Since the DNR of MN will be turning this park over to tribal agencies for management sometime in the future, I wanted to get in asap to get the Hiking Club password before the park is no longer on the list. Sept 23 was a good day to get out of the Twin Cities and go west. We planned originally to drive out to SD to drop off acorns for my brother's pigs and then head back to the park, but possible rain showers were forecasted for that afternoon, so Jim suggested that we go to the park first for our hike and then go out to SD. Fine by me. We left early in the morning--6:30 AM--so we could get back home at a reasonable hour.
We have visited this park before and knew where the Hiking Club password was. The Hiking Club booklet says the official Hiking Club trail was 4.3 miles long, but I remember previous maps saying it was over 6 miles. I think they changed it at some point, but the password sign was still in the same place.
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| Park entry signage. I like the personalized signs that each park has. |
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| What a nice prairie view with the colors just starting to change. |
A cozy walk in the wooded areas
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| such a clean underside! I've seen others before with lots of little bugs clogging up the pores. |
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| Looks like a double Starship Enterprise |
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| Don't know what kind of fungus this is |
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| I think this is some kind of baby oyster shroom. They look like someone's flexing |
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| Another cozy pathway vista |
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| Back home and Biscuit wants to help me practice the organ. |
We successfully completed the Hiking Club trail. We saw 2 snakes, lots of frogs, and the shrooms pictured here (plus one more that was too obscured by foliage to photograph well). No rain, but it was pleasantly cloudy and not too cold. We weren't bothered by bugs either.
Stopped at brother's to drop off the acorns and chatted with his wife (Mike was out of town). I took 2 of his pumpkins.
Long drive home, but it was a good day to be out driving around. It rained when we got home.
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