Buffalo River State Park

We spent the last 2 nights camped at Buffalo River State Park. However, to be honest, we did not spend a whole lot of time in our campsite, other than sleeping, eating breakfast,

and chasing away the tame chipmunks and 13 lined ground squirrels.

Yesterday, before heading into Fargo, we walked a short nature trail that started near the campground.

There were a few wildflowers in bloom in the prairie,

and an interesting glacial erratic boulder.

Then the trail headed into some woods

bordering the Buffalo River where we saw some big bur oak trees

and a weird insect.

Today we headed back into the prairie to explore a little bit more, before we started our drive back to International Falls. We ended up hiking a fire break past a single tree,

perhaps an elm. There was lots of milkweed,

some of it in bloom.

We even saw a monarch butterfly caterpillar.

There were a few other wildflowers in bloom as well.

We made our way to a gravel road and hiked it to the park entrance sign

and then to a short trail

that led us back to where we had parked the car. Our parking spot was conveniently located near the swimming pond which we took advantage of, though the water was a bit cool.