With our rich Scandinavian heritage here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, finding trolls in Minnesota may be a little less surprising than it would be in, say, New Jersey. But that doesn't mean we don't lift an eyebrow when they start to pop up in our forests, hidden out of sight, and demanding a little effort to locate. So, when I heard about a bunch of trolls that had appeared in the woods near Detroit Lakes, MN, I took notice and decided I'd better go investigate for myself.

On a recent Saturday, I hopped in the car and traveled northwestward from my home in the Twin Cities to the charming resort community of Detroit Lakes to see out about these trolls.

As it turns out, they're are the work of Danish artist Thomas Dambo, in cooperation with Project 412 and the Detroit Lakes Tourism Bureau.

The trolls - and other things - were constructed by teams of volunteers and hidden in several spots around the region. And our job is to find them - scavenger hunt style.

Although you can start anywhere - as I discovered - the ​​Detroit Lakes Troll Hunt is designed to begin in Washington Park, where you'll meet Alexa, the Troll of Detroit Lakes. You can't miss her - she's right out in the open, and as you learn about her, you'll find a clue that you'll need to locate the other trolls in the area. Hint: This is a driving troll hunt.

Each troll has a name and story, which is revealed when you meet them.

And you can expect to hike a quarter-mile to a mile, out and back, on each troll visit.

One of the trolls is actually closer to Frazee than to DL - and since Frazee was on my way (and I'd done a little research ahead of time), I visited him first.

It may be because he was my first, or perhaps because he was the most mellow, but this fellow turned out to be my favorite troll.

The day was quite hot and humid, and after I'd visited four trolls, I made my way to the last site.

But when I saw how long the trail to the troll was, I decided I'd have to make another trip to visit him.

The ultimate prize on the troll hunt is, oddly, a visit to the Golden Bunny.

The bunny would also have to wait for my next visit. By that time, the only golden object I desired was a beer.

Even though I didn't meet the bonus bunny, I did have a couple of other fun surprises on my hunt.

I found a bonus covered bridge that I didn't previously know about. So, that was cool.

And I learned that Frazee is home to the "world's largest turkey" - seriously, who knew?!

I spent the better part of an afternoon locating the trolls that I did, and according to AllTrails Plus - which I used to track my routes - I walked over three miles. Although, I noticed the pretty intense humidity, I didn't really notice how much walking I had done, because I was so focused on the scavenger hunt, itself. I ran into a lot of families with children really enjoying themselves, so it's clearly an awesome - and relatively inexpensive - way to get to kids (and grown ups) outside and moving around while having an excellent adventure and a fun thing to do in summer in Minnesota.

Have you gone searching for the trolls in Minnesota around Detroit Lakes? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to tell us if you found them all.