Afton State Park- Call of the Wildflower

We are a strange little family.  Saturday was a beautiful day out and we didn't have any set plans so we ended up at a state park, completing the Call of the Wildflower geocache.  We were over at the Wisconsin boarder and ended up at Afton State Park.  This is an amazing park- it has the St. Croix River Valley and the top of the hill is basically prairie so you get bit of variety at the park.  We drove  into the park and I was surprised by the incredible number of cars.  This park was busy.  It may be because it was one of of the first almost perfect days of the year but I like to pretend it was because people have decided this is the year to get out there and hike.

The geocache ran really close to where it was in the last series and it was any easy hike.  We started our right at the parking lot.  It didn't take us long to find the first few stages.   These were fun.  They included puzzles as part of the geocache.

Stage # 2- Another puzzle (but the next set
of coordinates is at the bottom)

Stage # 1- had to solve the puzzle



We kept hiking.  These pictures don't give justice to how beautiful of  day it was.

Marcus and Daddy on the trail

It didn't take long and we found our way to the final cache.  Marcus is so good at finding the caches these days.  He can see it from afar and gets really excited.

Luke is getting the log completed, also a key part of the geocache experience.

We got our card.  Did you do the puzzle above (stage 2)?  This is the answer.

Check out the dolphin in Luke's backpack

After we finished the hike to the geocache we decided to do a bit more hiking and set off across the park.

 At one point Marcus said "NO" and was done walking.  He proved it by sitting down.  We hadn't even gone that far yet!

So Daddy was the hero went back for the car.  Marcus and Mommy pressed ahead to get the nearest road (it was only about .3 miles) and patiently sat and waited.

While we waited Marcus and I built a pine cone mini forest.  It was a lot of fun. Can you see our pine cone trees?

After Luke picked us up we drove around the park and looked at the cabins and the yurts (really neat).  We ended the day with a trip to one of the best ice cream stops in the twin cities area, Selma's in Afton.  What a great way to end a wonderful day!