This is the third year Paul and I headed off for an early fall road trip in northern Minnesota. We always seem to need a change of scenery after the busy canning season. The first year we explored the lively city of Duluth then headed north to Grand Marais where I found all manner of craft workshops available at the Grand Marais Art Colony and the North House Folk School. It requires some planning ahead but they have a plethora of interesting options to challenge your creativity.
Last year, we traveled to the Bemidji area taking in Itasca State Park while this year we started by heading to Fargo where we visited the Plains Art Museum. There we saw several dynamite expositions; one included regional photography and another industrial oriented works made from found items/objects. There was also a large table setting display by area potters and they were promoting an upcoming artist studio tour. Finally, they have a very robust community arts education program for youth with numerous classrooms on the lower floor. We also further familiarized ourselves with the nicely gentrified downtown area where we stayed the night.
We then headed to Park Rapids where we had lunch and browsed through a nice independent bookstore full of new and gently used books, many accompanied by local reviews and recommendations. They have recently added some new sculptures to a downtown park on the lake that connects with the Heartland Trail system. Off season, Park Rapids is about the size of Milbank and it seems city leaders and/or downtown business owners have put considerable time into planning and securing and allocating resources toward creating a beautiful visitor friendly main street. Definitely worth a visit if you are in northern Minnesota.
We then traveled to Walker, a small town located on the western shore of Leech Lake, which serves as an entry point to a large seasonal lake cabin population. We were less impressed with their main street but the small town is quaint nonetheless. We then made our way to Bemidji where we, once again, enjoyed dinner at a lovely downtown Italian restaurant and made a stop at a local brewery. It was fun exposing my cousin’s college aged daughter to seven new foods that evening.
The next day we took in the Willow Wood Quilt Show & Antique/Junk Market on the property of a wool craft store on the outskirts of Bemidji. What a lovely venue for such an event but it was definitely a chick oriented scene. Poor Paul went back to the car and fetched his book so he could relax in a lounge chair while I made my way through the vendor area and enjoyed viewing the quilts hanging between trees in the woods. I then enjoyed an outdoor lunch of homemade wild rice soup, homemade bread and homemade rhubarb pie along with hot apple cider. I met and chatted with another newly retired couple who recently returned home and built their dream house on the lake in the area. Later in the day, we joined my cousin’s family at their campsite at Lake Bemidji State Park and enjoyed homemade stew with lots of home grown vegetables and settled in around the campfire to enjoy an evening of family camaraderie and toasted marshmallows. Life was good!
The next day we headed north and hiked in an area called the Lost Forty. In the late 1800’s surveyors mistakenly marked this 40 acre area of forest as a lake and, as such, it was spared logging leaving lots of old growth pine trees that are now 200-300 years old. With few people around we hiked through the silent surreal woods until we heard a large crack when a tree fell quit close to us. From there we made our way to Big Bog State Recreation Area located on the northeastern tip of Upper Red Lake. This large mostly unpopulated wetland area in northern Minnesota spans 9459 acres. The recreation area built a raised boardwalk allowing visitors to walk a mile into the bog. The lightly forested area looks like a lovely meadow you could just walk across but please, don’t try this. While walking on the boardwalk, I lightly leaned on a nearby tree while putting my foot on the surface of the bog only to sink at least a foot into the wet spongy plant material (sphagnum moss). Who knows how far down one would sink if they fully stepped into the bog?
We then made our way to Detroit Lakes where we spent the night “coming home” the next day after lunch in Battle Lake. It was a great five day hiatus and we really enjoyed further discovering all northern Minnesota has to offer. I encourage folks to venture out as there are lots of interesting places to see and new things to experience in our backyard. 2018