Monday, September 4, 2017 - Twin Cities - Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Lebanon Hills Regional Park is a Dakota County Park in Eagan and is really a gem found among the south of the river suburbs.  There are a chain of over a dozen lakes and over 19 miles of hiking and nature trails.  They also rent kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards at the Visitor Center and there are clearly marked paths to portage between the lakes.  The park is just beautiful and has so much to offer.  Plus admission is free!

When we lived in the Twin Cities, I can remember many a morning renting a canoe or kayak when they first opened and counting turtles sunning themselves on the logs.  I thought we used to see around 40 turtles on a typical summer morning.

This morning we were one of the first out and had the lakes to ourselves for the first couple of hours.  We only counted two turtles but made up for it in amazing birds.  We saw five green herons, 2 great white egrets, 1 great blue heron, a bald eagle, a cedar waxwing, a belted kingfisher, and a few others we couldn't identify.

The weather was gorgeous.  The sun was shining and the temperatures started in the mid to upper 60s and when we left the park around 12:30 p.m., it was in the low to mid 70s.

This was our steepest portage.

After a great morning we headed back to the hotel and decided to park for the rest of the day.  For lunch we walked over to Leann Chin and for supper we walked over to the Green Mill again.