Lake Louise State Park

—Lake Louise State Park—

(Le Roy, MN)

Napping Marcus.

Lake Louise State Park (just northwest of Le Roy, MN) is not very far from Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park (it is actually run by the same park rangers and managed by the Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park), so we got there very quickly.  However, we did not get there fast enough... Marcus fell asleep on the way.  This is one of the biggest challenges of doing long day trips with a toddler – he falls asleep at odd times, gets hungry all of the time, and occasionally cries for no reason (or maybe because he is bored).  It means that we have to accommodate his needs and do things differently than how we planned it.  In this case it means one person stays in the car with Marcus (we cannot leave him alone) and the other person goes exploring.

Luke using the payphone at the Ranger Station.  How often do you see one of these?  (The phone actually didn't work; we just staged this.)

This park is so small that the office is not manned at all times.  We stopped by the office to grab a map from outside.  All state park offices have maps available right outside the entrance buildings as well as a Courtesy Box where you can self-report violations for not having a permit (but they allow you to apply the fine toward purchasing a state park permit if you want to).

"Hello, operator?"

 We followed the road and found the first sign pretty quickly.  Just looking at this you could tell that the same ranger from Forestville State Park was in charge of the geocaches here and made these signs as well.

Another awesome sign.

Vonnie and Marcus in the car.

It wasn't far to the next location, so Luke took off walking.  I followed in the car.

The prairie landscape here was quite different than up north.  We were actually not far from the Iowa state line and stopped at a gas station on the way from Forestville to here just across the border.

A very beautiful summer day.

The second location was back towards the park office.  I could see the sign from the road (and without leaving the car).

From here Luke set off down a trail to go in search of our "bock, bock" card...

The wind soughing in the tall prairie grass.

The trail was actually a little flooded, but a lady who camps at this park and caretakes it with her husband was walking with her dog and let Luke know how to get around it.  There was also a farm with cows just adjacent to the trail before it headed into the woods.

The sky was huge here.  Awesome feathery clouds!  (Technically they are cirrus clouds.)

The scenery of the prairie really grows on you the more time you spend there!  Long, hot, bright afternoons on the prairie.

Luke found the cache!  (He did do a fair amount of jogging to and from the final location.)

Marcus slept for this entire stop and didn't even know what he missed.  He was happy when he woke up to a new card though!

A very common bird in everyone's yard in Minnesota: the Northern Cardinal.