Great River Bluffs State Park

Great River Bluffs is one of my absolutely favorite parks in Minnesota. In my opinion it is vastly under rated and under visited. After college I had gone a few years with out spending much time at parks. One weekend, I just up and went to GRB, after that I was hooked, and determined that I needed to do some exploring. The picture on the Left is Queens Bluff as seen from Kings Bluff with the mighty Mississippi in the background.

One of may favorite things about GRB is that it usually is not buggy, which is ironic, because on this particular visit, it was really bad. I don't think that is common though.

If you have no been to the bluff country before, I can only say that it is breathtaking. GRB gives you a great place to see and explore the bluffs. The park map shows 10 view points, and I recommend that if you go, you take the time to see all ten. If you do so you will have hiked about 8 miles. If you just do 1 trail, do the Kings Bluff Trail. There is also a campground that is fairly private and not crowded, some cool wildflowers and migratory birds. This is a great place to see eagles.

The park offers both goat prairie and hardwood forest. The park makes for some good Timber Rattler habitat, and they are in the park. Don't worry, they are timid and will usually flee, long before you know they are there. If you are real lucky, you might see one sunning itself on a hot summer day.

On the right is another view of the Mississippi River, taken from one of the observation points. As you might expect from the bluffs and hardwoods, this is a great park for fall colors. In the winter this is also a good cross country skiing park. Given the parks proximity to Rochester, Winona, and La Crosse, I am a little surprised that the park is not more visited. But for now it is a well kept secret that you can take advantage of.

Proposed 50 Mile Whitewater Bike Loop

Here is a link to information on a proposed 50 mile bike loop connecting Rochester to some of the surrounding parks and communities. Of course, everything is dependent on funding.

Minnesota DNR

I am a fan of bike trails because they do a few things that I think are very important.

• They get people into the outdoors.
• They offer healthy recreation opportunities for all ages.
• They bring people to areas of interest.
• They offer seasonal commuting alternatives.
• They provide a significant boost to local economies.

If you want to see just how powerful the economic effect is, look no further than the communities along the Root River trail in Southeast Minnesota.

Carley State Park Revisited

As promised I returned to Carley State Park to check on wildflowers. As of Saturday, there were still many flowers yet to bloom, but the Blue Bells were out in force.

Here are some Pictures:

Leaves returning to the trees near the Whitewater River:
Blue Bells on the Forest Floor:

Large areas filled with Blue Bells:

Carley State Park

Carley State Park has been affectionately referred to as Whitewater State Park's overflow. And about 50 weeks a year I completely agree. The park is often neglected as Minnesota continues to not allow conservation funding to keep pace with inflation. I don't think I have ever seen a ranger when I have visited the park. Some of the trails are sorely in need of maintenance. Pictured on the right is the Whitewater river which passes through the park on its way to Whitewater State Park.

But for a couple of weeks every spring Carley is a superstar. Carley has some of the very best wildflower displays in the state of Minnesota. On this visit we were too early. Based on the appearance of the forest floor there will be an incredible wildflower display around the first week of May. The picture on the left is an image of one part of the forest floor. Everything you see is a growing wildflower. When they bloom it is spectacular. In particular Carley is famous for Blue Bells.

This is one park that I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I have hiked every mile of trail. Really, this park has only about 6 miles of trail and the trails are not particularly difficult. As for recommendations, I would recommend doing the hiking club trail in the spring when the wildflowers peak. Also take a little time and just relax down by the river. There is camping at this park and the campsite is usually not crowded and is quite.

I did notice that some trails are currently closed and it appears the the park boundaries have recently changed. The park was originally formed after the state received the land as a gift. On of the key reasons the land is significant is the presence of native White Pines. While White Pines are native, they are now rare in Southeastern Minnesota. The DNR recently announced long term plans to include Carley in a 50 mile bike loop.

I number of birds can also be seen at Carley. The link below will bring you to a through checklist. I don't claim to be a birder, so I'll let you look at the list and make your own judgments.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/outdoor_activities/state_parks/carley/bird_checklist.pdf

The town on Plainview is near by and is also a neat town to visit. The town is thriving due to a surge in corn prices, strong local businesses, and it's proximity to the high paying jobs of Rochester. Lodging and Food is available in Plainview or Elgin.

As was the case at Forestville and Whitewater, spring flooding did some minor damage in the park. The picture to the right shows a concrete segment that has been moved by high water.

I can't emphasis this enough. Get too Carley at the beginning of May to see the awesome display.

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.

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.