Adventures with Marcus: Buffalo River State Park

Buffalo River State Park

—Glyndon, MN—

It has been a few weeks since we have done any geocaching. This was due to busy schedules and the basic fact that we are pretty much out of close parks. Almost everything that is left is at least 60 miles away, and therefore, they require both more time and planning. This weekend we decided to jump back on the geocaching horse and knock out a bunch of parks. Our goal: 2 days, 1 night of camping, 7 state parks, 8 geocaches, and 800+ miles – was pretty ambitious when you have an almost-two-year-old.

We left early on Friday (out of the driveway at 11:00 AM on the dot), and beat most of the weekend traffic, so that was great. Our first stop was over 3 hours later at Buffalo River State Park. This is really close to Moorhead, MN, where Luke went to college, so he was pretty familiar with the area. Luke loves this part of the state because of the tall grass and the rolling hills. It really is quite pretty.

We drove into the ranger station at the perfect time – Marcus had been awake for a while and was ready to get out of the car. We could tell that the first location was right there, so I jumped out to get a map and grab the next set of coordinates. Being fast on these first ones is crucial because many times the next location is pretty far away (somewhere between 0.5 miles and 5 miles), and we need time to drive to the next spot. Since Marcus is frequently pretty close to meltdown at this point, time is everything.

I got back into the car, and we quickly drove to the next spot.

It was not far down the road to the next location, and when we got there we learned that this park was kind of like Flandrau State Park in New Ulm – it contained a sand bottom pool and was pretty busy on this summery day. Marcus was really excited to get out of the car, and he just wanted to run!

The Kiosk with the next clue was pretty close to the cars and we quickly grabbed coordinates Number Two!

Marcus took some time to look at the educational information on the board.

"Look, Daddy!"

"It's a 'bock bock!!'"

We loaded the information in and started to run – I should say that Marcus really is starting to love running. He usually prefers chasing or being chased, but at any rate, it is darn cute.

Location #3

Marcus led us down the path towards the cache, and he very quickly found it. He is becoming quite the experienced geocacher.

Look what I found!

We found our final cache and spent some time looking around before we headed back.

Forest at the edge of the prairie. Wonderful landscapes.

When we got back we thought it would be fun to have a picnic lunch on the beach. Marcus was not really sure about the water, but he tried it out.

Summer toes... Dad needs to get a tan!

Marcus and his PB and J.

This park was pretty great. I don't think it will make the short list of parks that blew us away, but we are going to go back. It would be perfect place to camp on a weekend trip to Moorhead to see the school and Luke's college friends.

Here is a close-up of the card. If you look back at the entry sign you can actually see the Greater Prairie Chicken on it. This is a park that loves its bird. We did actually see a few in the park as well.