Bemidji: Royal Oaks RV Park

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4th of July camping trip to Bemidji

Thurs. June 29, 2017: Our first trip to Bemidji. Since the 4th of July was on a Tuesday, we decided to make it a longer camping trip and go some place farther. We found an opening at Royal Oaks RV Park. The lady was very friendly and accommodating over the phone in getting us in. It was a 4 hour drive up. A longer drive than what we are used to. Arriving at the campground we noticed several others already here and also other motorhomes. We were greeted by the same friendly lady from on the phone. It's not a very large campground. Just off the main highways of 2 and 71. Our site was on 28 which was just a few sites away from the main entrance and behind the main office. Not quite what we expected but it is still ok. Sites are pretty tight. Not much room between sites so our fire and table are behind our motorhome. Campground is still secluded by trees. Set up went pretty quick this time. After setting up, we headed to the nearest grocery store (Lueken's Village Foods). Normally we buy our groceries at home and pack them but we decided since this was a longer stay that we would get them when we arrived. We usually always end up with too much food. We had dinner after groceries. Turkey commercials, quick and easy. Then we took a walk around the campground. Not much to see or do in this campground. No trails, pool, playground or activities. Mostly just a base camp to stay while exploring all the things in the Bemidji area. As we walked the campground, Jeff spotted his Allegro bus that he's been wanting ever since we started looking at motorhomes. He had to stop and talk to them about it and of course they gave us a tour. They just became full-timers and sold their house a month or two ago and have been staying at Royal Oaks since May and play to do an RV tour in September. It was a nice coach! They were staying with their 3 dogs and a grandson who was maybe 10-11 years old. We chilled in the motorhome for awhile before ending our evening with a campfire. The evening temperature was a comfortable 67-69.
Update: Well so much for that fire. As soon as we went to start one it started raining ☹️

Day 2 Friday, June 30th: We woke to a beautiful sunny morning. After our eggs and toast breakfast, we headed off for a hike at Lake Bemidji State Park. We took the Hiking Club trail which also happened to be on the Bog Walk. The Bog Walk was part gravel, part boardwalk. It was an interpretive trail with lots of signs indicating the different flowers and plants. We saw several different types of flowers/plants and also the popular pretty pink and white Lady Slipper: Minnesota's state flower. Of course I stopped to take lots of pics along the way and we tried out my new mini-tripod for my camera for pics of us together. The Bog Walk ended with a nice scenic overlook of the lake (see pics). We also hiked the Rocky Point trail which went along the lake and also more of a wooded dirt trail. We took an off trail that lead us to some rocks on the shoreline where we took a few more pics. After our hike we headed back to camp for showers and lunch. A few forgotten items from home lead us to head to Wal-mart and to Menards for more citronella candles. Jeff made the homemade pizza while I did my blog and Facebook posts. That evening the campground was hosting karaoke so we thought we'd check it out. It was a small group of people there. Just the campground owners, their 2 boys and a few other seasonal campers plus the karaoke gal. We visited with the owners and others there. I have to say the karaoke was a little brutal to listen to. I think they butchered most of my favorite songs. But I have to give them all credit for trying as I would never attempt it myself. After listening to a few agonizing songs, another gentleman showed up with his wife/GF ? who was in a local band in the area. Thankfully he could sing! He sounded really good and could sing just about everything...well except Cyndi Laupers/Girls Just Want to Have Fun. That was a bit painful to listen to but gave us a few laughs. Karaoke ended pretty early around 10:00 due to noise restrictions in the campground. So we headed back to our site for a campfire. More and more campers were rolling in throughout the night and the place filled up and we had new neighbors. A group of 3 families that were camping together. They had a fire a few campsites down. I think we called it a night around 11:00.

