Itasca State Park, December 2010

We drove up to Itasca State Park after our stay at Chase on the Lake since it was such a beautiful day and we've never been to the park in the winter. You can see from the photos below that it's a beautiful park in the winter.

Chase on the Lake, Walker, MN December 2010

We went to Chase on the Lake in December, 2010 because I got a great deal on Groupon. 1 night hotel with 4 hours of snowmobiling plus a free dinner in their restaurant. The place is very nice. It's an old historic hotel, but the rooms are very spa like. They have snowmobile trails right off the hotel so we didn't even have to drive anywhere. The hotel is also located on Leech Lake so we saw lots of ice fish houses.

Gull Lake COE Park, October, 2010

We camped at the Gull Lake COE Park in early October, 2010. This park is great in the spring and fall when the weather is cool as they have loads of wood you can burn for just $5.00/day. The sites are all pretty private. To get to the lake you need to walk across a small bridge. They have a short hiking trail as well.

Charles Lindbergh State Park May, 2011

First trip of the year was to Charles Lindbergh State Park. This park is located just outside of Little Falls, MN. It's a very small park - only 15 electric sites and another 21 sites that are non-electric. There are some nice walking trails and path along the river. These trails always seem to be wet and boggy in the springtime. This weekend was no exception. There is also a park area with playground equipment and you can tour the Charles Lindbergh boyhood home and the museum.

St. Croix State Park - Labor Day 2010

St. Croix State Park - Riverview Campground

St. Croix State Park - our site

St. Croix State Park Beach area

St. Croix State Park Visitor Center

Lake Carlos State Park - July 4th, 2010

Entrance to upper campground


Lower campground sites


Upper campground bathroom


Our campsite - upper campground


Lake Carlos - view from lower campground

Lake Carlos State Park is located 10 miles north of Alexandria. They have 2 campgrounds. The lower campground is right on the lake. All of the roads in the lower campground are tarred and there is a tarred bike/walk path to the beach from this campground as well. In addition, the boat landing is next to this campground and the visitor center is just around the corner. There are 2 bath facilities with showers at each end of this campground. The pluses of this campground are that you have lake view sites, the tarred roads for biking and the proximity to the beach and boat landing. The downside of the lower campground is that when it's windy you'll definitely feel it and you can't use your awnings. The lower campground fills up very fast.

The upper campground is much woodsier. The sites are a bit more spread out. There are 2 bath houses in this campground as well. When it's windy on the lake, you can come to the upper campground and barely notice so if you like more privacy this is the campground for you.


This past weekend we stayed at the upper campground - only because the lower campground was full. It ended up being a good choice as it was extremely windy 2 days and we notice that you couldn't keep anything out in the lower campground or it would blow away.

Bunker Hills Campground - Memorial Weekend 2010

Bunker Hills is an Anoka County Park. They have the campground, 2 golf courses (1 18 and 1 9 hole), a water park and a riding stable. Each of the extra activities cost money (you don't get a discount for camping). There are 8 miles of bike trails that meander up and down through the entire park. The campsites are very far apart so you don't see your neighbors. The bathrooms are located in the middle and the campsites are spread out in a circle around. They have 2 loops of campsites for a total of about 40 sites and 27 of them are electric. They are in the process of adding more sites (all electric) and it looks like they'll have another 15 by the end of the summer.

playground at the park


Veteran's Memorial site (chairs set up for a Memorial Day program)

Another photo of the park/picnic/pavilion area

Tunnel on the bike trail

View of the golf course

Bike trail photos

Our campsite (#15) We had one of the few campsites that was out in the open. Most are wooded.

View of the campground road from our site (the closest site was the empty one on the right side of the photo)

Bike trail right off our campsite.