Minnesota Hiking Club #54 - Zippel Bay State Park

Minnesota Hiking Club

#54 - Zippel Bay State Park

Date Hiked: February 22nd, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Big Bog State Recreational Area, Franz Jevne State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 2.5

This will be the first of two consecutive entries where I wish I'd seen the park under better circumstances, but more importantly, better times. 

The lack of a picture for this post is not due to a time crunch... well, not the kind that Carley State Park was anyway... and it's certainly not because there wasn't any interesting scenery. I know from the pictures and this park's reputation that there is. 

No, the problem with this hike for me was that I did it in the winter, it was very far away, and I ran out of daylight. 

Having read my previous entry on Franz Jevne, you'll understand why the light elapsed before my presence though, as the time was budgeted for a half hour, not 90 minutes. Zippel Bay had the same issue, for which I learned my lesson about seasonal alerts on the websites, but I digress. Like Franz Jevne though, I wasn't leaving without my stamp and password, because this park is really far away. When you look at the map of the state parks, it's the one on the very top, and a majority of people doing this Hiking Club will be... not there. At least not most of the year, anyway. 

I know of this park's reputation because on the way up, I got pulled over in Bemidji because I didn't notice a speed limit change. I told the officer that I was heading to Zippel Bay, and he seemed rather impressed and encouraging about it. I don't know if that's why he let me off with a warning, but I'm not questioning it either. I have rarely been that lucky. 

It only takes a single click on the Google machine to know how epically gorgeous this park is. Other than my thigh-high snow diversion, the reason I got there so late is that my initial plan was to do Zippel Bay, then follow with Franz Jevne and Big Bog on the way back. But after I'd already driven for five hours and the afternoon reminded me that it gets dark by the time most people are getting off their lunch break, I thought I'd better make sure to knock these out while I could, and I did them in the reverse of intended order.

I trudged through the Zippel Bay snow and the rapidly fading twilight to get my password. The bayside trail is a short one, and I'm exceedingly grateful for that, or a motel and some further regret may have been necessary. 

I stopped for food in Baudette on the way back, where I made sure Frank Peterson wasn't getting up to any green-based shenanigans (IYKYK). Then, my badass boast for travel skills was achieved for that weekend, because I drove from Baudette back home at night without stopping a single time. Not for gas, caffeine, wandering moose, nothing. I got a new perspective on what "up north" is though, since my previous referential point (Grand Rapids) was a mere halfway indicator.