Camping Season!

With how warm out it's been the last week or two we thought we would take advantage of the weather and do an overnight at a park here in Minnesota. We stayed at Whitewater State Park in Altura, MN. Very nice park! Because it was so early in the season there were not many people staying at the park yet so we had out pick of campsites. We ended up at a site right on the river so you could hear the water rushing by all the time. Very relaxing!

 Of course we had to go for a nice hike. We set up camp and head out almost immediately. The trail we found had us crossing the river on big cement pylons and then going up a little stair and then climbing a rough trail up the mountain hillside. Wow was that a long trek! Our Puppy Emma was not the only one with her tongue hanging out by the time we got to the top of the hill.

Once we got up there the views were pretty awesome. Because it's so early in the Spring the foliage hasn't filled in yet and you can really see a long way.

We found little rocky spots were we could stop and admire the view all over the place. Quite pretty and a little surreal to be up on the cliffs. The next day when we were checking out we could see people up on the cliffs and I thought  "Whoa! We were really up there!"

This is a view up the cliff as we were heading down. It was a lot cooler in the moment - my camera didn't capture how amazing this was.

 

Emma and I on the hilltop. We were warm and tired but we had a really good time.

 Here is a view of the river. We actually got to the end of the path we walked and ended up turning around and hiking the whole thing back - so we got to cross the river twice. Shortly after this picture Tom picked up Emma and carried her across most of the stones. She originally jumped over about half on the way in but then she slipped and got scared. On the way back we encouraged her and she was having none of that thank you very much! So Tom carried her across all but the last three and then set her down to do the last couple on her own so she would feel empowered.

Here is a view up the river.

We had a bonfire not long after we got back and we all sat and watched the stars come out as the fire burned down. It was a really relaxing night and a great first camping trip of the season.