I wanted to camp at Beavers Bend State Park for the festival but they were full when I checked a month or so before so we stayed the first two nights of our trip at Lake Wister State Park.
Not all of the campgrounds were open for the season so we ended up staying at the Victor Campground.
It was a beautiful campground, right on the lake but it did take a while to get back to it and the road was a bit rough.
The plus side of staying right on a lake is beautiful sunsets and sunrises, the downside is it was a bit chilly.
Our heater is not working in the rv right now so we were using a space heater.
The kids stayed toasting warm but our room was pretty chilly.
Rving in the colder weather with 5 kids is very different from the summer or warmer months.
We needed to pop up and down this dinette over and over so the kids can eat inside.
Not a big deal but that means everyone is in the camper more also.
One of the nice things about Lake Wister is how close it is to Runestone Park.
Runestone Park used to be a state park and I am sad that they did not keep it.
It has a viking runestone at the park that I went to see when I was a child and it was not common knowledge that vikings had come this far into the United States.
The path down to is it is beautiful, make sure you stop by if you are in the area.
We went ahead and did the Mountain Top Trail at the Ouachita National Forest while we were in the area as well.
My original plan was to stay at the Talimena State Park for those first two nights but I changed my mind at the last minute. 
I actually think it would have worked out better to stay there so if we make the trip again and want to break it up some, we will probably stay there.
Back at Lake Wister, we checked out the Lone Star School Site and some hiking they have.
The twins are taking gymnastics and decided these looked like balance beams.
Next we went on the Lonestar Nature Trail.
It had the most interesting fungus!
I like hiking during Golden Hour 😉
More interesting nature finds.
We ended up stumbling across this really nice paved walking path at the end of our hike.
This is a pretty small park and if you are not going to be playing on the water might not have much to keep your kids entertained but it was beautiful.
The kids stayed toasting warm but our room was pretty chilly.
Check out the video I made of our time there!
This was such a fun event!
My boys loved the blacksmith and carpenters.
The girls loved all the deer at the campground(the boys stayed with their grandparents).
This was dry camping and I have to admit the vault toilets were chilly, especially at night but it was not bad at all!
With his girls.
Nick and I have canoed out to the National Park to camp 
We borrowed Nick’s parents camper.
Amazing.
Trying to not share all the pics but it is so hard to choose!
Something magical happened while we were up there also…
We found this road on the side of the road by International Falls. 
There was a bit of a concern about being able to get out but we made it!
We stopped at the Echo Bay Trail on the way out and I took some snow pics before we headed back to his parents. 
Thanks for showing off northern Minnesota!