Lake Carlos State Park

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From August 2004 through June 2008, Jeff and I challenged each other to a bocce battle in Minnesota's state parks, as a way to see them all. He kicked my butt, to put it mildly. It was great to see all the parks, but for many, our visits were brief. Lake Carlos was the third of four state parks we saw 21 May 2008 and we were there less than an hour. Jeff won 22-7, not one of my better performances. So, when planning a camping weekend with friends, we picked Lake Carlos and planned to actually see the park.

The four of us headed out after breakfast to do the Wetland Overlook and Long Prairie River Trails. The boys did reasonably well, but were slowing before we even got to the second trail. I wanted to see the dam shown on the map, so Sadie and I took off on our own. When I think dam, I think Hoover, so I was very disappointed by what was essentially a ripple in the water, probably created by nothing more than the 2 board high retaining wall in our backyard. Sadie had a drink, though, so it might have been worth it.

I rejoined the boys for the walk back to the visitor center so we could look around for the geocache. We couldn't find it where it should've been, only to find out the website is wrong. Oh, well.

In total, Sadie & I walked 4 1/2 miles today. Yeah us!

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Photos

Long Prairie River dam
Yes, this was the dam for which I walked 1.6 miles farther than my boys.