Whitewater Wildlife Management Area

Whitewater State Park is a small part of the much larger White Water Wildlife Management area. This area contains space for many different recreational opportunities. One of the popular draws of this area are the large number of trails that permit mountain biking. Many of these trails are actually unmaintained roads and as such offer a solid base for exploration.

The history of the WMA is that up to and during the depression much of this land which is extensively in the Whitewater basin was farmed in an irresponsible manner. During the depression, the struggles of farmers along with the sensitivity of this land led the DNR to buy back the property and form the WMA.

Throughout our time in the WMA we were struck by the vastness of the land and they amount of area that could be explored on trail and off. This includes a number of bluffs that I was drooling over and dreaming of climbing, however my wife was a little less enthused as many of them were many hundreds of feet in vertical gain.

Among the trails that we had recommend to us were the Minneiska Cutoff trail and another trail that took off from the Decker lot. We hiked out and back on the Minneiska Cutoff trail a distance of about 7 miles total. The entire time there we never saw another human. This despite being less than a half an hour from the 2nd largest metropolitan area in Minnesota. There are also an number of pools that provide wildlife habitat for a variety of species.

All told, if you are looking for some interesting hiking in relative seclusion, I highly recommend the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area.