Peace at Glendalough State Park

Find peace without driving to the Minnesota-Canada border.

I’ve always gone up to Voyageur National Park to center myself. I’ve found that a dose of wilderness brings calm back to my soul.

But with a five-month-old baby, I wasn’t up to boating into a remote campsite. I discovered that at some state parks, you can “cart in.” These campsites are slightly off the beaten track. I was a bit hesitant knowing how much stuff I bring camping now because of the baby. I wasn’t sure we wouldn’t be trekking back and forth between the truck and campsite. But it worked great and we’d do it again. I loved not hearing the constant hum of vehicles circling round us like we had at Forestville State Park earlier this summer. Glendalough was tranquil. Relaxing.

Minnesota’s newest state park, Glendalough, was a two and-one-half hour drive. It’s between Alexandria and Fergus Falls. The drive wasn’t bad, although we couldn’t have made it much farther with our active babe. The park is a few miles outside Battle Lake, a little town with a Civil War museum, postage-stamp mini-golf course, and a giant indian in the Wayside Park. It qualifies as a Minnesota town by the DQ sitting in the middle of it. Yes, we did leave our campsight on Saturday for an ice cream blizzard. Summer’s almost over; make the most of it!

I’m used to miles of miles of road stretching between state park attractions. This park is compact in comparison. The way it is set up now, you pass the campground to head to the office. It was slightly confusing and took us a bit to figure out what to do. (My suggestion box tip was to add an office sign and arrow at the campsite sign to help out newcomers.)

This is how you do it. At the carts, pick one without a reservation sign on it. The numbers on the cart correspond to campsites. Unload your vehicle, load up the cart and head to your site. Once unpacked you’ve in essence reserved the site. Then head to the office to pay. It’s $18 a night, plus a state park sticker fee.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to pull the cart. It had large bicycle wheels on it and was well balanced. I held the baby and hauled a cartful of stuff.

My recommendation if you go: pick site 22 or 24. Both are close to the parking lot (and toilets/showers). They’re on the lake site. No. 22 is almost full sun, which would be great if the weather was a little on the cool side (ie. under 70º). Both those sites were already reserved (via the DNR reservation web site), so we opted for 23. It was a great site, though a little too shady for me (cold mornings). An advantage was that we could take the shortcut to the bathrooms through another site. That turned into a disadvantage Saturday when it filled up. Not only was the shortcut then barred, but the campers left their propane lantern on; it shone directly into our site and was oh, so annoying. I wanted to enjoy a dark evening with campfire light and stars.

ABOUT GLENDALOUGH
For every two acres of land in Glendalough, there is one acre of water. In fact, there are five lakes inside the park. Lake Emma is closed to boats entirely. Annie Battle Lake is off limits to motors. Annie Battle Lake is provides a “heritage fishing” experience. My husband loved it because it put us non-boat owners on par with those with fishing boats. Special regulations on Annie Battle Lake sustain a steady supply of large sunfish, crappie, the occasional walleye, and large bass. My husband had never seen such large sunfish. He was impressed.

The park was managed as a private game farm and corporate retreat for over 85 years. It was first developed as by Ezra G. Valentine in 1903. Later, it passed through two owners of the Minneapolis Tribune. Over the years, many famous people visited, including Presidents Nixon and Eisenhauer. Nixon went for a dip in Annie Battle Lake in October one year. Brrr!

There are 26 cart-in campsites and two large group sites. Feeling more adventureous? Canoe into a site. Feeling lazy? Opt for one of the two camper cabins that are available year-round. They’d be perfect for motorcyclists.

Boats, kayaks and canoes are available to rent if you don’t feel like hauling yours. The cost is just $20 a day, or $10 for four hours — pretty affordable, we thought. They provide the life jackets too, although we brought our own for the baby.

If you’re a birder, you’ll love the park. I picked it in part because of the fishing pier and swimming beach/picnic grounds on Molly Stark Lake. There was a dog cemetery that piqued my interest.

DIRECTIONS: From the town of Battle Lake, go 1.5 miles north on State Hwy. #78 and 1.8 miles east on Ottertail Co. Hwy #16 to the park entrance.

GEOCACHING
One of the hottest new hobbies is available at Glendalough: geocaching. I’d been dying to try it out, so on Saturday we did. Using a handheld GPS unit, we found the first two clues. While the first was on a bulletin board, the second was buried deep in a fallen tree. So cool! That one had a small treasure chest full of flsh flashcards. We had to ID the fish, put them in the order stated on another card and use that to discover the coordinates to the next location. Although we thought we had it right, we never found the next cache. Bummer!

On our walk though, we ran into three deer grazing about 100 yards away. Amazing. It was breathtaking.

IF YOU GO TO BATTLE LAKE
• Check out the Civil War Museum. It’s right off the main street. Watch for the open signs. I’m guessing it’s only open on the weekends. I didn’t see it advertised in any of the tourist guides so I can’t give you any details other than location.
• Take a photo with the giant indian. The statue is located in the wayside park on the north end of town.
• Play mini-golf. Turn at the liquor store and go one block.
• Enjoy a glass of wine at the bistro on the main street. The outside dining area was a perfect place to while away a few hours.
• Stop by Inspiration Point on your way there. Watch for signs to turn right off Highway 78. This is the second highest point in Minnesota.

SEE FULL POST WITH ALL PHOTOS AT
http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/Alexandria/blog-435368.html