This post represents another installment in the series detailing the first of our three cross country National Parks camping trips.
After our delightful stop at Clear Lake State Park in Iowa that
included a refreshing dip in the lake, we continued north into Minnesota. Our destination was the Flying Goose
Campground in Fairmont, Minnesota - a quiet little RV park right on Lake Imogene (link HERE). In case you haven’t already
figured it out, you should know that our family loves the water – whether it’s in
the form of an ocean, lake, river, stream or waterfall – as much as we love the
mountains. (We like mountains of all shapes and sizes, too!) When we’re on an extended road trip, we try
to build what we call “R&R days” into our schedule. Since we’re often rolling along for anywhere
between 9 and 12 hours a day, having a day set aside for “rest and relaxation”
breaks up the driving for Alan and the riding for the rest of us. (Yup, I know that kind of traveling is not
for everyone, but the system of long days coupled with days of R&R works
well for our family.) I had booked two
nights at the Flying Goose because I knew that Lake Imogene would provide some
much appreciated water fun on our day of R&R. (It did.
We had the lake to ourselves and the kids had a wonderful time!)
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| A peaceful afternoon on Lake Imogene |
Upon leaving Minnesota, we headed west into
South Dakota where we would visit the Badlands (link HERE), the first of the
National Parks on our list, as well as the Mount Rushmore National Memorial,
the Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park.
Alan and I had made this trip once already – on our honeymoon many, many
years ago. We would now be entering
territory we had already traveled and we were both looking forward to sharing
this journey with the kids. What would
they like? What would they not? Would they find themselves under the spell of
our National Parks just like two young honeymooners did so long ago? We were about to find out.
