Minnesota

 

Minnesota

There was a tension between hurrying to get to our paid-for RV spot in Arizona and just taking our time, enjoying the trip. The forces of anxiety must have been strong in Minnesota because we hurried through there, only spending 2 nights at Myre-Big State Park, just outside of Albert Lea, Minnesota. (As a general rule, we almost never spend only one night anywhere. "Rushing," to us, means not spending 3 or more nights in a particular spot. But to spend only one night--well, that's just not civilized.)

 

The park was very nice. The mosquitos were fairly well-behaved, too, as long as you kept out of their little territories. Some people seemed not at all bothered, lounging around in little but swim suits, but they were enough that we lit mosquito coils before enjoying an evening fire and then still glanced around suspiciously from time to time.

During one evening fire, a raccoon appeared and came straight for us. We thought it was rabid and I grabbed a stick to keep it at bay, if necessary.  It was not necessary. I think it had been fed by humans. He never got too close once he saw that we weren't a raccoon-feeding species.  

We visited the town of Albert Lea while we were there and it was a surprisingly charming little town. It seemed to be built around 2 or 3 really nice lakes all of which had perfectly-maintained parks around them. And they have a mermaid! Every town should have a mermaid!

 

Glendo,Wyoming and Cañon City Colorado

Glendo,Wyoming and Cañon City, Colorado - June 2020

Glendo State Park in Wyoming surrounds a large reservoir on the North Platte River, and has over 500 campsites in various campgrounds on its 22,000 acres. We stayed in the Sandy Beach campground, in the last site available with electricity ... a must for running the AC in hot (mid 90's) weather. This part of the park is accessed by a 12-mile drive around the reservoir on a fairly windy 2-lane road, so once we got there for the 2 nights we were staying, we stayed put. Plus, Glendo is pretty remote and certainly not a restaurant/shopping hub. 

The big attraction was the beach. Dorian tried the water and found it refreshing - a bit on the cold side. Pippi was not interested in the water, but loved frolicking in the sand.

  

We crossed into Colorado on June 17. I had forgotten how much I love beautiful Colorado - well, once we got through the Denver traffic (horrendous, even at non-rush hour). We stayed 4 nights in Cañon City - 2 at a nice KOA, and 2 at even nicer at Cañon City's no-frills (no electricity/water/etc.) first-come first-serve campground 1,000 feet above the town, nearby the Royal Gorge Park. Per my (Ramona's) preference, we eschewed the very nice but tourist-packed Royal Gorge Park with its suspension bridge that spans the far-below Arkansas River, and instead took an awesome hike from our campground along the Canyon Rim Trail.  In the below pictures notice the suspension bridge and far below train tracks running beside the river. We'd love to return to take this train ride, cross the bridge, ride the gondola, etc. -  in a less crowded time.

Another fun activity for the bold driver (Dorian) is Skyline Drive, a one-way path high above Cañon City which offers great views if you can take your eyes from the often hog-backed road with *minimal* clearance on either side. Or so it seemed to me. In the poor quality photo I took from the passenger seat, note the road continuing up and down along the crest of the mountain.... ugh. 

From the only parking spot on Skyline Drive, we walked back to interpretive signs explaining fossils of Ankylosaurid dinosaur footprints. Dorian holds his hand up for a size comparison. Cool!

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Pictured Rocks NL is near Munising, Michigan. As the owner of our only waterproof camera, I got the job of taking pictures. Plus, as the one in the back of the two-person kayak, I was able to get the action shots, such as they are. 

Everyone recommends sea kayaks for Lake Superior. Having heard stories (and seen at least one example) of the fickle weather on Superior, we decided to take a guided tour. We went with https://paddlepicturedrocks.com/ because they take you to the most picturesque areas for kayaking via a passenger boat. We didn't think we had enough kayaking muscles to do the 5+ hour tour that other companies offered in order to see, essentially, the same shoreline. Purists might prefer launching from the shore but we were very happy with our choice.

 

Of the 129 pictures that I took, I chose 18 that were blog-worthy. Of those, I present only these. The editing process is a harsh business.

We watched a cormorant feeding her chicks. What we saw was mostly just silhouette from a hundred feet below and another hundred or so horizontally but it makes a nice picture. Maybe just knowing they are cormorants makes it nicer.

An action shot! You can tell it is an action shot by the exclamation mark I used.

The below cave was short but very cool:

Into the cave

Out of the cave

And, because this tree on Chapel Rock is on the back of the Michigan US quarter dollar coin, a picture is in order. The angle is different on the coin, but I preferred this because it shows the roots which had grown while there was land between Chapel Rock and the shoreline. The roots remained doing their rooty work long after the sandstone around them had collapsed.

As I write this, we are now in Wisconsin. We'll be here for a few more days before heading straight across South Dakota.