87 Counties

The Great Minnesota Get-Together, 2014 edition

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Crystal

It’s the end of the summer, and that means state fair time. As the ad says, attendance is practically mandatory, and so we went.

We met a friend on the northeast corner of the fairgrounds, so Giggles’ Campfire Grill was our first stop for their new walleye mac-and-cheese. With so many red peppers, it wasn’t my favorite dish, but it would have been pretty bland without it. Lots of other fairgoers apparently like this one.

We then headed over to the new transit hub to meet up with my sister and her husband. While we were waiting, we walked through the new history and heritage center, an area of the fair that takes on extra meaning for me now that I am an employee of the Minnesota Historical Society. We also walked through the new west end marketplace shops, tried the blueberry basil lemonade at the Blue Barn, and spotted a pop-up puppet show.

I’d never been on the giant slide, but for some reason, this was something I really wanted to do. I’m so glad I did: it was very fast and very fun.

three people on the giant slide

After the activities, we decided to indulge in the new deep-fried buckeyes, my favorite food this year. Very sweet because of the chocolate, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and strawberry jam, but not too much when shared among four people.

Up next: the new pretzel curds at O’Gara’s. I was unsure about these before we tried them (why ruin a good cheese curd?), and I wasn’t impressed. Of course, we stopped there at a slow time, so the curds had been sitting for awhile and the cheese wasn’t very melty anymore. Those two items were all I needed for my fried food fix.

While waiting for the curds, we stumbled across the daily parade and saw the MNHS History Hound.

On to the dairy building to see the butter sculptures, then over to the barns. The Miracle of Life building was pretty active, with lots of newly born or hatched babies.

A quick stop at the DNR fish pond, with 45 different types of fish.

For the first time, I had dinner at one of the “sit-down restaurants” at the fair, the Hamline Dining Hall. I liked their new hamloaf sliders, a trendy addition this year to their traditional hamloaf entree. But unfortunately everyone was too full to try their jello salad ice cream.

Last but not least, my favorite building at the fair: the Agriculture Horticulture building (affectionately called the Ag-Hort Building). Of course the giant pumpkin is always a draw, but I enjoy the neatly stacked vegetables and seeds even more.

I can’t tell any difference between the different corn entries, but it’s always fascinating anyway.

Minnesota apples: there’s more than just Honeycrisp.

I don’t remember seeing a Christmas tree competition in previous years. It was really fun to walk through and smell all the fir trees. It even felt cool in that room, though I’m sure that was just my imagination.

And my absolute favorite spot at the fair: the honey room. As long as I get a chance to see the pretty ombre rows of honey, my trip to the fair is complete.

2014 Minnesota State Fair

Categories: Ramsey County | Tags: summer | Leave a comment

Camping at Tettegouche State Park

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Crystal

It had been years since I’d been camping, so when a friend told me she booked a campsite at Tettegouche State Park, I jumped at the chance to tag along with her and a third friend. This beautiful park borders Lake Superior and also includes the highest waterfall in Minnesota.

The park is outside Silver Bay, which is a little more than an hour north of Duluth. We didn’t realize that this rest stop at the park’s entrance also contains the Tettegouche visitors center, so we drove right by and had to come back. It’s a brand-new building that opened just a few weeks prior to our visit, so hopefully they will add signs soon that make it clear.

We reserved campsite 25, a walk-in site, so we had to carry our gear down a short shared path. Site 25 just happened to be the exact spot where two of us stayed with another friend 13 years ago! I climbed up onto the giant rock at the site to re-enact a picture from 2001.

Campsites 24-25 signs, and two pictures of a woman sitting on a rock

We arrived in late afternoon so first we set up our tents and unpacked our gear…

…and then made dinner over the campfire. We also had hot breakfasts – including grilled toast – each morning.

The first morning we hiked to High Falls, which was close enough to our campsite that we could hear the water during the quiet nights.

We approached the falls from one side, then walked along the trail further up the Baptism River to a bridge to cross to the other side.

Up close on the other side.

It was late morning when we reached the picturesque bottom of the falls and there were lots of other visitors, so I was lucky to get this shot without people – though you may notice a swimming dog at the left. There were also some human swimmers.

I can’t resist admiring wildflowers, and it seemed like I stopped every 10 feet along the trail through the woods to take another photo. This is one-flowered pyrola, which faces the ground so I had to get on my knees to see its face. Just one of dozens of wildflowers blooming at Tettegouche that weekend.

We also saw some wildlife, including this pack of at least four garter snakes.

We relaxed the rest of the day after our long hike – and of course finished with another campfire. It was too dark to get good pictures of roasting marshmallows, but no camping trip is complete without s’mores. In addition to the traditional Hersheys-and-marshmallow, we also tried some other variations, including marshmallow Peep with Nutella or Reese’s peanut butter cup.

The next morning we took a foggy walk along Lake Superior to Shovel Point.

I didn’t notice whether there was a sign that advised visitors of the number of stairs on this trail – which was probably a good thing!

Lake Superior’s “natural air conditioning” was in effect, which was lucky for us given the workout on the stairs. Even with the fog, the view was worth the effort – though I couldn’t tell where the lake ended and the fog began!

On our way back, the fog started to lift.

We had a clear view of the former natural sea arch, which unfortunately collapsed in 2010.

Great weekend of hiking and sightseeing at this gorgeous state park.

Tettegouche State Park

Visited: July 18-20, 2014

Categories: Lake County | Tags: state parks, summer | 1 Comment

Hunting for the rare dwarf trout lily

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Crystal

The Minnesota dwarf trout lily is a federally endangered wildflower that grows in only three Minnesota counties (Rice, Goodhue, and Steele) and nowhere else in the world. Nerstrand Big Woods is the only state park, and perhaps the only public location, where visitors can see this rare flower.

