Man, we are doing a lot of camping this year! We just got back from our 3rd trip, and we have another 3 trips planned before the kiddos go back to school in September. For our most recent trip we drove south from our home in the Twin Cities, to Whitewater State Park, which is about 20 miles or so east of Rochester, MN.
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| Getting ready to go. |
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| Somehow we fit 6 people and a dog in the Truckster, as well... |
Whitewater is in the heart of the Minnesota Driftless Region, an area that was unaffected by glaciers back in the last ice age, which occurred even before I was born, if you can believe that. It was a long time ago!
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| First look at the Middle Branch of the Whitewater River. |
The Driftless Region is filled with high quality trout streams, and Whitewater State Park is no different. The Middle Branch of the Whitewater River flows right through the park, and is joined by the North Branch and South Branch just north of the park boundary. All three are terrific fisheries, and I was lucky enough to have some time to fish while we were in the area.
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| High quality! |
Remember, this was a family trip, and not a fishing trip, so while I did fish for at least a couple of hours each day, most of the time was spent doing family things, like hiking and riding our bikes. Whitewater is a great park for both of those activities, with miles of trails leading up and over the bluffs and through pastoral meadows. Is "pastoral meadows" redundant? Who knows...
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| Stairs to who knows where... |
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| Trail |
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| Deer |
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| Trail along Trout Run Creek. |
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| Crazy new floating walking bridge over the river. |
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| The youngest, getting ready to climb up to the top of Inspiration Point. |
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| The boy, on top of Coyote Point. No coyotes were harmed in the filming of this photo. |
I almost stepped on a rather large snake, which was exciting, but probably not as exciting as if I had actually stepped on it. I had a run-in with a very loud campground neighbor at 5AM one night, which was also very exciting. Oh, and the brakes went out on our family Truckster on the way home, making the drive much more of a "white-knuckler" than I was expecting. That was too exciting!
Other than that it was your typical family camping trip in the our great state of Minnesota. If you're looking for a fun place to take the family and catch some trout, head to Whitewater State Park!
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| First fish of the trip, a newly stocked Rainbow Trout, which was fooled by one of my silver Wooly Buggers. |
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| First rod of the trip, my Unstructured Glass 8' 4wt |
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| Biggest brown of the trip, about 15" or so, if you can believe somebody like me... |
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| Second rod of the trip, my beloved Scott F754/3 |
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| A beautiful stretch of water. |
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| Third rod of the trip, my new-to-me Winston Stalker glass 7'6" 4wt. |
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| First brown on the Winston, a lovely 13 incher. |
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| Fishing in the misty fog. |
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| I had never seen a stonefly this big in Minnesota. Just for reference purposes you should know that my arms are enormously ripped! |
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| Last pic of the river before heading home. |
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