A lengthy dock takes visitors to expansive views of Rice Lake.
IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME since I’ve experienced such silence, broken only by the occasional music of songbirds, the honking of geese, the rustling of wind. Nature’s sounds. I heard, too, other sounds. Of voices, of a child crying, of steel ringing against steel to set a fence post.
Rice Lake State Park is known for its birds and waterfowl.
But mostly, between the trill of red-winged blackbirds, I heard nothing at Rice Lake State Park east of Owatonna. Randy and I arrived there around noonish last Friday with plans to hike and picnic in celebration of our 38th wedding anniversary.
I aimed my camera upward to the canopy of greening trees.
Lake and sky meet at Rice Lake State Park.
Randy reads signs about waterfowl posted by the lake.
Morning broke in sunshine, warming the air as the day advanced. Blue skies stretched wide above greening trees and over Rice Lake. At water’s edge, dried rushes and grasses showed new spring growth.
We waited for this group to clear the dock before walking onto it.
It was, in every way, the loveliest of May days. I mentally prepared myself for crowds at the park as the DNR website warned possible. But Rice Lake proved an uncrowded destination. We waited only once for several people to leave a dock before walking there to view the lake.
This sign is posted by the path to the dock.
Another social distancing reminder at the picnic shelter.
No camping is allowed yet, so sites like this one sit empty. Phased reopening of campgrounds begins June 1.
Social distancing signs reminded us of the realities of COVID-19. And empty camping sites did likewise.
Spring wildflowers abound in the park.
We followed this narrow lakeside trail, which Randy termed a “cow path.”
Another lake perspective, photographed from the dock.
But we were not there to camp, only to walk the trails, eat our picnic lunch lakeside and simply enjoy being outdoors. The bonus came in the quiet of this park, a quiet I needed. I live along a busy city street where the sound of traffic rarely stops. In the noise of today’s world—the noise of COVID news and COVID concerns and COVID always running in the mind’s background, this nature respite soothed, calmed, gave me peace.
This chipmunk paused just long enough for me to snap a photo.
Walking into the woods.
The water kept drawing me back.
I didn’t realize how much I needed this quiet until I heard it.
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