Well, I heard it’s actually more than 10,000. And I believe it. Especially as we ventured into Northern Minnesota, we saw lakes everywhere.
Our first stay was in Detroit Lakes at Country Campground. It was a lovely place to spend 10 days. The people who run it are great. And our campsite overlooked the playground and a huge field to play in, which was perfect because we could send Griffin and Grady over and watch them while sitting in our chairs under our RV awnings, just like old people.
Or we could have. In theory. But instead, Anthony was working all week and I was doing laundry and cleaning and trying to book our next travel spots all while trying to cram in a few homeschool lessons. But it would have been a GREAT place to sit and read a book…
Itasca State Park
One thing that has surprised me the further north we travel in the country is the lack of crowds everywhere. It may be in part due to Covid, but traveling to state and national parks has been oddly quiet and uncrowded. This was definitely true for Minnesota. (Not complaining! I like having places to myself and massive parking areas for my gigantic truck.) (I prefer to never drive it, but most days we leave Anthony home to work and we go explore and since it’s technically illegal for my 15 year-old to drive, I take one for the team and climb behind the intimidating wheel.)
Itasca State Park’s claim to fame is the starting point of the Mississippi River. It begins as a trickle out of Itasca Lake and the headwaters are a fun place to wade across and claim that you have walked across the Mighty Mississippi.
Fun Fact: It takes 90 days for a raindrop falling in Itasca Lake to make it to the Gulf of Mexico.
The park is beautiful with a wide array of trees, lakes and some beautiful drives.
We had planned to do some hiking here until I realized that the whiny, needy 3 year-old I was getting increasingly annoyed with was actually spiking a fever and was miserable. So we parked down by the lake in the tour boat area (which was deserted… thanks, again, to Covid). The kids fished and paddle-boarded while I sat in the back of the truck with a sleeping Grady.
There is also a beautiful swimming beach here and we talked about coming back another day to explore more, but we found so much to do near where we were staying that we never made it back.
Detroit Lakes
We stayed in a great little town on Detroit Lake with several other lakes surrounding it. Most days included a trip to a new fishing spot to check out.
Some were successful, others were not. But the boys were not deterred.
We also loved the city beach in Detroit Lakes and spent some leisurely afternoons and evenings swimming, paddle boarding and fishing here.
Sunsets are beautiful over the water.
The pace of life is slow here in Minnesota. And we love it.
