Jay Cooke State Park - Overview (1 of 4)

Jay Cooke is hands down one of the finest state parks in Minnesota. In this, the first of 4 parts commenting on my spring visit to the park, I will provide an overview of the park. One of the park's facilities is shown to the left.

Jay Cooke is located near Duluth Minnesota and as such is a heavily visited park. But as is the often the case, the park is large and can absorb many people. There are some easily accessible areas that may tend to get crowded in the summers, but there are plenty of trails to find some peace and quiet on.

Jay Cooke offers just about every activity that you could ever wand to do in a park including, hiking, fishing, camping, wildlife viewing, wildflowers, diverse forests, rock climbing, and even kayaking. When I visited the park on of the rangers, Andy Angell, was kind enough to pass along some tips on things to see and places to go. I will pass some of these tips along.

Jay Cooke park is a collections of lands that have been donated to the state over time. The initial donation was from the St. Louis River Power Company in 1915. Subsequent donations have made the park it's current size. We should all greatly appreciate the foresight of previous generations of conservationists who have preserved this treasure for us. It is my hope that we would someday resume these selfless acts.

If all of Jay Cooke's diverse offerings and spectacular landscapes aren't enough for you it is also interesting to know that it is the current southern terminus for the Superior Hiking Trail. Here the trail begins it's nearly 300 mile trek Northward. I have never been to Jay Cooke for Fall Colors, but I suspect that it would be amazing given it's variety of forests. There is so much to discuss about Jay Cooke that I will leave more to three subsequent posts.