Adventures with Marcus: Forestville/ Mystery Cave State Park

Forestville / Mystery Cave State Park

Our second stop of the day was Forestville / Mystery Cave – this park has it all, and we want to go back and see it again. What does it have you ask?

A CAVE!—and who doesn't love a good cave tour, right? They actually have several options and the one we like takes a few hours, so it was not in the cards for today.
A cute historic city that is run by the Minnesota Historical Society. I love reenactment stuff, but once again not enough time today.
A super cute scenic stream that a lot of people were fishing on.
Lots of hiking. Might seem like a given, but not all the state parks are so cool.

Since this was our second stop of the day and we knew we had three more scheduled, we had to continue to move quickly through the park. We went through Preston, MN and finally got to the park by 1 p.m. Coming in from the east we quickly found out that the bridge 3 miles ahead of us was out and we had to circumvent the park and come in from the opposite side (I think the same thing happened to us a few years ago trying to go to this state park).

It turns out that the bridge is the historic Forestville Bridge. It is closed to all vehicle traffic but is still open to foot traffic. We did not drive to see it, unfortunately. It is near the historic reenactment town of Forestville that is open every summer. If we had more time, we totally would have done this.

Also, we had to skip out on Mystery Cave (the longest cave in Minnesota that you can tour!) which was just to the west of the main part of the state park. At some point we are going to have to come back with Marcus and do the Mystery Cave tour again!

Once we drove into the park from the other side, we figured it was a nice time and location for a picnic. We decided that it would be smart to get near the first geocache location, so we drove in and found it. Also, we found a great spot for our "Pic-a-nic"...

Our drive through the park.

It didn't take long for us to eat, and then we were off on our adventure to find the cache.

Marcus invited one of his new animal friends... this one did not actually belong to him it turns out.

Near the picnic tables was a large shelter that would be really neat to spend time at during the winter and get to use the fireplace.

Ye olde sawmill near the small river by the picnic grounds.

A fine example of a fine wood-engraved signpost with the next set of GPS coordinates.

The shelter again.

We were pretty close to the first spot and found it very quickly! I have to say that these were the NICEST signs we have seen at any of the parks. They were engraved in wood and fairly large... super-impressed.

Check out the cool wooden sign they used.

It was another 0.5 miles to next location, so we made up our minds to drive and park by the trail. One of the lessons we have learned is to grab a map every time when we enter the park at the Info Station – that way we can make sure to try and make smart decisions on where to go and when to hike, when to park, etc.

We found the second location really quickly, but we took a bit of extra time to look at the river water. It was high and fast, and Marcus LOVED it.

There was concrete going across the river here. Marcus is checking out the water near the edge.

Speaking of getting the park map, Luke clearly has it this time in the picture. Amazingly, Marcus has not removed his hat yet before this picture was taken.

A lot of rain from the last weekend washed all sorts of logs and stuff into the river.

We got back on task then and went in search of the third location.

I'm not sure what this is or why it is here. I think it's Luke carrying Marcus. He really preferred being carried. So that's what this probably was. Or it's sasquatch. You decide.

It was actually a fairly long hike, but it was a beautiful day. Marcus decided that he wanted to "hike" with us rather than be pushed... but somehow that always includes a lot carrying by Mommy and Daddy.

We kept hiking and quickly came up to Location #3 and #4. This was a first for us: the longest multi-cache we have seen in our first 20-odd state parks comprised only four locations. This was FIVE. Look at the awesome signs. (We were very impressed by the effort they went through on this geocache adventure at Forestville/Mystery Cave.)

Very nice signs indeed!

After leaving the fourth location we went down some stairs – good thing we didn't have the stroller because it never would have made it.

Lots and lots of stairs.

Right when we got to the bottom of the stairs we found it!

Marcus: "Let's see what we have here..."

Marcus as usual was very excited to find his "Bock Bock" (a.k.a. bird) card.

(It seems that when describing bird sizes there are two points of reference: bigger/smaller than a sparrow and bigger/smaller than a crow.)

It was a long hike back to the car, so Marcus decided he would rather ride back. Just a few notes on this park if you decide to complete the geocache:

1. This is the longest hike we have done so far – if you hiked the entire thing, it would be close to 3 miles round trip.

2. This hike is not stroller- or wheelchair-friendly.

3, It is totally worth it! One of the most scenic, forested state parks we have done so far (and at the perfect time of year in early June, too!).