VACATION - Wednesday Checking out the Sights in St. Croix Falls

Brrr the temps got down to a chilly 37 overnight, but it was almost too warm in the rig about 1 am.   I saw Steve was getting up for a bathroom visit, so I asked him to turn off the heater.  By 7 am it was very, very chilly in here, brrrrrrrrrrr   So now we turned it back on this morning and are warming up with our coffee too.   Guess next time I will leave well enough alone and just kick off the covers.

Sunshine is predicted for today, mid 70's  and we are going to pay to stay here another day on our site.  Not that there is anyone racing down here to take our site, but they did say if we want it for another night, we have to pay by 8am or someone else can pay it and we would have to move by check-out time.  With about 30 other sites in this loop, we are not too worried about it.  There is only one other camper here!

Here is our campsite, number 64:

We probably wouldn't like this campground in the middle of summer or on a holiday weekend, as the sites are close together and not a lot of trees or very little shrubbery between sites.  I noticed our empty neighbor's campfire pit would be about 10 feet from our side livingroom window, so if there was someone camping there, it would be too close for our comfort.  And on the other side, our picnic table would be too close to someones back side of their trailer if they were on the lot next to us.  But nobody around even within sight for us. That is NICE!   Mid-week in fall after school starts really makes a difference in selecting campsites now.  Just about anything goes.  LOL

After seeing the area during our tour last evening under cloudy skies, we want to check it out with bright sunshine and do some walks and see some things.  And of course, take some pictures?

Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday's supper.... while at Walmart, we happened to walk past the deli just as they were putting out their delicious rotisserie garlic chickens!  Yummmmm  for $6.99 we had a nice dinner along with our leftover potato salad.  This morning when I went in the fridge for my bottle of french vanilla creamer,  I can still smell that garlic chicken!   Today I will pick the rest off the bones and use it for some chicken salad at lunch.

It's now 8am so Steveio is taking out the dogs and I should get dressed and head up to pay for our campsite.  It's about 3 miles back to the office at the gate, so I will have to take the Tracker to buzz up there.  On the way up, we stopped at the Glacier Gift Shop and found some adorable things for the grands.  Can't say what, because their parents are reading this blog and might spoil the surprise!

We drove up to the main gate and paid for our site and then headed back into the park for some trail exploring.  Gosh... gotta be part mountain goat for these trails!   But they sure are worth it!  We wandered along and found some of the glacial formations, and then some *pot holes* that were made by eddying waters when the river was much deeper 100 years ago.  Now the river is shallower because of a big hydro dam upriver.  So now we get the benefit of seeing all those rock formations that the water made over thousands of years ago.

(I took 170 photos today, so bear with me, it was VERY hard to select only a few for this blog) 

Some areas had steps, hewn out of rocks long ago by CCC workers.

We scrambled up and down these like mountain goats! 

We took quite a few trails, loops, and outcroppings on ledges to see things.

One of the many views we saw today

As promised, it was blue skies, a few puffy white clouds, and temps in the 70's.

We decided to hike the trails ourselves along the rocky shore instead of taking the easy way on the boat!

There were many of these *potholes* along the shores, and some were 30 feet across and even deeper 

Hey.. hey.. .wait for us! 

Words can not describe the view... nor can a photo capture it! 

Sometimes ya just gotta carry the weight of the whole world in your hands....

Each outcropping on the trails brought more views like this

Doing the tourist thing.... we took a pic for two gals, and they took a pic for us!

We drove over to the Minney-soh-tah side of the park and checked out their sights too, and stopped at a yarn store in the Taylor Falls business district, but they were closed on Wednesdays.  I peeked in the window and drooled over the balls of woolen roving, ready to be spun into yarn.  I think tomorrow I will go back and splurge (a little)

Someone is finally relaxing and taking it easy...    and I don't mean the dog!

Ahhh cheeseburgers on the grill and roasted sweet corn made up our supper. A walk around the park one lap, to dump our trash, was about it for exercise after the full day we had clambering up and down rocks.  

We found someone's prescription glasses in a case on a loop in the campground, and gave them to the ranger who was just settling down to supper with the neighbors on the other site here.  Nice perks!

Ahhhhh a nice hot shower is in order for this mountain goat and a nice soft comfy bed awaits....