We opted to camp in Minnesota instead of Wisconsin for our last night of the trip because we have spent a lot of time in Wisconsin and not much time at all in Minnesota. Myre- Big Island is a state park in the south eastern border of Minnesota just before the Missouri Rivers edge. There is a large lake and two land islands within it. We camped in Big Island in the wooded state park campground. We rented a canoe and paddled out on Little Island. We were the only people out on the lake and enjoyed the sun, the water, the solitude and the bird watching. We saw heron, swallows, seagull, ducks and many pileated and downy woodpeckers. Additionally, since we were out in the golden hour, we saw many big fish jumping to catch their insect dinner. We assumed these were bull trout but the ranger said he thinks they were likely Bullhead. Whatever they were, they were big! We saw a few deer, including some very adorable fawns, and we think we may have seen a muskrat.

The park was quite, the woods were pretty, and we celebrated our trip with one last camp fire and a few beers. We awoke the next morning to noticing a few little dusty paw prints on our chairs and some of our dishes had been turned over from the picnic table. We must have had some racoons visitors in the night! We slept soundly, ate one last oatmeal breakfast from our Coleman camp stove and packed up to head back home to Evanston 🙂