Lebanon Hills Regional Park & The Canoe Trip!

We LOVE being outdoors! When it's a free adventure even better. We found a gem of an area to hike, camp and now canoe called Lebanon Hills Regional Park. It is the largest park located in Dakota County, and for us, the most fun!With over 2,000 acres this place is great for swimming, picnicking, mountain biking, geocaching and of course hiking and canoeing among MANY other great activities all year round.

Now if you don't have a canoe, kayak or paddleboard, there is an equipment rental right on site at the visitor center and the rentals are a great price! We happen to have our own blow up canoe thanks to my Dad so were able to go on this beautiful excursion for FREE aside from the gas it took us to get there!

They provide this wonderful Canoe route that takes about 3 hours (so it says) to do the whole thing. We visited Schulze Lake, Portage Lake and O'Brien Lake. With a 4 year old it is quite hard to go a WHOLE day without some sort of complaining so we kept our excursion much shorter. Though it still took us 3 hours to canoe and portage to O'Brien lake and back.

While enjoying the lakes, Benjamin fished (didn't catch anything *womp womp*) after Lawrence would cast it for him (as pictured above). We have only gone fishing a few times as a family and unfortunately patience runs thin and no fish are caught. That's okay though! It is all in good fun and getting the experience for Benjamin! We also saw two REALLY big snapping turtles, though I was too slow to capture them in photo, sadly.

The MAJOR plus about a blow up canoe is that it is EXTREMELY light for portaging. Lawrence was able to carry it all on his own along with the two wooden paddles dad made us. We saw some beautiful nature along the portages and even some wild raspberries for a great snack!

                             

A downfall of blow up canoes: The wind likes to take you wherever it wants to. It was much harder paddleing AND working as a team is harder (or was for us anyways) than in a traditional canoe. But for us, it works because we live in an apartment with no real storage space we can deflate it and put it up in a closet until our next excursion!

                                

 

Memories from this will last a lifetime. I can look back and tell Benjamin, "Hey look! Remember this!? It was so much fun!" I would rather make memories than spend a lot of money on things that just get tossed in a closet. That smile is what I live for and to have this ability is beyond a blessing from God. I am so grateful to be able to do things like this with my family.

                                       

 


What do you like to do outdoors? Do you have a favorite place you like to go? Tell me about in the comments and thanks for reading!