You know a road doesn't get much traffic when there's grass growing just about the whole way across it. I took this photo as I was driving through Beltrami Island State Forest, on my way from Grand Rapids to Hayes Lake State Park. But let me back up a bit: awhile back, when I decided I needed to put more effort into seeing this state before we moved, I spent a lot of time on the DNR website looking at state parks. An event on 8/24 caught my eye: Grinding Days at Old Mill State Park. It's the one time each year this park fires up their steam-powered flour mill and has a little festival. Without the chance to see the mill in action, I wouldn't have considered driving 5+ hours to see this park. The flour mill is really the main attraction of the park - yes, there are trails, a river and some woods, but the mill is what sets it apart from other parks that have similar terrain.
With the dates set for this trip, I started looking around at what else was in the area or could reasonably construed to be on the way to or from Old Mill. Since I probably wouldn't visit this particular area again, I wanted to see as much as possible. Much driving and not enough sleeping is what came of that plan.
I left work early on Friday evening, and after a quick dinner with Terp at the local Culver's I got underway. Grand Rapids was my stop for the night - the hotel was cheap but decent if you could get past the sight of the turquoise sink and toilet and the apparent lack of light switches. Next morning I was up early and on my way to the Big Bog.
Besides almost running over a family of wild turkeys on the way, it was a boring drive. The Big Bog is part of a much larger bog, at 500 square miles the largest peat bog in the lower 48 states. And while a bog might not sound very exciting, it was pretty cool. Lots of history in the area - the last herd of woodland caribou in the state was at the Big Bog before disappearing in the late 40s. About 90 years ago there was a failed attempt to drain the bog and turn it into usable farmland. You can still see the scar where the ditch was - it stretches off into the distance and will take many, many years before the bog fully recovers.
But I was mostly excited by the carnivorous pitcher plants and spider webs all over the bog. I saw several pitcher plants with insects trapped inside, and the spider webs were an odd funnel shape with the spider hiding in the narrow part of the funnel, waiting for something to come his way. You can see photos here.
My next destination was a quick trip to Hayes Lake State Park. It was a several hour drive from the Big Bog to Hayes Lake, made even longer by going through Beltrami Island State Forest (the setting for my road less travelled photo at the top). The drive through the forest kept dragging on and on, with occasional signs pointing out the former location of a townsite or cemetary. Mildly interesting, but not something I'd go out of my way to do again. Same goes for Hayes Lake - it's a state park with a lake (obviously) and some trails, but nothing really unique or interesting for me. I had a little picnic by the earthen dam, hiked for a bit on a trail and left. I went back the next morning and hiked the Homestead trail - again, not really all that interesting. Photos from Hayes Lake and Beltrami are here.
Between those visits to Hayes Lake, I stayed overnight at Zippel Bay State Park. That was way more exciting - it's on the southern shore of Lake of the Woods, a massive body of water with 65,000 miles of shoreline and over 14,000 islands. Sunset was beautiful.
Although the campground was less than half full, it felt more crowded than that. The sites (at least the sites in my section) were not well screened from each other. And having a nearby camper drive in and out repeatedly until 2am did not help the situation. But I still managed to get some sleep and wake up around 5:45 for some early photos on the beach. The views were well worth the lost sleep.
I wandered up and down the beach for a couple hours before packing up and getting on the road again. Zippel Bay is most definitely a park I'd go back to. More photos (including a really blurry shot of the porcupine I saw after sunset) are here.
I already mentioned the stop at Hayes Lake to hike the Homestead Trail - from there, I was off to Old Mill State Park and their Grinding Days. It was an unexpectedly interesting drive. I guess I think of northern Minnesota as forests and lake, but the northwest corner has a lot of farmland and prairies. Not that unusual given the proximity to South Dakota, but I wasn't prepared for the transition from Lake of the Woods to prairies and sunflower fields.
Old Mill was pretty busy, certainly the busiest day of the year for them. I didn't really know what to expect. I had this idea in my head that this would be a quiet event, with the mill peacefully grinding away as it drew its power from the river. I must've ignored the part about it being a steam-powered mill - having an old tractor blasting away took away some of the charm. The sizeable crowd, gathered in their lawn chairs awaiting the start of the folk concert, managed to completely kill the quiet atmosphere I had pictured.
But at least the mill was kind of cool. I climbed the stairs to the top and looked down into it to see the grain being pulverized into flour, with the finished product coming out the side.
I then wandered off and walked a short trail. It was there I came upon a baby squirrel that looked way too young to be out carousing by himself. I made him get off the trail before I left so his mother would be able to find him easier.
And then I left. All told I was there for an 1 hour and 15 minutes, which is almost comical considering this event was the whole reason for my trip. But I don't regret going at all - I got to visit lots of places I would have never seen if it weren't for Old Mill and their Grinding Days.
About an hour east of Old Mill is Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge. It's home to a sizeable moose herd, a couple of wolf packs and lots of birds. It seems like the National Wildlife Refuge system is based around waterfowl, as the refuges I've been to are heavily skewed towards wetlands, and Agassiz is no different. I saw a fox (which was cool) but otherwise just drove by lots of ponds/wetlands and saw a bunch of birds. Compared to the other refuges I've visited in Minnesota (Sherburne and Minnesota Valley), Agassiz is not nearly as scenic. It did have pelicans though, which was pretty darn cool.
I had wanted to drive to Scenic State Park and camp overnight, but the drive was taking longer than expected so I changed plans and headed to Lake Bemidji State Park. I'm pretty happy with that choice. I hiked their bog walk trail which led to a quiet little lake where I saw an eagle (or osprey?) dive out of a tree and splash into the lake twice trying to catch a fish. The campground was mercifully quiet so I got a great night's sleep, and I heard loons on nearby Lake Bemidji off and on all night. Photos are here (there's just a few of the bog lake).
I would've liked to had time for a short hike in the morning, but I had a 4 hour drive to get to work, so I packed up and got on the road. (I made it to work with 5 minutes to spare) All in all it was a really good weekend - I made it everywhere I had planned on and saw a lot of good stuff. I'd like to go back to Zippel Bay, Big Bog and Lake Bemidji, so I think a road trip in spring when the flowers are in bloom is the works.
No comments:
Post a Comment