Take me back to Tamarac
Mid July in Minnesota is not exactly the ideal time to be backpacking through Tamarac National Wildlife. Deer flies, mosquitoes, humidity, and a dense forest cover made for a lot of sweat and even more bug spray. Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge is located a half hour north east of Detroit lakes and just south of the Mississippi head waters.
As stated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services site, "The landscape is characterized by rolling forested hills interspersed with shallow lakes, rivers, marshes and shrub swamps. Towering red and white pine intermingle with aspens, majestic old growth forests, jack pine barrens and tamarack-spruce bogs." (2016). Unique to Tamarac, giving it its name, is the Tamarac tree; this coniferous tree that turns a bright gold and yellow every fall before shedding its needles for the harsh Minnesota winters.
While there in mid July, the forest was bright in the color green. Upon arriving we stopped at the visitor center to get a map. While visiting Tamarac we were able to view all of the Visitor Use Area and took a scenic drive down the Blackbird Wildlife Drive. Slow and steady my Buick Rainier took to the minimum maintenance road like a champion. When we finished the drive we parked and hiked down an "Old Indian Hiking Trail" spanning roughly a 2.5 mile hike. We branched off on the North Country Hiking Trail for a while longer, exploring the area and admiring the views; we stumbled across wildflowers in full bloom.
Through the entire hike, we were plagued by what seemed to be a never ending swarm of deer flies. But we did not let that discourage us from continuing on; we came, we saw, and we captured some truly incredible sights.
Sweaty, slimy in bug spray, and verging on a heat stroke, we exited the forest with our cameras full of pictures to examine later. We hopped back in my vehicle, driving slowly, to watch the rest of Tamarac drift by as we drove. Tamarac is quiet; Tamarac is calm. The hushed silence that followed us through the forest as we hiked was enough to allow anyone the peace they needed to think and breathe. Tamarac is without a doubt, one of the gems of Minnesota; untouched, undisturbed, and truly capable of providing hikers and outdoorsmen the sense of Minnesota wilderness.
