Lake Shetek State Park

Lake Shetek State Park

—Currie, MN—

The next stop was at the Lake Shetek State Park—once again a park I had never heard (or maybe I don't remember it), and I have to tell you that I had been missing out!  This is one of the rare parks that are going to make short list of cool state parks to return to in the future.

Here is the bio from the Minnesota DNR website:

"The word 'Shetek' is Ojibwe for 'pelican,' a bird which visits Lake Shetek during the summer and fall.  The park contains the largest lake in southwestern Minnesota, which forms the headwaters of the Des Moines River.  Expect great fishing for walleye, northern, crappie, and bullheads.  Loon Island, a 45‑acre island on Lake Shetek, is accessible on foot via a causeway and includes an interpretive trail.

Visit the Koch Cabin and monument memorializing pioneer settlers. The park includes a swimming beach, boat launch, campgrounds and a scenic six-mile loop bicycle trail into the town of Currie.  Boat, canoe, and kayak rentals are available."

                                                                              When driving to this park, it is pretty boring as you are only driving through rolling fields with a few prairies woven in.  Suddenly, the horizon changes, and you can see more trees and a lot of green.  This is how the park welcomes you.  Unlike the last two parks we visited, the lake is actually a natural lake and not a reserve, so it has a different feel to it.  As the description says, this is the largest late in southwestern Minnesota and headwaters to the 525-mile-long Des Moines River (which we also saw yesterday down at Kilen Woods State Park).  It is a tributary to the Mississippi River, but they don't meet up in Minnesota; rather, the Des Moines River spends most of its journey to the Mississippi flowing through Minnesota's southern neighbor as Iowa's largest river, winding past the capital of Des Moines, Iowa, whence it takes its name, on its way to its confluence with the mighty Mississippi at the border intersections of Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri.  In Minnesota there is also the Des Moines River Water Trail that one can canoe/kayak that goes along the river through southwestern Minnesota.

When we got to the park Luke jumped out to look at the rangers station.  In this case we knew the first location was not for another mile, but we wanted to grab the map anyway (always a good idea as past experience has taught us).  They had a a sign talking about the geocache program, and right here it gave away that it was only going to be two locations to go to (so it would be fast and easy).

We grabbed the information and headed down the road.  This park is a little over 1,000 acres, so not huge, but it is centered around a lake, which gives it longer drives for a park its size.

View of the prairie.  And the requisite State Park ice machine.

The office.

I am hanging out in the car.

About halfway to the location, we stopped by a historical marker.  It was actually an area where cabins were located in the 1800s – this is actually one of the important places for the U.S.–Dakota conflicts of that period.  Also, this is one of the things that I loved about this park: we got to see some history and a lot of nature at the same time.  The families who lived in these cabins did not do so well in the conflicts.  I remember learning about this in 6th grade in the Minnesota history, but now I find it really interesting.

Since we were on a tight timeline, we did not have time to get out and explore, but I really want to.  I LOVE history, and this is one of the reasons it makes the short list.  We continued driving down the road and found our way to the parking lot at the boat launch.  It was fairly busy because it was the perfect summer morning outside for being on the water.

Here is a map of the park.  You can see lots of water and lots of trails.

Once there, we parked and quickly found our clue.

Marcus was pretty excited to get out an play.  Peter the Penguin also decided to join in on this adventure.

Let's just be honest: I love this picture of Marcus...

One of Marcus's favorite parts of this park was just checking out the canoes.  We have taken him out a few times now, so he knows what is is all about and really likes it.  He was also pretty interested in the paddleboard and the rowboat – I don't think he had seen either of those before.

Paddleboards you can rent at Lake Shetek.

Rowboats at the boat landing.

Looking from the trail toward the parking lot.  Lake Shetek is out of frame off to the left.

A good look of the lake from the parking lot.

A beautiful summer morning
in southwestern Minnesota.

A penguin and his boy.

The dock near the shore.

Happy dog and his people at "Lake Sheik."

Near shore.

The lagoon.

Rocks.  With some green stuff on them.

More of the green stuff.

The man-made causeway on the far side of the lagoon.

The next set of coordinates led us down a path on the other side of the parking lot.  I ran ahead while Luke and Marcus did a bit of playing.  Peter the Penguin slows things down a bit because he likes to explore as he walks.  The penguin also wanted to go waddle about in the shallow water.  Marcus decided he could help him do this.  We're happy to let everyone know, however, that the penguin made a quick recovery and is dry and clean once again.  It's just lucky that Luke was there in time when the fun started.

The trail was really easy and super quiet, but I quickly found my way to the cache.

It was placed in a perfectly-sized fallen tree trunk.

Marcus was happy to get his card.

Here are some of Peter the Penguin's adventures: 

He just wanted to play in the water.  The aforementioned penguin incident.

Huzzah!  Another state park conquered!!

Sometimes he is a trouble maker... here he wanted to explore the tree.  Silly penguin.

Good thing that Marcus found him.

We finished our hike and took one last look at the lake.  It was the perfect day, and I wish we could have spent a bit more time exploring.

The last thing we saw on the way of the park was the Lake Shetek Monument... Okay, Luke looked at it, and I stayed in the car with Marcus (a lot of running was involved since we were in a hurry).  This was a monument dedicated to the settlers who died during the 1862 conflict.  It was interesting as well as sombering.