William O'Brien State Park September 12-14, 2014

William O'Brien State Park is a great park with lots to do. It's only 10 miles from Stillwater and 15 to Taylor's Falls and Interstate State Park. They have 2 campgrounds - Savanna campground is in the upper part of the park. These sites are a bit bigger and have more privacy. Riverway campground is along the river, closer to the swimming and picnic area and has a really nice trail along the river. However, the sites are pretty open and not real big.

We stayed in the upper campground this time and our site was nice, but a bit uneven. It was super private so that was really nice.

This is the visitor center/trail center. 

 The river flooded this past spring and the water is still really high

We saw a snake in the road while we were biking

This is the road leading to the lower campground. It's great to bike down, but tough to get back up!

Here is a picture of the area just outside the visitor center where they do programs.

Wild River State Park - Labor Day Weekend, 2014

We went to Wild River State Park for the Labor Day weekend. We hadn't been there for 3 years (since before Lady died). I had forgotten how large and private the sites are. It's a nice park with 2.6 miles of paved bike trails, lots of hiking, lots of programs and they have quite a few snakes. They are all not dangerous and the only ones we saw were dead, but apparently they are doing research on them in the park. You can also do canoe trips out of the park and are only 13 miles from both North Branch (outlet shopping) and Taylors Falls (Interstate State Park, shopping and rock climbing).

Here's our site. 

The road in the campground (all of the roads with the exception of the campsites are tarred and in a great shape.

View from the visitor's center

We saw this deer and 2 fawns on our bike ride up to the visitor's center (unfortunately my camera isn't very good and I didn't get a great shot)

 Deck on the visitor's center 

Bike trail

 garden outside the visitor's center

 Front of the visitor's center

Bathrooms in campground

Interpretive trail by the trail center

 Picnic Grounds bathroom and shelter

More of the bike trail passing the picnic grounds

 View from the road in the park - this is the open sky area

Hiking trail along the river

Boat along St. Croix River in Taylors Falls

Views from Interstate State Park outside Taylor's Falls