Lake Maria State Park, MN

The park is not very big; however it does have some big advantages over other state parks.  In our mind, the biggest benefit is that it has no car-camping sites.  Not to get elitist or anything, but we prefer the quieter camping that usually results from the absence of RV's, pop-up-tents, plug-ins and the like.

We arrived in the late afternoon of a partly sunny Saturday in early May (98).  I forget the exact dates, but around the 11th or 12th, I believe; and I'm too lazy to check a calendar to be sure.  Anyway, because of the imperfect weather (in others' minds), we were able to acquire a campsite, despite our late arrival.  There were still several sites open, though the most remote (and therefore, popular) sites were taken.  I believe two other partys arrived after us, which left only one or two (of a dozen or so) open.

The sites at Lake Maria are all around a mile's hike from the nearest parking lot.  We took the most direct route to our site, an easy walk through a deciduous forest.  The ground was still quite brown with last year's leaves yet without this year's new growth.  The trees did have leaves though, so the brown ground was covered by a nice light green canopy.  With the lack of underbrush, we could see deeper into the woods than normal from the footpath.
While unpacking, setting up camp, etc, we keep Heidi on a line in camp.  She's pretty good in the woods, but the proximity of other campers with their dogs precluded us the luxury of leaving Heidi off-leash.  The temptation of chasing after other interesting animals is a bit great for her; she tends to ignore commands like Stay, Come or Sit at times like that.  We took a pack-free walk before dinner, then read for a while before turning in for the night.

In the morning, Heidi started getting restless shortly after dawn.  I don't take a watch on these trips, so I can't begin to guess what time it might have been.  I got up with her, to enjoy the cool air of the morning - cool enough to wear long pants with the long underwear, t-shirt and a long fleece button down.  We decided on a leash-free walk into the woods, instead of following the path.  We wandered directly away from the other campsites straight into the woods from ours.  There wasn't much exciting going on, just the peaceful beauty of watching the sun crest the hills around us, poking gingerly through the new leaves of the trees above.  Heidi really enjoys sniffing every tree, upright and toppled, so you can imagine the excitement of an early morning wander through the woods.  I tried to give enough time for Melinda to wake up of her own volition before we returned to camp and made noise.  Instead, we only wandered for maybe 20 minutes, as I didn't want to get lost.

I brewed a big mug of coffee while Melinda continued her slumber.  When  done brewing, the dog and I went for another walk, this time to the nearby pond-marsh.  On the way, we startled a brace of wood ducks from a large puddle in a hollow.  The flew quickly through the woods, screaming a warning the whole time.  I wish we'd have had more time to watch them, they're rather pretty, for ducks anyway.  With the ducks' screaming, a whitetail was also startled by our approach.  It didn't wait around much to verify whether we were a threat or not; I only saw the tail flagging through the woods; Heidi seems to have missed it entirely.  Upon arriving at the pond we found another early riser who also was with a dog.  Her dog was off-leash, so I set Heidi free for a little play time.  This time we stayed away from camp longer, since Heidi was playing and I was talking with the owner, a pleasant woman from Owatonna, MN.  We traded a couple dog stories and trip stories from up north; it turns out she's also a fan of the Superior Hiking Trail.

We didn't spend much more time in the park.  Heidi and I went back to camp for breakfast with Melinda, following that with packing and the walk back to the Jeep.  We took a longer, slightly hillier path back.  I'd say we were probably scarily out of shape on this trip, huffing and puffing  up the final hill.  After dumping our gear in the truck, we returned to the trail for a longer walk.  This time, we followed a trail through a different part of the park.  We walked maybe 2 miles, through more woods and some open field style terrain.  This included an open hill thats fun to climb; there's an unobstructed view from the top of the surrounding area.

All in all, Lake Maria is a nice place to get away from the city for a while.  They rent canoes for paddling 'round the afore-mentioned pond, as well as actual Lake Maria, though we've never actually seen the lake.  Anyway, I recommend it - the campsites are all nice; if you call far enough in advance, reservations are available.  Obviously, the most secluded sites go first, so plan ahead (yeah, like we do...).  Most of all, Enjoy!