Day 3 Saturday, July 1st: Not such a nice day to wake up to. It was cloudy and cooler with a few sprinkles. Looking at the rain in the forecast we decided to call up Donna Jean (Jeff's Aunt) who had a cabin nearby in Hackensack. We drove to her place which was just under an hour and visited with her and her son-in-law Bruce. They grilled brats for lunch. Donna Jean had a nice secluded place on Pleasant Lake with a nice big picture window to look out at her long yard that lead to the lake. After visiting and checking out her place, she took us to Walker to see the Chase hotel and the Walker city dock. We enjoyed the scenery of the lake while taking some pics on the dock. We were so thankful we took the opportunity to visit with her and she said she really enjoyed it too. Donna Jean is in her mid 80's but still in pretty good health. It was so good to see her. For dinner we decided to spoil ourselves and go to a nice restaurant. We found the perfect place called Sparkling Waters. Not too far from camp and it had a view of the lake from the upstairs and patio. Food was great, service was also good. While waiting for our dinner we went outside to the patio to view the lake. A nice lady who was originally from Bemidji who had recently moved back; her name was Jules or Jewels?; gave us some good advice on which bars to hit for some live music. After stuffing our faces with a full meal and feeling full, we opted to just head back to camp for a fire.

Day 3 Sunday, July 2nd: Sunday Funday as they say. I guess you could say it was fun. We jumped on the Paul Bunyan bike trail and did the 18 mile route around the lake and through the state park. The best views were by the lake and in the state park. Part of the route was "share the road" with the traffic. We stopped several times along the way for pics or to view the map. Finally we found a place to stop for some bloody mary's and some burgers. The Bunkhouse was just a few miles from where our car was parked. We sat outside and watched the parade from a distance that was going on for the Water Carnival. After getting back on our bikes, we started to both really feel our knees hurting. Up until then it wasn't too bad except for some hills. By the time we got back to camp we were pooped and feeling some body aches, but also feeling accomplished. We took some Advils and showers and then a short nap until the neighbors dog woke us from barking. Our Sunday evening consisted of grillin' and chillin'. The campground was hosting another karaoke night so we went to check it out and met a few of the campers and a few we had met from the other night of karaoke. The campground owners also put on a really good display of fireworks that evening. We sat and chatted with the couple that we met earlier that had the Allegro Bus until close to midnight and then called it a night.

Day 4 Monday, July 3rd: To Itasca State Park we go! We packed a lunch and some extra clothes. It was about 30 min. from the campground. This is a very large park (32,500 acres) and the oldest state park in MN. It took a long time just to drive around to get to points of interest and the headwaters. We visited the Mississippi Headwaters first. It was very crowded being a holiday week. We didn't wade in the water as everyone else was doing since we had hiking shoes on. Next we hit the Hiking club trail. The trail was heavily wooded and not too much to really see. A few spots to view the water but mostly just trees. It was also very buggy. The flies were terrible and we forgot our bug spray in another bag. It was a 4 mile hike around the loop but we toughed it out so we could get the password. By this time we were starving and wanted to find a place to have our lunch. The bugs were bad everywhere so we finally just ate in a parking area while visiting one of the points of interest stops. Some of the POI's were...largest white pine tree, Wegman cabin, Alton Heights Fire Tower and the headwaters. By the time we were done exploring by foot we were too tired to kayak so we saved it for the next day. We had worked up a good appetite so we grabbed burgers at Hot Toddy's which a local gal recommended to us. Played some pool, listened to some of the Mad Dog Morgan band while also listening to an 80 yr old man talk our ears off about the stories of his life. We later headed back to camp for a campfire and some s'mores!

Day 5 Tuesday, July 4th: Happy Birthday America!! It was a gorgeous 4th of July day. Sunny and hot, in the mid 80's. We picked the perfect day to be on the water. Lake Itasca is were we put in. It's inside the Itasca State Park. It's where the boat cruise takes off from. There were a few other pontoons on the lake and another fishing boat. Very quiet and peaceful. With the wind blowing there was some waves but not too bad. We found a calmer area to have our lunch on the kayaks. We took several pics and then headed back to shore. We can now check Lake Itasca off our bodies of water bucket list. We decided to head back to the headwaters as Jeff was feeling like he had to step foot into the waters just to say we did. It was not as busy as the previous day and the water was nice and cool and felt good. We followed the narrow stream down to the bridge. Picked up our magnet souvenir at the gift shop, then stopped at the "formerly" largest white pine that unfortunately the wind had taken the top off in 2007 so it was no longer the largest. We got back to camp around supper time so we grilled some burgers and rested for a bit.

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