Camping at Dakota County’s Lake Byllesby: Cannon Falls, MN

October 7th, 2007 in Uncategorized

Three months ago we decided to go camping this fall and because of the astronomical rates that the Minnesota State Parks charge (camping fee and parking fees) I looked to find another campground that would fit our needs.

Well, after searching for awhile, I looked close to home and chose Dakota County’s Lake Byllesby campground for our weekend adventure. I have always loved Dakota County’s parks, especially Spring Lake Park Reserve out in Hastings but only Lebanon Hills and Byllesby have campgrounds.

I had been to Lake Byllesby once before back in late October 2004 and was familiar with the layout of the RV camping area but not the tent camping area. Before choosing a site from the map available on Dakota County’s website, I used Microsoft’s Live Maps to take a great look at the campground. Based on that, we chose some tent sites (118 and 119) behind the tree line but close to the lake to block what we expected would be a possible cold October wind.

We arrived on Saturday before noon and got checked-in and the campsite setup. This was the first time we used our new tent, a Eureka! Tetragon 9. We previously owned both a large Coleman tent and I owned a Eureka! Timberline 4 for just about 15 years. The Coleman’s poles broke and they no longer offered replacements for them, the Timberline’s additional seam sealant had become dry and was flaking off everywhere and based on what it smells like when you apply it, I didn’t feel like inhaling particles of it in my camping induced sleep). The Tetragon 9 was on sale at Amazon and we picked it up pretty cheap. It turns out to be an absolutely perfect sized tent for the two of us and Buddy along with our gear. The Coleman was a bit too large for us and we always had too much room and the Timberline was just too small for two adults and a dog.

I made turkey burgers for lunch and we had fruit salad and some Cub potato salad among other snack items. We spent the afternoon playing bean bags and Euchre and for dinner I made marinated chicken, squash with shallots and spicy garlic and we had fire pie pizzas with mushrooms, pepperoni, and cheese. Mmm.

The tent camping area was absolutely deserted (next weekend is their last weekend for the season) and it was awesome being alone.

Based on the weather report we thought we’d be getting rain beginning at midnight and lasting all day Sunday. By Saturday morning the report said it wouldn’t begin until 6 AM and we really were dreading packing everything up wet. This morning I woke up to sunny and clear skies which lasted until around noon. We packed almost everything into the cars and moved to a large picnic shelter and made lunch waiting for the rain to come. Chris ran out and got brats for Kim and himself and I made a leftover turkey burger for myself and a grilled pepperjack cheese and tomato sandwich for Laura. I grilled some marinated asparagus and red onions to throw on. We finished a ton more of the leftovers and finally set out to see more sunny skies.

We got home around 1:30 this afternoon and I ended up taking a nice long nap :) What a great cap to an awesome weekend. There’s really nothing better than expecting rain when camping and getting nothing but sunshine and 80+ degree weather!

I am waiting on Laura’s pics from the trip before I post my own camera pics (I didn’t charge the camera battery so I only took a few) but I do have three or four pics here (mobile) and here (camera).