There are 2 parking lots for this park. It's $4/ person to park. That was $24 for our family of 6. I ASSUMED, being this is the same state park, that we would be able to go to the other lot and show them my receipt and park for free.... the guy at the first place we stopped said that is not the case. 😲 he said we'd have to pay again if we went to the other lot. How stupid! The beach is masses of sea weed, the boat launch is so stinky and is like..... rotting mud. I was looking for the tide pools to find ocean critters. The 2 beaches & parking lots do connect if you walk along the shore but it's not a swimming area as the seaweed is so thick. We had a nice hot walk around the beach, to finally arrive and find like 50 kids in the tide pools which probably scared off every creature that would have been there. 😆 live & learn. Make sure you park at the science center lot of your looking for the tide pools!
This beach was so cool when we went in the evening- the fog was rolling in which have it an eerie feeling. The teens had fun climbing the big rocks. We looked up why the "sand" is black, and it's a biproduct of the mining there. Gives it uniqueness! That's for sure! We'd all highly recommend a stop at this beach! When you follow the gps, it will take you to black beach camp, but you have to drive down further to get to black beach/ onyx beach. The signs say black beach though. We had to come here twice- on our way to Grand Portage, and on the way back from there to see if we could actually find it when we left and realized that wasn't the right place! Lol
Not quite what I envisioned. Lol I thought we'd get to see parts of the old building, see where they slept, etc but instead, there are 2 halls of articles, artifacts, etc about the home you can look at. The building is used for offices now so ..... not sure what it looks like. It was kind of hard to figure out where to go in on a sat. Lol there was no crowd to follow so... we eventually found a big map by a parking lot entrance that stood to go in the art building on the back side kind of. On weekdays you're supposed to enter on the opposite side. The bathrooms inside were super clean. My teens were "grading" the bathrooms we stopped at and this one gets a 10/10! 😆
What a cool bridge. And see the sign on there? I thought it was very cute.... a couple kids were coming through the bridge as we were walking up and they were walking their bikes through! Cool to see the quality construction of this bridge! Very well maintained too.
I wanted to just see the cabin as a quick stop and then realized it's not at the same location as the museum! To find that on Roadtrippers, look for Laura Ingalls Wilder wayside rest & cabin. We had to skip it last weekend because it was 10miles from the way we just drove in. 🤦♀️ next time. We didn't go into the museum.
Cool stop for what it was! Stretch, take a peek and on ya go! It's unfortunate that some people feel entitled and stole the donation box and items from the house so now you can only peek inside and check out the 55ton Boulder. Still worth the stop.
beautiful park! There are some areas to sit and eat, tables and benches, no food or drinks can be taken INSIDE but you can take them outside. They have a little restaurant inside. There are bathrooms also.
Great little stop to stretch and get some photos! AND there's a DQ right next door! 😛
I have never in my life waited so long for so little ice cream. Cool concept but there were 29 people waiting for their orders by the time ours were being made. TWENTY-NINE. so 29 people had come in after we did, and we waited 1.5 hours. That. Is. Crazy. We all are crazy for waiting so long. Lol The 2 workers that were there were not looking like they had a care in the world- no stress at all.... the 3rd worker showed up and she was ripping around to clean up and then was making 2 to their 1. She looked upset. Rightfully so. Hard to find good help these days. 😔 at any rate, if you go, be prepared to wait. We were there on a Sunday at 3:30. Several people canceled their orders, we had to remove everything else from our to-do list on our last day there because of waiting for ice cream. Yes, it tastes good but what ice cream doesn't?? 🍦 save your time and money and go 2 blocks down to the other ice cream shop. Unless you're going for the experience. Then hang out and read a book while you wait!
What a cute little shop! Right off the main street through town. They have handmade bath and body products, clothes, shoes, some jewelry, etc if you're in need of a gift or soap while you're staying in town!