Frontenac State Park
Main Mississippi lookout point
We recently purchased a pop-up camper and headed to Frontenac State Park near Red Wing, MN, which is only about 1.5 hours from our house. We were excited to camp for the first time in this pop-up but were unsure what to expect. We had a lot of questions - how long will our battery last? How will our rescue pup handle this new thing, does it leak?
We’ve tent-camped several times and have a rhythm down but introducing this new rig was different. Henri, our dog, is scared to jump into the car, let alone a camper so we weren’t sure if we were in for a challenging weekend, or would he take it in stride?
Flagstaff MAC 228D
Weather-wise it was perfect during the day with temps in the 60s and blue skies. At night, it got down do low 40s, upper 30s, but the furnace and battery hung in there. It did get chilly and for sure had we only been tent camping, we wouldn’t have gone, but with our new set-up, it was overall very pleasant. And Henri handled things like a champ, making us pleasantly surprised (and relieved).
Camping in early November is never a safe bet and we took a chance, but it paid off. It was past prime fall color season but still had enough of nature’s color palette to get some interesting photos. It was that perfect time of year when there were no bugs, the sun was warm during the day, and it wasn’t crowded. We hit the trifecta.
We will be going back to this state park. There were three things that solidified a pleasant experience, 1) The Views: Overlooking the Mississippi can be appreciated throughout several stops along the trails and when land-locked, there are beautiful bluff views as well. 2) The Trails: We hiked 10-12 miles over the weekend stay. The trails are plentiful, have ample look-out points, and vary in terrain and effort to suit your need. And 3) The Experience. Perhaps this is specific to us, but the park was clean, had potable water available, and was an easy drive from our house and so we stayed longer than we normally would at a campsite since the pup-up is easy to pop-down. We stayed past lunch on that Sunday and there were maybe two other campsites occupied. It felt like we had the place to ourselves.
I included a few additional photos that didn’t make the cut on my portfolio page. Overall, it was a fun trip as a camper, as a photographer, and as a dog lover.
