Photography – Neaton Adventures

Best of 2022-Minnesota

December 31, 2022Posted in Adventure, hiking, Minnesota, Minnesota State Parks, Mississippi River, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, UncategorizedTagged Adventure, Best of 2022, exploring, hiking, Hiking Adventures, Minnesota, Minnesota State Parks, nature photography, Outdoors, Parks, Photography, Winter, Winter hiking3 Comments

This past year, my cousin and I hiked 36 Minnesota State Parks and 30 different Parks and Trails. Whether it was raining, snowing, or the sun was shining…we hiked. Our hiking adventures accumulated to a total of 348 miles in 2022!

Minnehaha Falls-Minneapolis

Crow-Hassan Park Reserve-Rogers

Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park-Cottage Grove

St. Croix State Park-Hinckley

Elba Fire Tower-Elba

Great River Bluffs State Park-Winona

Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park-Preston

Myre-Big Island State Park-Albert Lea

Blue Mounds State Park-Luverne

Broken Down Dam Park-Fergus Falls

Lake Shetek State Park-Currie

Upper Sioux Agency State Park-Granite Falls

Big Stone Lake State Park-Ortonville

Glacial Lakes State Park-Starbuck

Sibley State Park-New London

Flandrau State Park-New Ulm

Charles A. Lindbergh State Park-Little Falls

Crow Wing State Park-Brainerd

Quarry Park and Nature Preserve-Waite Park

Banning State Park-Sandstone

Salem Hills Park-Inver Grove Heights

Theodore Wirth Regional Park-Golden Valley

Louisville Swamp-Shakopee

Happy New Year! Cheers to more adventures in 2023!

Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park-Cottage Grove-Minnesota

May 28, 2022Posted in Adventure, hiking, Minnesota, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, UncategorizedTagged Adventure, Cottage Grove, Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park, exploring, Forest, hiking, Hiking Adventures, Minnesota, Nature, nature photography, Outdoors, Parks, Photography, Ravine Lake1 Comment

Today’s hiking adventure began at Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park. The park offers paved and unpaved trails. Our adventure began on one of the unpaved trails. The air was humid and the forest floor was damp from the rainstorm we had this morning.

Raindrops glistened on the forest vegetation.

The baby blue sky began to gently show through the clouds creating a beautiful mirror reflection on Ravine Lake.

The terrain changed on the unpaved trails frequently.

The different wild flowers and flowering trees added a lovely splash of color as we hiked.

Hiking on the paved trail offered us a variety of surprises.

We found tiny snails basking in the sun’s warmth.

And goats! The goats were working hard eating the less than desirable plants like buckhorn and garlic mustard.

The paved trail brought us to the east side of Ravine Lake. At this location, we found a new park building and a playground full of life. People were fishing from the dock and turtles were sunbathing on the rocks.

Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park is an absolutely beautiful place to hike. I highly recommend taking advantage of all the different trails.

Today’s hiking adventure was 10.2 miles.

Best of 2021-Minnesota

December 31, 2021Posted in UncategorizedTagged 2021, Adventure, exploring, hiking, Hiking Adventures, Minnesota, nature photography, Outdoors, Parks, Photography, Trails1 Comment

Minnesota is home to many beautiful parks which offer amazing trails to hike. Below are just a few of the parks we visited in 2021. Please enjoy a snapshot of some of our favorite parks.