Nerstrand Big Woods State Park: a Mother's Day and Birthday Trip

The boys were squirrely on Sunday. So mid-morning, my wife said "let's go to a new state park!" We've got a few state parks about an hour from home that we haven't hit yet, so we decided to check off "Nerstrand Big Woods."

In the 2 minutes of research I did before we took off, I noticed that it was the first state park that noted anything like "if you see a lot of cars in the parking lot or at the trailhead, turn around and find someplace else for outdoor recreation" on their website. We were hoping it would be quiet because it was a cool drizzly day, but the lot was nearly full when we pulled in.

The boys loved the natural obstacle course.




Walking to the waterfall.




Walking in the shallows above the waterfall!






Selfie by the waterfall!


20 seconds after this, he filled his boots with water.


We are excited to come back and wade when it's warmer!


There was a fair amount of people there, so we worked on keeping our distance.


Henry walking in front of the falls.




A birthday portrait by the mossy rocks! Happy 6th, buddy!


Henry could have stayed at the base of this waterfall all day.




A smile for Mama!


My fellas.


We love "bridges" like this.


Back up the big hill.


We took a different trail back to our car. SO many
little blooming flowers over the forest floor.


We packed fruits, cold pizza, root beer, and birthday cupcakes for a picnic lunch.


Henry finished off the bottle. I love that you can just see BEER on the label.


We were getting chilly, so we took our dessert back to the car.






And the yard just outside the state park was selling
mini donuts! So OF COURSE we stopped for a bag.

The guy selling the donuts didn't live there, but he lived nearby. He noted a sign in their yard that said you can park for $15 because the park FILLS UP EVERY DAY in the summer. So when we come back, we're coming EARLY on some random weekday this summer.

Oh, and the boys both got tummy aches on the way back home after a birthday roll a few hours earlier, a cupcake in the car, and then a bag of mini donuts. :)