Red River SRA

—Red River State Recreation Area—

East Grand Forks, MN

Red River State Recreation Area (SRA) is an interesting park because it is right in town – one block from a bunch of restaurants and two blocks from Cabela's.  The park is split in half by the dike, and during high water season, much of it would actually be outside the city wall and would potentially be underwater.  Since this is right on the Red River, it is prone to flooding every year.  When we got to town we found a parking spot and planned our attack – we could complete the goeocache and grab a bit of dinner (or in Luke's case a 1/2-lb. hamburger) before hitting the road again (you can only eat so many PB&J sandwiches).

Vonnie and Marcus walking towards the park.

 The park had the cutest little ranger station.  Being that this was not in the middle of nowhere (like most state parks), they probably did not require as much stuff.  (This was also a state recreation area instead of a state park.  A state park can be downgraded to a state recreation area or the reverse.)  We spoke to the ranger and started our search.

The first set of coordinates were right next to the ranger station.  It was pretty funny because Location #2 was really close – like 30 feet.  It made me double-check a few times to make sure I did not enter them incorrectly.  

View of the dike.

If you looked at the picture of the coordinate's posting, you can see that they include a clue saying "FEED ME!", so we searched the area and found a bird feeder.

 The next set of directions led us outside the walls of the dike to the rest of the park.

The other side of the bridge is North Dakota.  You can literally throw a rock across the river into another state!

 Marcus and Luke loved the dike and ran all over it. Mommy stayed a bit more focused and kept searching for the next clue.

 I quickly found the next spot.  It was neat the way the ranger found great natural hiding spots and left clues.

This was a beautiful day.  The sky was so clear, and it was almost perfect weather.  Great day for a hike!

Vonnie heading towards the geocache.

Marcus was also very busy, and he found a playground to climb on.  Luke is such a great Daddy and followed him around and played with him.

 I kept hiking and found the geocache.  Once again what a cute location!

We finished the cache... now it is time to head back and eat some food!

I am not very good with birds, but I knew this was an oriole without looking - Pretty Bird!

Before we left town we hit a local restaurant to eat some food.  Marcus really like the coleslaw – what a strange child!

And we were back on the road again.  What a beautiful sky!

Amazing prairie skies.