Leah and I have talked about renting a camper cabin at one of the Minnesota State Parks for a few years now. We opt for tent camping when the weather is nicer and the days are longer but a camper cabin seemed like it would be a real treat in late fall or winter. We picked a weekend in November and I got started looking for availability.
Booking the cabin took a little bit of patience and trial and error. The camper cabins cannot be booked through the online reservation system and you have to call during normal business hours to book one. You can, however, determine the cabin availability through repetitive searching using the online reservation system. This way I was able to determine which parks had available cabins so we could select our favorite before calling. The cabins at the more popular parks (Jay Cooke, Wild River, etc.) seemed to be completely booked up. We also wanted a park that was close enough so that we could drive to it on Friday night. I found a few parks that fit our criteria and we eventually settled on Lake Carlos State Park.
On Friday night we left after work and drove to Lake Carlos State Park, located near Alexandria, MN. The drive was about 2 hours long and for part of the way we listened to Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer on audiobook. The book on tape (CD technically) was a holdover that we had started and not yet finished from our road trip to Utah in September. We stopped in Alexandria for Jimmy John’s and took the sandwiches with us to eat at the cabin.
There are four camper cabins at Lake Carlos State Park. We rented the one known as “Frog Pond”. When we arrived it was dark. We unloaded all of our stuff into the cabin and had dinner. The cabin was super cute and cozy. It had electric heating and since the space was so small the room really heated up quickly. Here’s Leah’s photo of me sitting at the table inside the cabin.
Our cabin slept five and came with mattresses—though we did pack a fitted sheet which was a good idea. We used our sleeping bags for bedding. All of the cabins at Lake Carlos State Park also had front porches that would have been nice in warmer weather. The weekend before we went camping the highs were in the 70s. When we arrived there was a thin layer of snow covering everything with highs in the 30s and lows reaching the single digits after windchill. Not ideal timing.
One of the great things about the camper cabin was that it had electricity and heat. We didn’t have to worry about sitting out in the cold by the campfire or reading by headlamp. It was definitely a more manageable way to winter glamp. Eventually we cozied up in bed and went to sleep.
The next day we woke up and made some breakfast. We had to go outside to use our stove since open flame cooking on butane stoves is highly discouraged indoors. We noticed some of our neighbors in the cabins moving about. Some were even lighting fires in the fire pits. Here’s a photo of me outside of our cabin, waiting for water to boil.
We headed out hiking for the morning. It was cold but the sun poked through the clouds and we were out of the wind enough for it to be a pleasant day. We hiked the Hiking Club Trail and only saw a few people. We had been to Lake Carlos State Park a few years ago over Memorial Day weekend so most things seemed familiar, though seasonally distinct. Here’s a photo I took of Leah as we made our way along the hike.
We also tried to do some more intentional birding while on the hike. We saw a lot of chickadees, jays, and what we think was a downy woodpecker—according to our bird guidebook—among other birds. We finished the Hiking Club loop and then hiked another small section by the entrance to the park. On our way there we stopped at the park office to buy the Hiking Club password book.
For those who don’t know, the Minnesota State Park system has a passport book where you collect stamps at each of the 75 state parks and recreation areas. We recently purchased the passport book and have been amassing stamps. On this trip we decided to add the Hiking Club password book to our state park travel documentation. There are 68 Hiking Club trails spread throughout the state park system and somewhere along each trail there is a post with a sign that contains the password. Sometimes the password has meaning to the park like a person or place. Sometimes the password has relative meaning like the name of a species of tree. And sometimes the password is seemingly meaningless and I spend the next 30 minutes complaining to Leah about why that was a terrible password and what one I would have chosen instead. I often end up complaining.
There was a little lake on the park boundary that we hiked to and I took this photo. We saw some big bird flying—maybe an eagle or hawk?
Next we headed back to our cabin to eat lunch and to warm up a little. After lunch we headed out again to do some more hiking, this time along what were mostly horse trails—though we never saw a horse. The park was beautiful and quiet. Afterwards we headed back to our cabin and had some snacks while we studied the Hiking Club password book and our bird guide.