One late Saturday afternoon in April 2012, I was traveling through the Nerstrand area and decided to try to find this special wildflower. Even though it was getting dark so the blooms were closed for the night, I was excited to find lots of white trout lilies:

…until I got home and did some more research, only to learn that the park is also home to regular white trout lilies. Since I’m familiar with yellow trout lily, which is about the same size as what I found, my heart sank to realize that I had not found the dwarf variety.

The next spring, after a visit to Faribault, my husband and I headed just 10 miles northeast to the state park. This time, I knew that the white flowers we saw were not dwarf, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying them:

Fast-forward to 2014. Surely, the third time would be the charm, right? But it was mostly cloudy with a few scattered sprinkles the one day we could head to Nerstrand Big Woods − not exactly prime trout lily weather, so none of the flowers were open. It was nearly impossible to see any buds, but we searched anyway. Finding one by identifying its leaves wasn’t an option since they are identical to the leaves of the regular trout lily, so we would need to find a bud.

We found several closed buds that could have been dwarfs. But “they” say that if you find one, you’ll know, so almost certainly this is not one:

In its closed state, with a shorter stem than ones that were definitely regulars, I’d call it a “medium trout lily.” If it were open, it would be more clear. But because we didn’t know, it probably wasn’t what we were looking for, so we kept walking. There were plenty of leaves to study:

Any other day, I would have been thrilled to see all of the other wildflowers: my personal favorite, bloodroot, plus Dutchman’s breeches, marsh marigold, wild ginger, cutleaf toothwort:

But this day, nothing but the dwarf trout lily would do. Fortunately, the sun was beginning to shine, so the flowers were starting to open. We remembered seeing a DNR camera on the boardwalk, likely pointed at one of the dwarf lilies. Sure enough, after retracing our steps to the camera, we found one. The petals weren’t fully open, but it was definite:

Cheating? Maybe. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Next year, we’ll try again.

More about wildflowers

Visited: May 9, 2014

Categories: Rice County | Tags: parks, spring, state parks | 5 Comments

Eagle watching at the Red Wing checkpoint

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Crystal

several trees with an eagle nest at the left and a bald eagle flying at the right

A lone eagle ready to land in a treetop.

Last Saturday we decided to take a short trip, hoping to have an outdoor adventure before the impending polar vortex drove us back inside. We had a good time visiting Paul Bunyan last month when we stumbled across the CheckpointMN winter scavenger hunt, so we thought we would try another destination. One of the options is a location in prime eagle-viewing territory in Red Wing, so we headed south on Highway 61, just needing an hour to drive from the Twin Cities.

The DNR recommends looking for eagles anywhere from Bay Point Park and Colvill Park, so we started at the checkpoint at the south end and headed back north. If you’re not paying attention, you will miss the turn for Colvill Park because the park is not easily visible from the highway, and you need to go west and cross under 61 to reach the park. I have been to this park before, and we still missed the turn.

a faraway view of three bald eagles in one tree and one eagle in another tree

The busiest section of trees we saw. Too bad I didn’t have a zoom lens!

This was at least our third joint trip to Red Wing, one of our favorite Minnesota cities. It was allegedly 19 degrees above zero, but a strong wind made it feel like at least 19 below. I struggled to smile for the official pose, and my husband struggled to take a photo without removing his gloves!

a smiling woman in a purple winter coat with her arms outstretched

Soaring like an eagle for my CheckpointMN pose.

I’m typically not one to complain about the cold, but the wind was strong enough that we didn’t last long outside and we’re already talking about returning when it’s a little warmer. It would be a lot of fun to walk along the river or relax on a bench to watch the action. The last weeks of February and first weeks of March are typically good times to view eagles in Red Wing or a little farther south in Wabasha.

Lots of ducks — mallards and what we think were common mergansers — weren’t afraid of the cold water, but of course eagles are the stars here. This photo was taken from the comfort of our car. I imagined one bird saying to the other, “Cold enough for ya?”

a bald eagle and another bird sitting on an ice sheet in the middle of a river, with a dock and grasses in the foreground

A bald eagle chatting with a friend.

We planned to also visit Barn Bluff Park, but since it requires a long climb on snow-covered stairs, we’ll save that one for a warmer day. Instead we headed to the third park, Bay Point, for our last look at the eagles, near a lot of ice fishing houses on Ole Miss Marina. At this location the eagles were too far away to watch for long, but this bird made the stop worthwhile:

raptor flying to the left with a view of the underside of its left wing

We got a closeup look at the flight of this beautiful bird.

We didn’t realize that Saturday would also be a good day for watching trains. In the short time we were in the parks, three different trains moved through Red Wing.

three trains: Soo Line, Canadian Pacific, Amtrak

Three parks, three trains.

Red Wing is also notable, of course, for pottery, antiques, and shoes, but we didn’t do any of those this time — just lunch and a stop at the uniquely fun Scandinavian Uffda Shop. A fun end to a fun afternoon of eagle watching.

More about Red Wing

Visited: January 4, 2014

Categories: Goodhue County | Tags: parks, winter | Leave a comment

December decorations

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Crystal

Garland from sidewalk to sidewalk in Bagley (Clearwater County)

Our first stop on the Checkpoint MN scavenger hunt was a visit with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Bemidji. All along the scenic route, we enjoyed the small-town charm of Christmas decorations on lampposts.

I was surprised by the wide variety of shapes: lots of candles, candy canes, and trees, but also a few poinsettias, a stained glass window, Rudolph, and a toy soldier.