Glacial Lakes State Park

We traveled from Itasca to Glacial Lakes State Park near Starbuck, Minnesota. A small park, it is an interesting example of preserved rolling prairie. There are several lakes, ponds and marshes within the park's acreage.

We had camped there last in 1993 and had never been back to visit.  And now, Beth and Gary live close by on Lake Amelia, so we had added incentive for our stay. The campground was pretty quiet for all four nights we were there. Besides the campground host, there were only two other campers in the campground all week. Ideal camping in our opinion!

Before we even backed into our campsite, we saw a pileated woodpecker, a rose-breasted grosbeak and an oriole.  I don't know where the term

originated, but it applied to this little gem of a park, only in a positive connotation. The campground host had placed about six bird feeders around and the birds were very happy with him! We documented well over thirty different birds while we were there.

They included lots of bluebirds,

 

yellow warblers,

and most abundantly, orioles.  There were at times six males in the trees over our camper.

We spent several hours discussing birds and life with our camping neighbors, a couple from Rotterdam. They had rented a motor home and were traveling for six weeks throughout the United States. This is their fourteenth trip in the past fourteen years to North America because it has been economical for them to travel here. They explained to us that a motor home is called a camper in The Netherlands and a travel trailer is called a caravan. My mind instantly pictured this:

It was fun to visit with them. Ellie loved learning about songbirds, especially the yellow warblers and goldfinches. She said, "In the Netherlands we are not having the yellows so much." She was very knowledgeable about all the different ducks and shore birds. Paul and I are working to identify those birds.

An important reason for our visit to Glacial Lakes was to canoe on Mountain Lake, a small 56-acre lake which is spring fed. Its entire drainage system lies within the park, which accounts for the purity of the lake's water.

We wanted to try our luck at drowning a few worms in that little lake.

It was so beautiful and quiet.

Our caravan is up there on top of that hill.

It didn't take us too long to realize the fish were not interested. Or, maybe nonexistent, who knows.

Meanwhile, over at Lake Amelia, our nephew Mike pulled in this 28 1/4" walleye. His sons, Tyler and Caden were pretty excited to see dad pull that trophy into the boat! I am so glad we were able to get a chance to see them! They are such great kids.

So, the Fox family feasted on walleye. And not the one pictured above, either. Mike put him back in the lake. Instead, he provided a couple of 20 inchers to eat from that same evening's fishing excursion. 

Meanwhile, back at the campground, Paul and I had chicken. No fresh fish for us.

Maybe next time...

What's next? We are planning a short caravan trip with Suzanne before she starts her new position. I'll talk to you soon.