Granite Falls, Minnesota Weekend

We are finding that people from Minnesota love to go camping, and finding a camping site on the weekend can be a challenge. The picture below was taken at a little county campground at our first Minnesota Lake. Every camp site was full for the weekend!

So instead of a lake site, we are in Granite Falls, Minnesota, at a first-come-first-served city campground for the weekend. Not a bad deal for a water and electric site for $12, but we really had to struggle to find things to do in this tiny town. Perhaps this is a good thing, as Denisa's injured ankle still needs icing and elevation to heal. She's still limping around with a cane, and is really getting tired of having a bum ankle!

Our site at Memorial Park is across the road from the Minnesota River, We thought about taking the kayak for a spin on the river, but the local ranger warned us against it. With all the rain, the river is swollen, with extra debris. So we just watched the water glide by without us.

We also enjoyed watching the white pelicans that bed down on the sand bars here.

These large white birds have black feathers on the under-side of their wings. Once they are air-borne, they are graceful in the air.

But we watched them come in with awkward crash landings as they settled into the big group on the sand in the evening.

Here's one coming in out of control with his landing gear lowered.

If you think we are easily entertained with pelican fly-overs, you won't be surprised with our next evening fun. We found out that there is a popcorn stand on Main Street in Granite Falls. It opens every evening of the summer from 7:00-9:30. This has been a town tradition since 1919, and several television crews and newspaper reporters have done stories on this little popcorn hut.

Denisa got the entire story from the Kiwanis Club volunteer manning the booth this evening. The club uses the money for projects for children in town. He also showed the premium popcorn and the real melted butter ("none of that cheap powder stuff!") that they use. We had to buy some popcorn to support the local fund raiser, and that real butter did make a big difference!

The Minnesota River runs parallel with Granite Fall's Main Street. The drop of the water at the falls fuels a hydro-electric plant. They also can boast a historical bridge, designed by the same guy that did the Brooklyn Bridge.

Along the riverfront are some fun mosaic murals of those funny pelicans that hang out here all summer. You might notice that Mark is getting to be in the pictures these days, because his healthy ankles allow him to bound up those steps and run across bridges. Denisa is envious!

We stopped by the Chamber Office for touring information, and made a new friend. This is Arthur Norby, a talented artist that was raised near here. Now a semi-retired artist, he showed us pictures of commissioned sculptures he has created all over the country. He knew the names and stories behind all the people he memorialized, and shared some of his best stories with us. Since we love outdoor sculpture parks, we'll be looking for his name now.

Just eight miles outside of town, we visited our first Minnesota state park. This is the Sioux Agency State Park, named for the Indian agency buildings that are still standing here. As we enter each new state, we have to learn a new state park system. Minnesota charges a fee for each car that enters any state park. Since we're planning to be in the state for around a month, we purchased the $35 annual pass so we can visit many of their lovely parks. But we probably won't be camping at many, because we would have to buy another pass for the motor home, reservations are required, and there is a sizable reservation fee. That's not a friendly system for visitors like us that like to just show up in the middle of the week to camp.

In keeping with the Sioux Agency theme, the park has two Indian tepees available for campers to rent for an overnight stay.

We normally would have planned a nice hike here at the state park. But between the warm weather and Denisa's bum ankle, we were limited to this short walk up-hill to the highest point in the park. That gave us this nice view of the flooded Minnesota River far below. Actually, Mark insisted on carrying Denisa on his back up to the view point. He had the nerve to point out that she weighed more than his backpack. Can you imagine that?

We also stopped in at the Casino, since we found a coupon for $20 in free play. We never gamble with our own money, but we enjoy trying to see how much of the casino's money we can take home. We can report that the generous free play was met with some stingy slot machines. We turned their $40 into only $17 take home. That's not much, but it is an activity than someone with a bad ankle can do. We're not very practiced at finding sedentary activities, but Granite Falls was a pretty good place to practice. We leave with the last sedentary activity of the day--watching dragonflies along the river. This bright green dragon and his see-through wings is a marvel of flight!