Staying in the NEW Cabins at Lake Vermilion State Park (and an Encounter with a Bear and some Wolves)

Last month, we headed north to Lake Vermilion for 2 nights. We wanted to check out the new and modern camper cabins they had just opened this past winter. All of the other camper cabins we've stayed in have the same "double bunk bed and a table" layout, but these were going to be WILDLY different.

Quiet for part of the 3.5 hour drive.


Contactless check-in inside the new shower/bathroom building next to the cabins.


The new, modern cabins! BEAUTIFUL! That's a private balcony on the far side.


Looking back in the other direction. Three double beds.


Looking down from the loft.

We went with my sister-in-law's family, and they pulled their kids out of school mid-day so they got up there a few hours before we did. Once we got unpacked, they wanted to show us a quick nearby hike that they liked:

At a bay of Lake Vermilion.


Looking out over a few island as the sun sets to the right.


Wide shot.


Henry was looking for any signs of iron-rich rocks.


Back at the cabins. There are 8 with 2 different floorplans.
Ours were 1 style and were up ahead to the left. These 2 are the other style.


A fire at Steph and Jon's cabin.

I like the idea of the cabins we stayed in. Ours were closer to the bathoom and shower building (that's open year-round and is just for the 8 cabins) and have the lofted beds like you saw above. The other 4 a bit farther away have all the beds bunked on 1 wall with then a big wall of windows on the other side. There's more chance for privacy (from your kids) in the style we were in. But both have their merits. (The ONLY thing I miss about the older style cabin is that those had screened-in porches. That's the place to store camp chairs and things like that, whereas these cabins aren't as conducive to things like that.)

And the other unique thing about Lake Vermilion is that it's the first park we've stayed in where you purchase a "fire wood permit" for the day and then use all you need. We like cooking over the campfire, so that makes things easier because you're not trying to ration the wood to see if you can get away with 1 less bundle.

Getting cozy in his loft.


Wide shot of both boys in their beds. Henry liked having the little window over his bed.


Up making bacon early the next morning! (That's the shower building behind them.)




Jon came over for a bit.


Bacon and eggs!...


... and then fire-toasted English muffins for breakfast sandwiches!


A bit messier after a night of being lived in.

We loaded up and made the short drive to the Sudan Mine. In non-COVID times, it's open for tours where you can go 1,000+ feet down into the mine. But now it's just open to look around on the surface. Lots of history to take in if you're interested in that!

Charlie and Wes (bottom of pic) running to check out the old mine equipment.


Charlie's face when he realized how high he was!


(Charlie was out on the cantilever in the last photo.)


The 3 ladies up high.




"Crusher."




Seeing our first 2 (of FIVE that day) garter snakes.


On a hike around Sudan Mine.




Kids on a rock.


Back at our cabin, my wife headed out for a run while I worked on lunch.


These cabins also had a SWEET "outdoor kitchen" area. SO NICE.


Only the snow shovel on the far right is provided. The rest is our stuff. There's an outlet right there too.


Ending lunch with birthday cake for a soon-to-be 7 year old Charlie!


Living his best life.

After lunch, we headed to Bear Head Lake State Park. It's not far from Lake Vermilion (like less than 30 minutes), and we'd PLANNED on seeing it last summer, but our stay was canceled because of COVID. It was a beatiful park:

Bear Head Lake.






Sarah and Jon had the beach to themselves.


The kids partying nearby.


Starting our longest hike of the trip: about 3-3.5 miles.


We had to watch our step in order to save our ankles.


Heading down to a little hidden trout pond.


Selfie with Steph and Sarah.


Snack time at the beutiful trout pond!


Getting back on the trail after a quick rest.




Someone needed a few short piggy-back rides.


Back at Bear Head Lake, nearing the end of our hike.






Munching on Ring Pops for energy for the final half mile.




Cousins.




This is right before all 4 kids started to chase me.


Parked back at our cabin after the short (tired) drive back.


Starting green beans and paninis over the fire.


I cranked out 4 beautiful paninis!




A plate of garlic and lemon pepper green beans to share.


Cards.


Back at the overlook from the night before.


Selfie with my cutie


Jumbo marshmallow s'mores. (If you get your marshmallows darker than this, you're wrong.)








These 2 are going to be troublesome cousins someday.

I woke up early the next morning to take some photos. I headed out just after 3 a.m. when it was pitch black. As I was perched out on that same look-out from a few photos above (standing around where I was with my wife in that selfie above), I started hearing something just across the bay from me. I was pretty sure it was a baby bear, but it was in the distance, and it was moving farther away.

After 30 minutes, it was back, and it was off in the bay to the right of me, which is the way I have to head at first to leave this vantage point. And then it came just below me maybe 30 feet down the rocky hill that I was on! Here's a photo I showed above, and the BLUE arrows are where it headed shortly after I got there, and it was back just off the left of the image, and it came across in front of me where the RED arrows are:

That's when I got the hell out of there! Here's a video that I took with my cell phone (3 short clips) where you can hear the bear in the distance. The first 20 seconds or so is when it was across the bay, the middle 10 seconds is where it was in the bay to my right, and the last 20 seconds is when you can hear it "chuffing" just below me. You need to be somewhere quiet and turn it up as it's just from a cell phone:

Direct link: youtu.be/XFXX0FXzHrM

I found this following video to confirm that what I was hearing was a bear. At the 30 second mark, this baby bear is making the exact same noises that you heard in my video above:

Direct link: youtu.be/CLlTYpW-pzg

The scary thing I realized when I found that video above is that it's a baby that's calling out for more attention WITH IT'S MOM RIGHT THERE. I had just assumed I was hearing a lost baby bear when I was out there, but it was probably following it's mom the whole time! Yikes! Glad I didn't have any issues out there.

Here were the 2 photos I made out there: my first 2 attempts at "star trail photography:"

30 exposures of 30+ secs each starting at 3:47 a.m.


20 exposures after the first image as the sky STARTED to get brighter
(before I took off because the bear[s] was too close).

Then, since it was around 5 a.m. and everyone was still sleeping, I put on my running gear that I had set aside and took off for my weekly long run:

Curving roads heading out the the park.


Paved trails.


A stand-off WITH A WOLF!! More details on that in this post.


You can tell he's losing a little interest in me already.


Wolf tracks (with one of the wolves still visible on the gravel shoulder up ahead).


Big ole foot prints!!

As I mentioned in this post a few weeks ago, I ran back through that area FAST as I couldn't see the wolves any more and didn't want to be ambushed. After getting through that area, I found some fresh wolf poo:

And then some fresh bear poo!


The sun coming up around 6 a.m. as I finished my run.


Oatmeal for breakfast.


Looking under a big root ball on one final hike.






Brand new boardwalks were just installed.


On a high overlook on some huge boulders!




More piggy-back rides near the end.


Steph and Jon had to take off earlier, but we stuck around for one final campfire lunch.


Updated MN State Park Map: the 2 blue ones were our recent trip, 4 to hit just SW
of here, and then the north shore (even though the boys and I technically hiked
in 2 of those during our north shore trip, but didn't stop for official stamps).

I'm talking about "stamps" in our MN State Parks Passport. And the "Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle" park up north that we haven't hit is an "optional" park, so it's not one we have to officially stop at (and we probably won't because it's basically off-road trails for dirt bikes and 4-wheelers, so we'd have nothing to do).

These 2 parks were great and we WILL be back!