We ordered Domino’s for dinner. I couldn’t get over how good of a deal it was to get two medium 2-topping pizzas and a salad all for $5.99 each. Domino’s, if you need an ambassador or spokesperson just let me know. I love a good deal on pizza. We drove into Alexandria to fetch the pizza and ate it back at the cabin. Eventually we curled up in our sleeping bags and fell asleep.
The next day we got up and had breakfast again. Then we loaded everything back up into the car and headed off to Glendalough State Park. But first we took a selfie in front of the cabin.
The drive to Glendalough State Park was about an hour and we got there mid-morning. We stopped at the kiosk at the park entrance to get our stamp. When Leah went to open the glove compartment to get the passport book, a bundle of foam padding and fabric fell out. It quickly became clear that a mouse had spent the night inside the glove compartment of my car, presumably taking shelter near the warmth of the recently running car engine following our return from Domino’s. Leah got out of the car and I used a latex glove and trash bag to pick up what I could find—including mouse turds.
If you’re wondering why I had a latex glove in my car—long story short, a few months ago a door-knocker for Ilhan Omar stopped by our house and asked if we wanted a COVID safety package which included masks, hand sanitizer, and latex gloves. I said yes and have sense stored that package in—you guessed it—the glove compartment of my car. A real full circle story.
We weren’t really quite sure if the mouse could still be in the car. You’d think that loading items into the car and driving for an hour would scare a mouse away, but who knows. I tried to remain optimistic that once the sun rose the mouse woke up and realized what a terrible mistake it had made and quickly left the confines of my car never to be seen again. After the traumatizing mouse nest and poop scare, we got the stamp in our passport book and drove into the park.
We parked near the swimming beach—a place where I had gone swimming (Leah didn’t join in) years ago on that same Memorial Day weekend trip that included Lake Carlos State Park. We checked the car for visible damage or chew marks since it appeared as though the mouse had built its nest out of foam and padding from somewhere in the car. We found nothing and headed out on the Hiking Club Trail.
Glendalough State Park is more prairie-like than Lake Carlos. The weather was a little colder and the wind was blowing hard. This made for a particularly cold and less fun experience. We walked past the cart-in campground where we had mistakenly attempted to make a reservation on that trip years ago. Somehow we failed to actually submit the reservation or receive a confirmation and ended up having to book a site at a nearby private RV campground last minute.
Next we walked on a trail that included a dog cemetery which was from when the state park used to be a resort. The owners buried their hunting dogs on the grounds when they passed. Then we stopped by a historic lodge on the main lake in the park to check it out. It was locked. Here’s a photo of me demonstrating how cold it was.
We hiked out on a trail through a very marshy landscape. It was a trail that we attempted to hike years ago on the previously mentioned camping trip but were turned away due to an unpleasant amount of bugs. One positive of the cold was that there were no bugs so we felt like it was the perfect time to hike the trail. It also turned out that the frozen surface allowed us to walk—carefully—on top of what would have been inches of water and mud. It seemed like the best time of year to hike this section of trail, and yet it still wasn’t that great. At least we can say that we did it.
We finished the Hiking Club loop and ended back at the car. Leah made me check the glove compartment for mice. Then we enjoyed our cold pizza leftovers while sitting in the cold car. We decided that we would hike one more trail before calling it a day. We headed out and enjoyed some more beautiful prairie views. I didn’t take many photos that day mostly due to not wanting to expose my hands to the cold air. I did, however, feel the need to take a photo of this large tree that a beaver had recently been putting a bunch of work into.
We made it back to the car, checked again for mice, and headed home. We listened to more of the audiobook but still didn’t finish it. Finally, we made it home before it got too dark. The weather wasn’t super pleasant, but we’re both pretty resilient and didn’t let that deter us from having a good time.
The camper cabins are something that we’ll definitely stay in again. They are a little bit pricier—we paid about $75 per night—but when it’s cold and dark it sure beats tent camping. We’ve also talked about trying them out in the winter at some of the parks that have groomed cross-country skiing trails or snowshoeing. So many fun winter getaway ideas for the future!
Brian's Adventures 
The password is: “bodacious”
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