We decided to still go up on the day we had planned, but booked a hotel in Thief River Falls instead, so that we were closer to Old Mill and Lake Bronson for day trips on Sunday. The girls were pleasantly surprised that the hotel pool was open. It felt refreshing after a heat wave back at home!
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| Stopped in Frazee for gas and a bathroom break! |
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| Had to visit the big turkey, even though we never do that on our fishing trips! |
We drove over to the swimming hole area because we wanted to check out a swinging bridge, but while on the bridge, the rain started getting heavier and we could hear thunder in the distance. Unfortunately, we didn't get to check out more of that park, but we did drive out of the rain and it was beautiful by the time we reached Lake Bronson State Park!
We enjoyed a picnic lunch by the lake, then checked out the playground before driving to the hiking club trail. We hiked for awhile, but the more we walked, the buggier it got, so we turned around. Before leaving the park, we visited the old water tower. I pointed out to Abby that the park signs shared about things she had learned about in social studies this spring (about FDR's programs during the Great Depression) and how the park was built by the CCC when FDR was trying to create more jobs, but Abby was not impressed... We decided that Lake Bronson would be a fun park to come back and camp at.
After Lake Bronson, we drove to Hayes Lake State Park to check in at our camper cabin. Hayes Lake has two camping loops, and our camper cabin was on the non-electric loop. For most of our nights, we were the only ones in our loop. There were a few campers that people had rented for the season, but it was pretty quiet most nights. The weather was really nice, especially compared to the heat back home.
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| Norah styled everyone's hair one night |
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| Norah will read anywhere... |
We especially loved floating in the lake, which we probably did 4 or 5 times while we were there. The water temperature was perfect!
On Monday morning, we got up and drove to Zippel Bay State Park. It was beautiful there, and much less buggy with a nice breeze by the lake! We loved playing by the shore.
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| Norah's bug bites were crazy on this trip! |
The hiking club trail there was wonderful, as it is mostly along the shoreline. There was a part where it went into the woods, and as soon as we stepped into the woods, the mayflies were terrible. We later learned that we could have just stuck to the shore and still found the hiking club password at the end of the trail. We definitely took the shoreline on the way back!
We enjoyed a picnic by the lake and did some swimming. The water in Lake of the Woods was much cooler than at Hayes Lake, but it still felt nice!
Back at Hayes Lake, we did a bit of evening hiking along the hiking club trail, and Dave did hike down to the more remote camper cabin site the next morning. We also drove to the dam and hiked a trail along the other side of the lake. It was pretty buggy, though, so we didn't do a ton of hiking overall.
We decided that Dave's mom would love the swimming beach, so we will definitely have to come back with them someday!
