Carley State Park

Carley State Park

—Plainview, MN—

Carley State Park is a very small state park (209 acres) that is just north of Whitewater State Park.  One of the branches of the Whitewater River actually flows through it.  It does not have a ranger station or as many visitors, so it was very quiet when we got there and were greeted by the registration kiosk.  The initial GPS coordinates sign was right there, so it was easy to start.                                                                 One funny thing that was happening here was Johnball Nationals – we saw that because there was a large sign directing them to a camp site.  We had no clue what Johnball was – never heard of it before.  According to their website: "Johnball is a fun and exciting sport in which players use plastic bats to hit rubber balls at each other. Described as “dodgeball with bats,” the game is largely defined by its dedication to simplicity, inclusivity, and downright good times."  We never ran into this group, but still thought it was kind of funny! 

Johnball Website.

Checking it out.

Marcus at the kiosk.

Location # 2 coordinates.

Johnball nationals...

We left the car near the kiosk (since no one was around to worry about) and headed off to the next spot.  It was just a small walk around the park.  Their was a historical plaque that Marcus was really interested in.

While Marcus was reading the history, Luke found the next location.  It was hiding right behind the bench Luke is standing on.

A little weathered.

Poison ivy behind this bench.

The GPS lead us right down a cute little path into the woods...

A fork in the road... Let's take the smaller one!

Which way now?

The path we took was not very straight, but it was pretty nice.  Eventually we got to a spot that the GPS said was right on top of the cache... look at what Marcus found... yet another tree stump with a box hidden under it.  Since this was the third box today, we got pretty good at identifying them.

What a weird video.  Seems a bit lossy.  And... just weird.

We got our cards and took our time on the trail back. 

We even stopped to look at the overlook of the Whitewater River Valley.

A long day of geocaching completed – it was time to go home.  We hit 6 parks and had 6 finds in less than one day.  This also marks the completion of the deciduous forest biome – we got all 26 cards, so now we can go back to Nerstrand Big Woods and answer all of the questions needed to finish that biome challenge, a milestone since there are only four biomes to do in the state (if you count the somewhat fictitious "Tallgrass Aspen Parkland" biome...).

54 done—a "mere" 27 to go!

We had a really pretty sunset on the way home.  One of the fun things about this project is that we are really getting to know the state of Minnesota and its many cities and roads (in addition to the parks).  These were pictures on our way back to Rochester to get to Highway 52.  The car GPS has some strange directions sometimes, but on the upside we were able to hit one of the only remaining Fazoli's in the state!

Our view while while on the road into Rochester.  Like a Martian sunset.  See below.

Compare the Rochester sunset to the Mars sunset (taken by the Spirit rover in 2005).  Picture taken from Wikipedia.

Much smaller than the sun looks like from Earth.  This is what the sun kind of looked like in the hazy skies on the way to Rochester (with more red color).