Memories in the Miles MN

Nerstrand Big Woods State Park (one of my favorites so far) is named because it contains some of the last remaining portions of Minnesota's Big Woods. A huge highlight of the park is its waterfall. In addition, the park contains a unique nature playground that is the perfect ending to a family hike. We stopped at Nerstrand Big Woods on the way home from our visit to Lewiston  as part of our quest to visit all of the Minnesota State Parks and complete the Hiking Club and Passport Club. This was our fourth state park in three days, and my 7-, 5-, and 3-year-old were a bit tired, but these trails were interesting enough to capture and keep their attention. The park has full bathrooms with running water, so after a bathroom break and snack, we set off on the 2.2 mile Hiking Club loop, listed on AllTrails as the Nerstrand Beaver Loop . The whole trail is wide, well-maintained, and shady. It has a few ups and downs, but they weren't very steep and it was overall easy. The falls come...

This park had me at "No mosquitos!" Whitewater State Park (Altura, MN) is known for Chimney Rock and for not having (many) mosquitos due to very little standing water. We visited this park with our 7-, 5-, and 3-year-old on our trip to Lewiston, MN . I knew these trails would be a bit of a challenge for my children, which is why I wanted to start the day at this park. Make sure you bring plenty of water and be ready to take breaks. The Visitor Center had a lot of fun activities and we spent time there both before and after our hike. My children especially enjoyed the taxidermy animals, ranger outfits, and magnetic fishing activity. The Hiking Club Trail at this park is interesting, because the booklet tells you to just hike from the Visitor Center to the end of it and then loop back on the paved road/trails. The AllTrails version of this, Coyote Point Trail to Dakota Trail , has you going out and back on the same trail. Since we wanted to see Chimney Rock anyway, we decided t...

Rice Lake State Park was our family's first stop on our quest to complete the Minnesota State Parks Hiking Club and Passport Club . It was one of the stops on our drive from Southwest Minnesota to Southeast Minnesota for a 2-night family getaway in Lewiston, MN. You can read our full trip agenda here . This small state park is on the north side of Rice Lake near Owatonna, MN. The park office wasn't open the day we were there, so we stopped to get the passport stamp outside of the office and grabbed a park map so my daughters could "navigate." When the office is open, they have birding kits, GPS units, and kids activities to check out. We did the Hiking Club Trail, which is 2.4 miles. The AllTrails map is called Rice Lake Trail and can be found here . AllTrails estimates that it takes 45 minutes, though we knew with a 7-, 5-, and 3-year-old, it would take longer. We started with a snack in the picnic shelter area near the playground to show our girls where they would ...

Over the winter, we realized we've never actually taken a trip with just our family. My husband and I have taken vacations and we've gone with my family or his family, but it's never been just us with our kids. Our children are 7, 5, and 3, and enjoy exploring and nature but need to work up stamina on hikes. One way we hoped to build up that stamina and motivation was by buying our girls the books for the Minnesota State Parks Hiking Club and Passport Club. Read this post for more about these clubs and our plan to check out all of the parks. We decided to plan our trip around some of these state parks and chose southeast Minnesota. I started by looking for Airbnb listings in the area for our timeframe, and once I found one in Lewiston , I put together an agenda using information from the Hiking Minnesota Facebook group, the Alltrails app, and the blog DayTripper . This trip actually took us from Southwest Minnesota to Southeast Minnesota and then back home to Minneapolis...