Rice County

I didn’t walk 125 miles

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Crystal

A year ago, I was excited about the Minnesota State Parks’ 125th anniversary challenge: to walk, bike, and/or boat 125 miles. I even thought that I’d walk 125 miles and bike an additional 125 miles.

But then life got busy. So I didn’t get all the way to 125, but I did get a little more than halfway there, including visiting several new-to-me state parks and trails. Here’s what happened:

Started out strong on April 3 at Afton State Park (4.1 miles hiking). Beautiful early spring day – in the 60s. Lots of people, still some snow at next-door Afton Alps, very little green.

April 10: Nerstrand Big Woods (4.5 very wet and muddy miles hiking). This was a hike with my friend Sara, and I think it was unfortunately too early in the season to be at this park. Even one week later would have been a lot drier. We saw the waterfall, then hiked back west and did the south loop – first time for me on that path, though I’ve been to this park several times.

More photos from Nerstrand Big Woods (this includes photos from other visits)

April 17: Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail (13 miles biking). Wildflower-lined path from Morristown to Waterville and back, with the sun coming into and out of the clouds the entire time…

…with a stopover at Sakatah Lake State Park halfway through to get our state park passport stamped.

May 14: Rice Lake State Park (2.6 miles hiking). The pictures make it look sunny and pleasant, but that’s deceptive because it was quite chilly – 42 degrees.

bur oak forest:

oak savanna:

lake:

More from Rice Lake

May 29: Lake Bemidji (4.1 miles hiking along the lake, through the forest, and on the bog loop).

July 10: Biked the Douglas State Trail on the former Chicago Great Western Railway route between Pine Island and Douglas. Much of the trip was through a deciduous forest. It was a nice, sunny afternoon, which was fine in the shade, but in the countryside portion, it was pretty hot. (15 miles biking)

More from Douglas

July 24: Drove through Itasca State Park two days after a huge storm (no hiking/biking, though).

September 5: Tried to bike the Gateway State Trail but accidentally ended up on the Brown’s Creek State Trail instead. The easy part was biking downhill into Stillwater, but then we had to bike uphill all the way back – and it was really humid. We spotted Minnesota’s oldest surviving stone arch bridge along the way. (12 miles biking)

More photos from Brown’s Creek

September 11: Actually made it to the Gateway State Trail and biked east all the way to the end of the paved portion. (8 miles biking).

More photos from the Gateway

November 13: Lake Maria State Park (5 miles hiking) on a solo walk after a stressful week of national politics. