Schoolcraft State Recreation Area

Schoolcraft State Recreation Area

—Deer River, MN—

After we celebrated the 4th of July at my in-laws, we headed north to continue our geocache adventure.  It is actually really nice when we start out so much closer to the parks than driving from home (they are about 100 miles north).  Our game plan: to drive a loop and end up in Bemidji, MN for my nephew's birthday party while visiting three parks on the way.  As usual it was slightly ambitious but doable.

We got to our first state park right around noon – the drive was perfect – two hours so Marcus was able to get his nap in and was ready to get out and visit the park.  

Henry Schoolcraft was an early explorer who discovered where the headwaters of the Mississippi river were located.  This park is named after him, and it is right on the Mississippi River (but not near Lake Itasca, the true headwaters).  The Mississippi River at this point is really just a winding stream and not the mighty river it becomes.  According to the plaque this is one of the places that Schoolcraft and his guide camped over night during their expedition. 

This is a small park (one of the smallest in the state) and it was not actually manned by a ranger – it is instead managed by the folks at Scenic State Park – which we had pegged to visit later in the day.  When we arrived we were welcomed by just a kiosk with some pictures and maps.

Schoolcraft State Park feels pretty remote – there is not a lot around, but it is very pretty and very quiet.

Luke Searching for Location # 1

We followed the GPS towards the first set of coordinates.  It brought us back towards the end of the park.  It was a lot busier than we expected as there was a large group that was having a picnic.  (This park was actually a popular destination for boaters on the river who were stopping, hanging out, and hitting the river again all day long it seemed.)  We did not let the group deter us from our task of finding the first cache.  We quickly found a trail that seemed to bring us in the right direction for the location.  It didn't take long for us to find it.  I have never seen one quite like this before – the sheet was just laying on the ground.  This could be kind of hard to find if there were a lot of leaves or snow!

Location # 1

Luke and Marcus entering the next set of coordinates.

We quickly entered the next set of numbers in our GPSs and headed down the trail.  It was pretty but was also fairly buggy!

It wasn't far down the trail until we found the second a last location—when you do enough of these the hiding spots really seem to jump out at you!

 Can you see the ammo box hidden in this tree stump?

We grabbed the cards and left quickly.  This is truly an example of "cache-and-dash" – in and out of the park in less than 20 minutes!!

We did take a few minutes to enjoy the views, however.

Must have been one busy woodpecker!

One last view of the river.

A veery pretty bird.