Bellevue State Park, Part 1

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After fifteen months of waiting and 5 1/2 hours of driving, we arrived at Bellevue State Park last night to a less than warm welcome. The tenter across from our site started swearing at us within minutes, first offended by the size of our camper, and then by the fact that we were from Minnesota. Thankfully, he stopped after I pointed out we had children with us, but it wasn't a great start. We settled in to sleep around quiet time, only to realize that the mice may have eaten much of our sound proofing, since we could hear other neighbors long into the night. But enough whining . . .

It was a bit drizzly when we got up this morning, but Dean and Emily's camper was nice and cozy, especially with fresh crepes, whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast. We hadn't actually come here for the food, though, so when the rain stopped, Emily and I took off looking for a map. We found one, and decided to head out to the Bluffs Trail for a view of the Mississippi. Despite the lack of sun, the view was quite pretty. The trail was pretty easy to follow and led us mostly through the woods, out of site of the river. We found the apparent end, which the map suggested then led to another trail with better views. It looked less well-maintained, but we went for it anyway. The deer seemed to have done most of the work on it, at least in most parts. We wandered through the woods, up and down a little bit, following their path across a stream and then lost the path. We tried a few options, neither of which went more than a bad Brett Favre pass. Heading back toward where we had been, we found a different option up. By that time, it had started raining. We tried a variety of different trails, including one that I almost crawled up because of the mud, but eventually found our way back to the top.

The rest of the day was much less eventful. We pretty much stayed inside and played with Dean and Emily's cats, played Blink and The A-maze-ing Labyrinth, and ate and knit. It didn't rain the entire evening, thankfully, because we cook outside over a fire, despite having a kitchen. It was quieter in the park, so everyone slept well.

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Photos

Not the Bluffs Trail?
The map we had with us suggested this was an actual trail, but the map at the trailhead we eventually found showed otherwise.

We are Where?
From here, when we couldn't find a continuation to our trail, I texted Jeff and said "We are here. Come get us?" He thought I was serious, but we had little idea where we were at that point.