Sand Dunes State Forest

Out of the blue we decided we needed to go camping. Being only a few days after the fourth we decided to head to a state forest. Most state parks are booked this time of year, so the forests are good alternative.

On the way I got really hungry. We found a Culver's and ordered a small feast. Of course I got a blueberry malt and a bacon butterburger. The best of all malt flavors. Brooke and I shared cheese curds since she already ate leftovers.

 Scott braved the swarm of bugs to read what the sign said.

We thought about dispersed camping. This basically means you camp wherever you'd like, but leave no trace. This is only allowed in state and national forests. The bugs were ferocious, so we rethought this plan.

And we needed to be near a bathroom. 

Sand Dunes State Forest (as well as many other SFs) also has designated camping. We found a spot we liked and walked in to our site.

 While unpacking our gear we found candy. Scott was pretty excited. We couldn't figure out why it was in there. It was later when we got home that we remembered it came from the pinata at our wedding. We must have taken some with us on our mini-moon.

I thought I'd do some reading in the tent.

 Scott was bored while I was reading so we played kings corner.


We started our fire a bit early so we could roast some marshmallows. We both had a stomach flu that was unpleasant to say the least.

Brooke perused Instagram. What a nerd.

 Then bigfoot came over.

I'll have to agree that my feet look weird.

Before going to bed I played with light and attempted photograph the stars. The star pics weren't so hot.

 I woke up bright and early and had to go to the bathroom. Even though it was a walk-in site we were still close enough to run to the outhouse.


She woke me up and then fell right back asleep.


For the first time ever Scott woke up before me. I started gathering things inside when I noticed bees hanging around the tent. After awhile more and more kept coming. I don't know what they were doing, but a few of them were staying low to ground and some were even digging in the sand. I've never been stung by a bee so I didn't want to come out.

She's really afraid of them buggers.

Brooke quickly started packing up.

We didn't stay to have breakfast, we headed out as soon as possible to get away from the bees.


After driving around a bit trying to find sand dunes, we found some hiking trails in the Sand Dunes SNF or something that means scienific

 
I decided to test out my neutral density filter I bought a while ago. It allows me to put the background more out of focus in bright situations. See how Brooke is crisp and the background fuzzed out. Cool, hey?

As we went hiking we didn't find any dunes, but the entire forest was planted on top of sand.


Some jerk bugs bothered us the entire walk even though we put on bug spray.

We ate wild raspberries along the trail.


The bugs were really getting out of control and annoying us so we decided to head back. Kind of stinks that the bugs almost ruined our camping fun. 

On the way back we used our footprints in the sand to guide us.


We took a wrong turn. I thought it was the right trail, but we ended up on a snowmobile trail. It got less buggy so I figured we should just stay on it even if it was a longer hike.


 

Eventually we meandered back to the road and on to lunch.


 We drove down to Big Lake as the town the State Forest was in had only one option.

I ate a cheeseburger stuffed with cheese and bacon bits.


I had a few handfuls of granola in the car. When I saw that the cafe served breakfast all day I couldn't pass it up.


 After brunch we headed straight home.

Lemon-lime sorbet was perfect at this point after a very warm day.

With lots of guests coming in the next month we did some very necessary cleaning.

I also replaced some light bulbs I'd been meaning to change and dusted.

With little rain the past few weeks I had to water the garden.

While I was prepping a farro and cucumber salad Brooke disappeared. Eventually she came back with her bike that she had left at work the night before. 

The end.