Frogs and toads at Fort Snelling State Park

Did you know that toads are a type of frog? We learned all that and more during a class on frogs and toads at Fort Snelling State Park in Minneapolis.

The funnest part was using a variety of items to replicate noises that frogs and toads make. Did you know there's a frog that quacks? One that makes a sound like when you run your finger down a comb?

We played a game in the rain using hula hoops. Some were eggs, other tadpoles and other frogs. And then there were the predators, the fish and birds. We learned first hand how tough it is for a frog to survive!

 Fort Snelling State Park is not the same place as the historic Fort Snelling site. It's on the slice of land under the Mendota Bridge and marks the place where the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers meet. If you're coming from Minneapolis, you'll go south past the airport and get off at the Post Road exit. But rather than head west to the Humphrey Terminal, you'll go east and drive right into the state park. The next thing I was confused about was that there's just a small building at the entrance to purchase permits, and the interpretive center is located deep within the park, almost right under the Mendota Bridge.

 This is one of the picnic shelters with a fireplace on Picnic Island.  There's also a small playground there. Because it was raining, we didn't check out the main beach area or do any hiking. I'd like to go back to view where the two rivers converge. It's considered a sacred spot by the Native Americans.

 This is the interpretive center. The parking lot is almost right below the Mendota Bridge. Once we were inside, I realized that this was the spot where the Dakota were interned following that conflict in Minnesota. There's a memorial to those who were kept there and hanged inside, as well as one outside.

 While the interpretive center isn't super large, it has some fun things inside. There's touch and guess boxes. A large map of the area showing the watershed and how water drains. A wall exhibit showing how St. Anthony falls has moved over the centuries. And rocks to touch. Plus, there's a movie about the area to view.

It was fun to find a state park so very close to home. I'm always glad to get more use out of our state park sticker!

Where's the best state park swimming beach?

Is swimming top on your list when it comes to a summer camping trip?

My kiddos are little fish, and so we try to hit up Minnesota State Parks that list swimming beaches among their amenities. Some times the beaches are great. Other times they're little more than a mud hole.

TOP PICK: Sibley State Park

If you want a great beach, we recommend staying at Sibley State Park, just north of Wilmar. The beach was large with lots of sand. And there was almost no seaweed to speak of. It's on a large lake (Lake Andrew) and there was a refreshing breeze. Plus there are tons of picnic tables and a bathroom facility.

NOT WORTH IT:

The beach at Lake Louise in southern Minnesota is a long, buggy walk from the campground. When you get there, it's a really small beach on what's really not much more than a pond. The sand isn't great, its mucky, and there's plenty of seaweed. Leave the swimming gear at home, and plan to hunt for wildflowers instead. Niagara Cave isn't too far away, either!

NOT TOO BAD

Savanna Portage State Park's beach is in a simply gorgeous location. Catch it on the right day and you'll have the place to yourself. Wind rustles through the pines, and it's as peaceful as it gets. Ah. However, the beach isn't very large at all -- which I suppose isn't surprising given that the lake is pretty small. There's just barely enough sand between the terracing and where the water starts to call it a beach. There's seaweed and, when we were there in early June, lots of tadpoles! It's good for a quick dip, then you can picnic and head for the playground. There is a nice bathroom facility nearby.

Big Stone Lake is 26 miles long, tucked up near the South Dakota border and Ortonville.  The state park beach isn't too far from the campground, and so bathrooms are those in the campground. There was plenty of sand.

Whitewater has a lovely river, and the beach is located in the oxbow -- which means the water doesn't flow much around the swimming beach. Because of that, it's murky and mucky. Despite that, it's a popular place to be when its hot. It's not right next to the campground, but not too far away, either.

There are five lakes at Glendalough near Alexandria. The beach isn't located on the lake closest to the campground, but is one you'll probably want to drive to. It has a fair amount of shoreline, but not an overabundance of sand. There's a scattering of tables and it's a nice place to bring a picnic to.

What's your favorite state park beach?

#18 - Lindbergh Historic Site in Little Falls

We hit upon the Lindbergh Historic Site in Little Falls on their family day. That meant the 4-year-old got to spend over an hour on painting and craft projects while the baby slept. Daddy put up his feet, and mamma toured the Lindbergh home. That's a perfect outing!

I'm not sure if it is always like this, but the tour of the home contained lots of information about Charles as a boy and included hands-on activities. I didn't bring my 4-year-old on it because she was so bored during the 40-minute tour at the Northwest Fur Post in Pine City a few weeks earlier. But I think she would have really liked the tour at the Lindbergh House.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds before heading over to the museum. You can see the state park across the road. I'd like to return and check out their cart-in campsites.

Isn't this a  great building? This is the view of the museum from the Mississippi River.

The museum is cut into the hill, and one moves downward as you go through it.

Although he didn't live in Minnesota again after leaving for flight school, he recalled it fondly.

A hands-on flight simulator

Charles and his wife, Anne. She was the daughter of an ambassador. The two were both well-educated, and from important families.

Charles and Anne in later years

I've always been haunted by this kidnapping. Apparently, kidnappings for ransom during this time period were very common. The kids was rarely killed.

How exciting to see a photo of Charles in his later years with Elmer Anderson. In addition to being a former Minnesota governor, Elmer Anderson was the owner of ECM Publishers, a newspaper group I have written for that includes the Isanti County News.

The state park is located across the road and is on part of the former Lindbergh farm. The Lindbergh family donated the property to the state a few years after he crossed the Atlantic, knowing they would never be able to live there again because of the publicity. Treasure-seekers destroyed much of the house and grounds looking. It has been a historic site since the 1970s.

As man of the house, Charles at age 5 was carrying around huge blocks of ice like this. He arranged a pulley system

The place started off as a summer home. When Charles and his mother left in the fall to rejoin his father in Washington, D.C., Charles needed a place to hide his special stuff, including his two rifles. He pulled out a few of the wainscoting boards and had the perfect hiding space. Another fun thing of note in the kitchen is the bullet hole in the door to the hallway, left there by Charles. He was embarrassed because of where the bullet ended up; he was aiming for lower!

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