Yesterday, Saturday, was a scorcher. With temps in the mid-nineties, it was no time to be without air conditioning... and guess what? We were/are without air conditioning. Our system blew. So instead of attempting to organize garage sale stuff while 'hoping' the whole fam remained chipper whilst hanging out inside our house at a (cooler than outside but still) 87 degrees, we decided to hit the road.
We packed food and swimsuits and off we went! We decided to check out Afton State Park first since they have a swimming beach. We arrived and learned there would be a bit of a hike down to the swimming area, which was fine, but naturally we had a lot of stuff... plus a stroller. This actually worked in our favor since we ended up throwing everything in the stroller and carrying little G. It's a good thing to know if you haven't been there, that there is this walk, and if you have anything that you do not want to carry down the stairs, you have to take the bike route to the beach... and this is a bit longer, probably 0.8 miles instead of 0.5 miles (for the hiking/stair route).
Right before we got to the beach itself, we saw the hike-in campground and also a gorgeous picnic area overlooking the St. Croix River. There is a fishing dock here along with a bunch of picnic tables, grills, and a couple of fire rings.
The beach is awesome. It is lined with trees and is mostly shady, the water was perfectly cool, and the kids had a blast. It seemed to get deepish fast, so we just had the girls stay close to the shoreline. If you walk down the beach to where it turns there are also a couple fire rings right on the beach.
It was apparently supposed to rain so we packed up after a few hours so we didn't get caught in it on the hike back up to the parking lot. We succeeded and then continued to drive across to the Wisconsin side of the river to find a place for a snack or who knew? We drove through Prescott, WI which seemed to have some cute places to eat, but continued on to Diamond Bluff. We found this great overlook at Freedom Park with awesome views over the river and some bald eagle sightings to boot! We actually had one circling us so frequently that I asked Dave to snatch up little G because i started thinking this eagle was planning something, ha!!
Finally, since the storm never actually showed, we continued the drive to Frontenac State Park which was only 10 minutes south of Red Wing. I have driven past the entrance to this park so many times and never gave it a second look. It is gorgeous. We drove in right at sunset and saw some amazing views of the Mississippi and Lake Pepin. We also drove through the campsite loops and it looks like a neat place to camp. They have drive-in and also cart-in options.
It was a great "surprise adventure" day and we decided to officially join the MN State Park passport club! We have visited 3 parks in the last week, now only 72 more parks/stamps to go!
We packed food and swimsuits and off we went! We decided to check out Afton State Park first since they have a swimming beach. We arrived and learned there would be a bit of a hike down to the swimming area, which was fine, but naturally we had a lot of stuff... plus a stroller. This actually worked in our favor since we ended up throwing everything in the stroller and carrying little G. It's a good thing to know if you haven't been there, that there is this walk, and if you have anything that you do not want to carry down the stairs, you have to take the bike route to the beach... and this is a bit longer, probably 0.8 miles instead of 0.5 miles (for the hiking/stair route).
Right before we got to the beach itself, we saw the hike-in campground and also a gorgeous picnic area overlooking the St. Croix River. There is a fishing dock here along with a bunch of picnic tables, grills, and a couple of fire rings.
The beach is awesome. It is lined with trees and is mostly shady, the water was perfectly cool, and the kids had a blast. It seemed to get deepish fast, so we just had the girls stay close to the shoreline. If you walk down the beach to where it turns there are also a couple fire rings right on the beach.
It was apparently supposed to rain so we packed up after a few hours so we didn't get caught in it on the hike back up to the parking lot. We succeeded and then continued to drive across to the Wisconsin side of the river to find a place for a snack or who knew? We drove through Prescott, WI which seemed to have some cute places to eat, but continued on to Diamond Bluff. We found this great overlook at Freedom Park with awesome views over the river and some bald eagle sightings to boot! We actually had one circling us so frequently that I asked Dave to snatch up little G because i started thinking this eagle was planning something, ha!!
Finally, since the storm never actually showed, we continued the drive to Frontenac State Park which was only 10 minutes south of Red Wing. I have driven past the entrance to this park so many times and never gave it a second look. It is gorgeous. We drove in right at sunset and saw some amazing views of the Mississippi and Lake Pepin. We also drove through the campsite loops and it looks like a neat place to camp. They have drive-in and also cart-in options.
It was a great "surprise adventure" day and we decided to officially join the MN State Park passport club! We have visited 3 parks in the last week, now only 72 more parks/stamps to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment