Driving down to Forestville

With a two and one-half month old baby, we knew we couldn't undertake a long road trip for our first anniversary. But I had a hankering to go someplace. My hubby gave me these perimeters: 3 hours or 200 miles. I knew I wanted to go south, having gone north and froze too many times in early summer. I dug out one of my favorite books, "Backroads of Minnesota", and starting reading.

Forestville State Park caught my eye. It sounded like a great place to camp with fun things to do nearby. We could be as busy or as relaxed as we wanted to be. Sounded perfect.

Being a vacation our way, we didn’t get started until mid-morning on Friday, May 29. Baby was fed and ready for a nap right about then. Things didn’t start looking different until we switched from Interstate 35E to Highway 52 in St. Paul. Soon we hit the rolling hills this part of the state is known for. Bluff Country is beautiful this time of year. Newly planted fields were being watered by huge sprawling sprinklers that followed the contours of the hills.

We passed a meat shop that advertised award-winning sausages just north of Cannon Falls. A few miles later we were kicking ourselves for not stopping. Another time, perhaps. (On our way back Sunday, they were closed.)

We stopped for an emergency bathroom break in Zumbrota. Bit of advice: don’t take the first exit into the city. You’ll get nowhere but on a loop back to the highway. And there are no gas stations on that loop until you hit Highway 52 again. Plus the road is bumpy - hard on a full bladder! Stopped already, we decided to eat lunch at the Subway there.

I saw a sign pointing to the one covered bridge left in Minnesota as we drove through town. I need to go back there.

A few miles south of Zumbrota we headed west in Pine Island. My Google map didn’t show the name of the road I wanted to cut west on, so we just took one that looked like it was going southwest. It went southwest all right - for a few miles - then it doubled back north and hit CR 11. Guess the road that went north first wound up going west after all! A few miles later we hit our southern road, CR 57. It led us through Mantorville. What a fabulous little town in the middle of fields in southern Minnesota. I’ve never seen a more beautiful courthouse building! A river runs through the town and there is a park following it. What a perfect place for a picnic. Another place I’m going back to.

ZOLLMAN ZOO
In no time we were at Highway 14, which took us east a few miles to Byron. At the stoplight, we headed north, passing by a fabulously designed high school. At Valleyview, we turned right and then took an immediate left onto CR 105. And we were in Oxbow Nature Park, our first destination. I’d like to go back and camp here some time. It is a great, county-run park. Hiking trails and picnic areas dot the 572-acre facility. There are 29 camp sites, 10 with electricity. The campground has running water, showers and restrooms.

While the hubby napped, I got the baby changed and fed. Then we were off to explore this small zoo. Zollman Zoo is a fabulous place — and it’s free! The place was full of 30 native animals, most of which are permanently injured or on loan from other facilities; they can never be released into the wild. On this Friday afternoon shortly before school let out, several classes were touring through. The enthusiasm of the kids was contagious. They counted out the number of prairie dogs darting up and down. They tried hard to see the badger hiding in his hole — but it wasn’t until they had dashed onto the porcupines that my husband and I caught sight of the shy animals. I loved the cougar and snowy owls the best. My husband was enthralled with the river otters playing in their enclosure. Baby fell asleep, lulled by the walk. We decided to skip the Gordon Yeager Memorial Area, a spacious area with bison, elk, antelope and white-tailed deer.

The zoo was established through the donation in 1969 of native Minnesota animals by John Gilbertson, a regional park warden at the time.

FORESTVILLE STATE PARK
An hour or so later, we were back in the truck heading east to Rochester on Highway 14. In the city, we caught Highway 52 again and proceeded south. In Preston, we headed west on 16, and began seeing signs for Forestville State Park. At 5, we turned left and proceeded south to the park entrance. We opted for the annual park permit as I hope to go camping frequently this year (make up for last year when we didn’t go at all). We paid $20 a night for the site.

There were two horse trailers in front of us when we stopped. I guess this is a popular equestrian park, with many horse trails. There were 3 camping loops to choose from: A, B and C. C is for RVs needing electricity. A and B seemed to be for tents. We opted for A2, a site with a clear view of the Bend River. It was a gorgeous site. We fell asleep to rippling water each night.

There were two drawbacks. One, the fire ring lacked a nice grill. For some reason the tiny grill space was a mere 6 inches from the base of the fire, almost impossible to grill on. Second, the only shower/toilet facility is in the middle of rings B and C. We were stuck with two vault toilets on the end of our loop. I don’t mind outhouses - and the vault design kept it smelling pretty fresh - but I hate not being able to wash my hands.

We also learned that you’re not allowed to bring your own firewood into state parks. A bundle cost $4 and lasted one night.

Our meal that first night was simply delicious. Food tastes so much better when cooked outside. I don’t know why, but it just does. We ate over-the-coals dinner — tinfoil packets stuffed with onions, peppers, potatoes, carrots, califlower and kielbasa. A little seasoning and some butter, and they were ready to hit the fire. Fourty minutes later we were dining like kings.

We had trouble getting our fire going, and were pretty chilly. I don’t think we made it past 9:30 pm that first night. Ah, the blessedness of sleep.

PHOTOS AND ORIGINAL POST AT
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