Rice Lake State Park

— Rice Lake State Park —

(Owatonna, MN)

Rice Lake State Park is about four miles east of I-35 and Owatonna in southern Minnesota.  This was the fifth and final state park of the day for us.

Pretty shady here.  This is the Ranger Station at the entrance to the park.  On Sunday evenings there usually isn't anyone home after about 6 o'clock.  Here is a second picture of the Station with better brightness settings on the camera...

Luke got out and picked up the information and map.

Marcus is working on removing his shoe.  This can be trouble for him because he isn't able to put it back on.

The trail and park area on the north side of Rice Lake.

It did not take us very long to find the first location.  The sign was tucked away on the side of a bridge.

Marcus loved these trails and the bridge. 

            Babe in the woods.

Looking over the western part of Rice Lake.  A lot of wildlife in the marsh like red-winged blackbirds.  This is right next to the final geocache location.

When Luke got to the final area ahead of Vonnie and Marcus (they ended up stopping at the playground on the hike across the park), a couple was there and pointed out a pair of turtles that were at the top of some steps leading to the overlook by the marsh.  Marcus got a chance to see them and was extremely excited!

 Here is a scenic overlook by the lake.  Both of the turtles started to head back to the marsh after a little while, but one of them went over the edge and landed on its back on the stone steps.  It got stuck upside-down, so Luke flipped it back over.  Unfortunately, it was pretty dazed and took a few minutes to get going again.

After the turtles went on their way we got down to some series geocache hunting...

"Marcus, look right over there.  I think there might be a geocache there...!"

.

 

Recording that we were there in the log book.

Marcus looking through the geocache box items. 

Not to be mistaken for the red-headed woodpecker, a relative of the red-bellied woodpecker.  A little confusing, especially given that most of the redness is on its head not its belly!

Another woodpecker card (we already retrieved the pilliated woodpecker and the red-headed woodpecker cards).

Since this was the final stop before hitting the freeway back home from Owatonna, we headed to the playground next to the final location's picnic area...

Marcus really enjoyed tossing rocks down the metal tube in the background.

A quick status update on the counts: we are now at 31 state parks completed.  We have routed all of the remaining trips, and there are only 11 trips remaining – many of these are trips with many stops planned, and some are multiple days.  I know we have a LONG way to go, but I am starting to believe we will make the October goal.

Look at all of those smiley faces!  They're taking over the state now!