Whitewater State Park

When I went to sleep on Saturday, the forecast for Sunday was for rain. When I awoke to an absolutely beautiful spring day, I knew I had to cease the moment. Mid March days are not supposed to be Sunny and 70 degrees.

We packed up the car and headed to Whitewater State park near Elba, Minnesota. Because Whitewater is an easy 25 minutes from Rochester, it is one of the most visited park in the State. This was my first visit to a State Park since I began writing this blog, and as such I spent a little time talking with a ranger to get some tips for visitors to the park. Thanks to Jerry Bachman for taking the time to answer some questions.

When I visit a state park, my favorite activity is hiking and this visit was no different. Whitewater state park is situated in the Mississippi River Blufflands of Southeastern Minnesota and as such had some very interesting terrain, including limestone cliffs, steep hills and ravines, springs, rivers, and some really great overlooks. As a hiker, I would describe the parks trails as being moderate in difficulty and fun. This is very rewarding hiking. On this particular visit, we hiked the Dakota, Meadow Run, and Chimney Rock Trails. Because of the heavy snow and spring melt the trails were muddy in parts, but pretty good overall.

The Dakota Trail is one of two longer rugged trails in the park that often traverse the tops of bluffs, leading to interesting terrain and great overlooks. The Coyote Point Trail is the other, I have done this trail in the past, but did not do it this time. I HIGHLY recommend both of these trails, the are a blast. If your with young children, you may want to keep close as there are some cliffs that you come across. There are also two rugged shorter trails that I like, the Chimney Rock and Inspiration Point. These lead to great overlooks and interesting rock formations. Finally there are some easy trails that involve varying lengths and little elevation change. These include the Meadow, Valley, and Trout Run Trails. I particularly like the Valley Trail as it passes through Hardwood Bottom forest. All told this is a great hiking park.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had a huge snowstorm recently. Not surprisingly the parks in the region experienced some flooding. At Whitewater some stream crossing are out and there is mud everywhere.

One activity that I am not particularly into is fishing. Maybe because I grew up on a lake, I just never developed the interest. But I would be foolish not to mention that the park offers great trout fishing on designated trout stream. While I am not too much into fishing, I may have to take it up soon as I will be visiting the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming where I here there is world class trout fishing. I mention fishing here because I like to see all people outdoors doing what they love and many people love fishing. I believe that when people use the outdoors they will protect the outdoors.

In the you can see white tailed deer, wild turkeys, a number of birds including Blue Herons, and even, thought rare, a timber rattlesnake. As a likely result of climate change some formerly migratory birds such as the Blue Heron have been spotted throughout the winter at whitewater.

We left Whitewater State Park and continued our day at the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area. This will be the subject of another entry.