Hammock Hunters: Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve in Savage, MN

This lovely park is located at 15501 Murphy Lake Blvd, Savage, MN 55378. There's about 18 miles of hiking trails, as well as areas to mountain bike and bring your horse for a ride. We went today, Sunday, August 2nd, and it was beautiful. We arrived at around 4:00PM and it was pretty hot out. It got up to 88 degrees F today and for a while before we found our spot we were sweating!

It was a great workout because there are lots of hills on the trail. If you're going out for more than a few hours, make sure you bring plenty of water! Mitch and I brought 1.5L for both of us and we still had half left when we completed our hike.

After walking the trails for about 45 minutes and taking a few detours, we finally found a perfect spot for our hammocks. We've come to realize that the best spots are off the beaten path and sometimes you need to do a little active searching. But once you find that spot, all the scratches and bug bites are worth it! That reminds me, remember to always bring bug spray AND sunscreen. Even though it was hot the bugs were still kind of pesky. Sunscreen is important, too. Protect your skin! Anyway, we find the best spots are trees in groups of three, preferably a triangle shape.

Although it started out hot, it turned into an amazing evening. Our spot was shaded but the sun poked through to give us some light. It was higher up on a hill and we had a really nice breeze come through. It cooled down towards the end of our excursion and we decided to leave around 5:30PM. Overall, we had a great day and I'd highly recommend this park to anyone interested in getting outdoors, whether you're going hiking, taking your mountain bike down the trails, or just stringing up your hammock to take a nap in the woods like we did!