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dreamsharkWe got up on Sunday and indulged in the hotel's free DIY breakfast. The food was about what you'd get at McDonald's (flat eggs, sausage, biscuits, waffles, muffins) but it was free and quick. We'd been considering a morning bike ride, but when we realized how hot it already was at 10am we decided to just head for the lake. The reason we'd started our trip in the midst of Labor Day Weekend was to take advantage of the surprising burst of swimming weather, which was not expected to last past the weekend.
To my great relief, McCarthy Beach State Park is just as beautiful as I remembered: best state park in Minnesota! Big Sturgeon Lake is a natural sand-bottom lake with an enormous sandy beach bordered by majestic pines. The park service has scattered numerous picnic tables and benches in the shade of the pines with strategically placed retaining walls between the pines and the sand that provide even more places to sit. The lake is crystal clear and has no weeds or rocks on the bottom - just sand and snails. There's a big new changing house with flush toilets, and a big parking lot that wasn't close to full. And best of all, still no lifeguards to stop you from using float toys. A good thing, since my whole vacation had been planned around float toys and bicycles!
The most amazing thing about this gorgeous park is how obscure it is. Judging by my brief survey of people near us on the beach, it seems to be used exclusively by 1) Iron Range locals and 2) people who heard about it from Iron Range locals "Yeah, my wife's cousin used to work at the park...").
We had 4 hours to kill before we could check into our campsite, and rather foolishly we decided to do a little biking before we went swimming. Turns out that this really isn't a good park for biking. There are lots of little park roads and paths designated as mountain bike trails, but our light mountain bike tires were useless against the drifts of sand. We managed to find a pleasant loop of packed-dirt road that our bikes could handle, but it was still a pretty tough 7-mile ride. Richard was having trouble with his knee, and all those hills didn't help. Finally we made it back to the van and did what we should have done immediately - started blowing up float toys! Corky the Crocodile, the replacement for old Albert Alligator was my favorite. Richard just stuck to his favorite foam noodle; he's not much for leaping around in the water wrestling with slippery plastic critters. The lake is very shallow at this end, and you have to walk (or float) at least 200 yards before the water is deep enough to swim (this is one reason you really NEED float toys. It's more fun to paddle through knee-deep water than to walk). But considering how shallow it is, it is really astoundingly COLD. So we spent more time on the beach and less in the water than I had anticipated. Fortunately the temps were in the mid to high 80's and the beach was so comfortable that this was a pleasure.
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the beach and found our campsite. We'd reserved a spot, expecting the place to fill up on such a prime weekend, but amazingly there were many empty sites. Our campsite (#52) was a good location, worth returning to. It was on the last loop of the campground road, meaning very little traffic. The water spigot was just across from us, and the pit toilets were as close as they could be without being smelly. The campsites were very wooded, giving a feeling of privacy. That can sometimes mean lots of mosquitoes, but this late in the season the mosquitoes were non-existent. We bought wood from the park so we could make a fire and cook S'Mores, but we cooked dinner on a Coleman stove. For the record, two packets of birch logs were more than enough for 4 hours of fire; we left a few logs for the next people. We slept in the van, which worked out fine. Besides not having to pitch a tent, we had electric light and little storage places to park our glasses and shoes.
Next day we went back to the beach, blew up more float toys, determined that the porpoise didn't work as well as the croc and gave it away to a family with kids. The weather considered gloriously warm and sunny, although a bit windy. This meant that you couldn't just lounge forever on the inflatable chair - every 10-15 minutes you had to tow it back to the upwind side of the swimming area. However, that's not much of a complaint, really. It was a perfect two days at the beach.
Shortly before sunset we headed back to Chisholm, where we had reservations in a Jacuzzi King Suite at the Chisholm Inn.
Picture are here
To my great relief, McCarthy Beach State Park is just as beautiful as I remembered: best state park in Minnesota! Big Sturgeon Lake is a natural sand-bottom lake with an enormous sandy beach bordered by majestic pines. The park service has scattered numerous picnic tables and benches in the shade of the pines with strategically placed retaining walls between the pines and the sand that provide even more places to sit. The lake is crystal clear and has no weeds or rocks on the bottom - just sand and snails. There's a big new changing house with flush toilets, and a big parking lot that wasn't close to full. And best of all, still no lifeguards to stop you from using float toys. A good thing, since my whole vacation had been planned around float toys and bicycles!
The most amazing thing about this gorgeous park is how obscure it is. Judging by my brief survey of people near us on the beach, it seems to be used exclusively by 1) Iron Range locals and 2) people who heard about it from Iron Range locals "Yeah, my wife's cousin used to work at the park...").
We had 4 hours to kill before we could check into our campsite, and rather foolishly we decided to do a little biking before we went swimming. Turns out that this really isn't a good park for biking. There are lots of little park roads and paths designated as mountain bike trails, but our light mountain bike tires were useless against the drifts of sand. We managed to find a pleasant loop of packed-dirt road that our bikes could handle, but it was still a pretty tough 7-mile ride. Richard was having trouble with his knee, and all those hills didn't help. Finally we made it back to the van and did what we should have done immediately - started blowing up float toys! Corky the Crocodile, the replacement for old Albert Alligator was my favorite. Richard just stuck to his favorite foam noodle; he's not much for leaping around in the water wrestling with slippery plastic critters. The lake is very shallow at this end, and you have to walk (or float) at least 200 yards before the water is deep enough to swim (this is one reason you really NEED float toys. It's more fun to paddle through knee-deep water than to walk). But considering how shallow it is, it is really astoundingly COLD. So we spent more time on the beach and less in the water than I had anticipated. Fortunately the temps were in the mid to high 80's and the beach was so comfortable that this was a pleasure.
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the beach and found our campsite. We'd reserved a spot, expecting the place to fill up on such a prime weekend, but amazingly there were many empty sites. Our campsite (#52) was a good location, worth returning to. It was on the last loop of the campground road, meaning very little traffic. The water spigot was just across from us, and the pit toilets were as close as they could be without being smelly. The campsites were very wooded, giving a feeling of privacy. That can sometimes mean lots of mosquitoes, but this late in the season the mosquitoes were non-existent. We bought wood from the park so we could make a fire and cook S'Mores, but we cooked dinner on a Coleman stove. For the record, two packets of birch logs were more than enough for 4 hours of fire; we left a few logs for the next people. We slept in the van, which worked out fine. Besides not having to pitch a tent, we had electric light and little storage places to park our glasses and shoes.
Next day we went back to the beach, blew up more float toys, determined that the porpoise didn't work as well as the croc and gave it away to a family with kids. The weather considered gloriously warm and sunny, although a bit windy. This meant that you couldn't just lounge forever on the inflatable chair - every 10-15 minutes you had to tow it back to the upwind side of the swimming area. However, that's not much of a complaint, really. It was a perfect two days at the beach.
Shortly before sunset we headed back to Chisholm, where we had reservations in a Jacuzzi King Suite at the Chisholm Inn.
Picture are here
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Response
Date: 2008-09-09 07:21 pm (UTC)Nate
Re: Response
Date: 2008-09-09 07:49 pm (UTC)I haven't been to the Bahamas, but we LOVE the Virgin Islands. I hope you'll write a trip report when you get back.