McCarthy Beach State Park

McCarthy Beach State Park

—Side Lake, MN—

McCarthy Beach State Park is kind of in the middle of Nowhere, Minnesota.  We almost made it to this park earlier in the summer when we hit Scenic State Park in Big Fork, MN (we were about 30 miles away), but we ran out of time.  This means that today's visit to the state park was a must, and we had to get the park out of the way.  I had never heard of this park before, and I had pretty low expectations for it going in.  Boy, was I in for an good surprise!
 "The sandy beach on Sturgeon Lake was rated one of the top 17 beaches in North America by Highway’s Magazine. Walk along the half-mile of shoreline, or venture out into the shallow water that extends hundreds of feet into the lake."—Minnesota DNR

Marcus slept the majority of the way to the park and woke up right when we arrived (perfect timing!).  At first, this park is pretty quaint, and you can't see the lake when you drive in and park.  We got to the park right around 2 pm, and it was pretty busy still.  Luke ran into to say hello to the park ranger and grab a park map.  It didn't take long, and we were in search of the McCarthy Beach geocache.

We crossed the road and found a parking lot.  It was actually pretty busy – there were a LOT of teens playing some kind of game in the parking lot.  It was both noisy and funny.  We quickly found our way to the first cache.  This was a first: it was a laminated paper sheet attached to a tree with twine.  This park was going to give us a few more firsts...

We entered the coordinates for the next stage and started walking.  We didn't have to go very far... actually just across the parking lot and a little ways down a short flight of stairs towards the lake.

When you drive into the park, it is kind of unassuming, and it just looks like you are in the woods; however, the beauty of this park is in the lakes that surround it.  As we walked toward the second location, we got closer to the lake, and we could see it through the trees ahead of us.

Our first view of the lake in the distance.  It fits your ideal of a summery Minnesota lake complete with beach!

The second location was an easy find.  It was another piece of paper, laminated (or taped) to a piece of wood, and chained to a tree... these coordinates weren't going anywhere!

A good dad workout: "Let's jump onto the table again... one, two, three..."

We entered the next location and headed off.  This direction brought us right onto the shore of Sturgeon Lake and a bit up the shoreline.  We decided to walk along the shore to check out the lake.  It was an almost perfect fall day... the last vestiges of summer.

Marcus loved walking along the beach.  He even stopped a few times to pick up some branches both to walk with and to throw.

The beach was busy... it had boats, and swimmers (too cold for me), and lots of people and dogs playing in the sand.

When we got to the far side of the swimming beach, we found the third clue.  It was a laminated piece of paper tied to a branch with a piece of twine.

 

"There is so much to do around here."

Marcus LOVED the boat!  "BOAT!" he says every time he sees one.   Whenever he is up close to one, he wants to play on it.  In this case, the boat was for emergency use only for the swimmers on the beach.

The new set of coordinates brought us back into the woods a little ways for a short hike (still right by the beach though).

It wasn't far before we came a very suspicious looking log.

"Let's do the jumping game again!"

What could it be...?!

Hmmm... what is hiding here... Why, it is another Bock- Bock card box!

Your trusty old ammo box.  I think every final state park geocache has been in this same kind of box.

When I grabbed the box from the log, I noticed a huge spider hanging out there and felt a small sting.  I didn't think much of it until my finger started to get a bit swollen.

See the wolf spider at the bottom of the mountain maple leaf?

The good news is that it didn't last long... can you see him in the pictures above and below?  (I am just assuming that it was a male spider.)

Check out the spider.  Good camoflage.  Nasty disposition, though.

Swollen finger... never had a guard for a geocache box before!!  Kind of ups the ante on these challenges, I must say...

We got the bird card (the golden-crowned kinglet) and headed on our way... still one more state park to visit today!

Here are some nice views of the park and the Sturgeon Lake.  What a nice place to visit.

A nice view of the lake.

Mommy and Marcus in front of the changing house.

What a great view of the lake—funnily enough, the dog in the pictures had just broken his leash and was running away while his family chased after him.  It kind of cracked me up.  He was fast and ran like there was no tomorrow!