Gull Lake Recreation Area: MnGCA Fall Event?

June 12th, 2005 in Geocaching

Kim and I headed up to East Gull Lake, MN (just outside of Brainerd, MN) to scout a possible location for the MnGCA Fall Event. I had done some preliminary searching and found that the US Army Corps of Engineers had a nice sized campground located near some hiking trails and a large lake that is about 120 miles outside of both Duluth and the Minneapolis/St. Pau metro.

Kim and I loaded up the dog, drove the 150 miles from Apple Valley and enjoyed the gorgeous weather on the shores of Gull Lake. The Gull Lake Recreation Area campground was clean, neat, and appeared to be quite acceptable for our needs. The price for the off-season is right ($11/night) and the ammenities nearby (shelter, picnic table, water access, etc) seem perfect for what we are looking for.

I found the geocache that was already in the park while Kim and Buddy enjoyed one of the two great views of the lake from the trail’s overlooks. We finished hiking the trails and got a good feel for the area. The trail section was heavily wooded and would work just fine for the event!

After the campground tour and trail walking we moved over to the picnic shelter to see how that would work. To my surprise it was a newly built structure filled with picnic tables and a huge fireplace. Due to the fact that we would probably be having this event in October it is probable that we would need to make use of the fireplace. What a great surprise addition to the ammenities available!

After the tour we picked several ticks off of each other and two off of the dog and headed home. We checked out the nearby hotel/restaurant/shopping selections which were about 7 miles from the campground. Several newly constructed hotels and restaurants should be able to support those that are not interested in staying outside :)