Lake Bemidji State Park: Bog Walk

I've had a rough week at work. I worked 8 straight days without a break and things have been a bit stressful lately. I felt like I just needed to get out of town for a day. Noelle agreed a trip to Bemidji might do us some good. We packed up the car and hit the road headed southwest through a good portion of  Koochiching County, through a small part of Itasca County and into Beltrami County. We stopped at Lake Bemidji State Park where we ate lunch in the picnic area overlooking the lake and swimming area.

After lunch we checked out the small visitor center and then headed out to start our hike.

The hike began on an old logging road.

It was wide and smooth and easy to hike. We saw a chipmunk that showed no fear of us

and continued our hike passing several different types of wildflowers in bloom.

Soon enough we came to the start of the bog walk trail which was mostly boardwalk.

The bog walk was very impressive. There were lots of pitcher plants

and many of them had flowers.

There were other flowers in bloom

including orchids.

I thought the sundew were the most impressive of the plants we saw.

They were much smaller than I had imagined.

The trail made its way through some tamaracks

and ended at an overlook of a bog fringed lake.

We retraced our steps back to the car

and headed into Bemidji. We played at the playground near Paul Bunyan and Babe

and then walked downtown a bit, heading to the Bemidji Brewing Company.

I wasn't expecting much, but the beers were really good. I thoroughly enjoyed my Summer IPA and Noelle enjoyed her porter. After about an hour in the brewery we got dinner and then ended our day with ice cream at the really excellent ice cream parlor, Big River Scoop near Paul and Babe. On the way home, Sierra sat in the back seat and chanted "Take me to Bemidji!" I never thought I would see this day.