I was in Minnesota for about a month. Most of the week days I spent in town, visiting with my mother, poking in and out of the various gift shops that make up most of the town’s businesses, taking the children to the playground or to play mini golf.
The weekends were a different story though. On the weekends my father and his wife would take us on outings - long outings that required packing food and water bottles and bug spray. The three mile hike up the Fingerpoint trail shown yesterday was the first such outing. The next was a five mile hike through part of Judge Magney State Park, along the Brule River.
I’ve known this hike was in the plans since last year when we walked the park trails with the children. They enjoyed it so much and had so much energy to spare at the end that my step-mother commented that next time we’d do the longer version, to which my son enthusiastically replied “okay!” I just wasn’t sure I was going to join them until this year!
Five miles sounds like a long way, and it is. But in reality, it wasn’t too bad. Once we reached the river, we took frequent breaks so my step-mother’s dog could swim and the kids could wade and there was plenty of interesting stuff to see along the way.
(click any picture below for a larger view)
Just in case you thought I was exaggerating about the distance - or you were interested in seeing it for yourself 
A toadstool growing in the middle of the trail. Looked so pretty just sitting there in the sun…
It’s never a problem to get my son to walk in the woods where there are such yummy thimble berries to be found and eaten! He snacked the whole way!
Pretty, but inedible.
See - I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a long walk!
Anyone know the name of this wildflower? My step-mother told me but I forgot…
Pretty much the extent of the wildlife we saw that day!
It was just sitting there, waiting for me to take its picture…
But what a reward! The Devil’s Kettle water fall, Brule River. So named because there is a hole on the left that about half of the river plunges down into and supposedly no one knows where it comes out…My step-mother’s dog almost found out this year, trying to retrieve his stick from the current upstream. There were a few tense moments there, but I’m happy to say he let the stick go and came back to shore. Smart dog!
Tomorrow, the last of the vacation photos (promise!)
