The Biggest Maple Tree in Minnesota

On the night before St Patricks Day, Meadow made a leprechaun trap. 

Maybe next year Meadow.

 

Meadow was having a rough morning and needed a hug. 

She wanted to play Zelda all day long. The rest of us wanted to go on a hike.

We spend so much time getting these kids to get outside and once they are outside they don't want to come back in.

Scott chose this weeks hike based off his current love of old growth forests.

Wolsfeld Woods SNA just west of the cities in Medina. It's home to the tallest sugar maple in the state.

I bet this place is beautiful in the fall.

Theo once again was a great hiking mate.

Besides the one map near the entrance you were basically left to go wherever you wanted. 

We followed the trails, but the understory is wide open and you could just walk anywhere.

I think we need to come back here in the summer to let the kids play in the creek.

Suddenly hiking was fun.

I love hiking with my favorite goofs.

Here was the homestead the park is named after. I tried to find evidence of where the home was.

 

Just an old light post?

And an old tractor.
 

Meadow wanted to see the manmade eagles nest in the distance.

This park also has ski trails and judging by how unknown and not busy the park was we'll also have to come back in winter too.

I love some good moss and I guess Meadow does too.

Some of the unmarked trails would lead us to someone's house. 

The lakes around the metro are still somewhat frozen, but I wouldn't go out on them.

Scott was not thrilled about having to cross the natural bridge.

I made Brooke carry my camera and lenses over the bridge. It wasn't bad once I got halfway across.

I love big old-growth trees anytime of the year.

Theo wanted to show me how he could climb over this downed tree.

After reading Our Living Ancestors, I'm really into all the signs of a healthy old growth forests. Tip-ups are a must as well as debris and duff (decaying leaves).

These guys love to play on the downed trees.

We ended up spending 2 hours here and didn't even touch one side of the park.

See you again Wolsfeld Woods.

Teaching them young.

 

Our car was in desperate need for a bath. We still had mud on our tire from when Scott drove in a ditch back in November.

Since we were in the area we stopped at Minnetonka Drive In for lunch.

I went here years ago with my dad. I didn't remember it being great, but I guess it's gotten better or my memory didn't serve me right.

We were going to stop at the neighboring Back Channel Brewing but it was packed. We also tried Steel Toe Brewing and they were also packed. Instead we went home and played video games while I worked on more photo books.