Trail & Error: January 2013

SP Rice Lake

Lake Mills, 11/30/12, 53/105

This was the 12^th and last park I hit that day. Additionally, this one officially puts me at over half of my parks. There is a big frozen lake with thousand's of geese on it. The park had corn growing like others have in the past. Part of the park is a golf course, which if I understood correctly, you can live on.

houses

golf

ex-lake

corn

Rice Lake

launch ramp

barely visible geese

SP Pilot Knob

Forrest City, 11/30/12, 52/105

This park is forresty. The lake I found is called Dead Man's Lake, but I did not find out why. With a bit of an uphill hike you can get to an observation tower which is located at the 2^nd highest point in Iowa. It provides quite a view. There was also an amphitheater.

Dead Man's Lake

outside of tower

SP Crystal Lake

Crystal Lake, 11/30/12, 51/105

This appears to be another city park, but I'm okay with it here because there were a few interesting things. Apparently someone caught a huge catfish at some point. I wouldn't normally care, but this fish was big; the statue represents the actual size. The lake was largely frozen, but had some warm spots that were bubbling water onto the surface. As with Lost Island-Huston, Crystal Lake appears to be frozen in time except the waves did not break here.

huge catfish

geysers

frozen waves

SP Okamanpedan

Dolliver, 11/30/12, 50/105

This is a very small park. Behind the shelter is a lake which contains the Minnesota state line. If you are not willing to turn around the road that goes through the park will force you to cross the state line.