.  There is nothing left of the town but sign posts where businesses and town amenities once stood.  However, this was interesting and there were a few interpretive signs which told the story of the long lost 1800s trading town.  Another bonus of this area was that it was situated in a sunny clearing that was devoid of mosquitoes.  Because of this, I took my time, taking in the signs and the history.  Highlights of the remnants of Crow Wing include a reconstructed wooden boardwalk and the restored home of Clement Beaulieu the head of the American Fur Company trading post in Crow Wing.  It is one of the oldest wooden houses in Minnesota.  The town of Crow Wing had a population of 600 people at its peak, most of whom were of Native American descent.  The interpretive signs did not mention (at least the ones that I read) that the town collapsed because of the relocation of local Native Americans to White Earth Reservation in 1868 and the subsequent railroad construction in Brainerd.

Aside from the town of Crow Wing, visitors can hike along the Red River Oxcart Trail to where oxcarts forded across the Mississippi River.   The Red River Trail was established as a trade route to Winnipeg, Manitoba.  The section near Crow Wing was constructed through Ojibwe territory, as it was viewed safer at the time than passing through Dakota territory.   In addition to this trail (which was very buggy) visitors can also view a battle site where Ojibwe and Dakota people fought in 1768.  There is also a reconstructed chapel of Father Pierz, who built a mission near Crow Wing and promoted white settlement and the acculturation of Native Americans (through conversion to Catholicism and adopting European farming practices).  I did not visit the chapel as I was not as interested in Catholic history and the mosquitoes were too intense.

Pros:

This state park was my favorite of the three.  There is a lot to like!  Native American history, a ghost town, ox cart trail, and battle site (though there was not a lot of information about the 1768 battle).   It also seemed to be the most accessible of the three parks, as the trails were flatter and the distance to the ghost town was not far.  With that said, those with walkers or wheelchairs would still find it difficult to navigate.  However, families or those with less restrictive mobility issues might be able to enjoy the ghost town.  The reconstructed boardwalk is rustic looking, but this also makes it uneven.  That could be a challenge.  As a whole, state park hiking trails do not seem that accessible, but this one might be slightly less daunting.  The history is the main attraction of this park.  The nature is also nice as well.  Although it is only 30 minutes north of Little Falls, the landscape features conifers, wetlands, and wet prairie.  It is also a location to enjoy the Mississippi River (as it meets the Crow Wing river).

Cons:

There really weren’t any cons to this park, other than the mosquitoes.  I suppose that a con could be that the ghost town of Crow Wing seems to be excellent habitat for snakes- as I saw at least three by the boardwalk.  I am not bothered by snakes, but this might frighten some people.  Interestingly, I also saw a small lizard.  There are only three lizards that are found in Minnesota.  I have never seen one.  I believe that the one that I saw was a prairie skink, as that is the most common and is found in that part of the state.  Again, this should go in the pros, as who isn’t pro skink?  So scratch that, there is nothing wrong with this park except for the millions of mosquitoes and fact that the office was closed AGAIN!  I missed out on another collectable patch.

Conclusion:

If there are two lessons to draw from these state park visits it is 1.) be prepared for bugs.  2.) state parks need more funding and staffing.  To address the first issue, yes, I have complained a LOT about insects.  I could certainly dress differently or prepare myself in other ways for the massive amount of insects.  Another idea is to visit these parks in times of the year where the insects are less active.  Daily weather variations can also make a difference.  Had there been heavy wind or rain, the insects would not have been as active.  I think that next year, if I visit any state parks in the month of July I will choose places that are not as wet, as each of these parks is either located on rivers or lakes.  Southern or Western Minnesota might be better options for July.  To address the staffing issue, I was shocked that the parks seemed like ghost towns…(aside from the actual ghost town of Crow Wing).  The parks seemed very understaffed.  What has happened?  We really need to do more to staff the parks!  Of course, there were few visitors at the parks as well.  These parks may not be as well-visited as other parks in Minnesota.  Nevertheless, it is summer, so I expect that there would be SOME tourism to these parks.  I guess we really need to promote state park visits and funding for staff.   Otherwise, hopefully this inspires someone to visit a state park this summer and now you know what to expect!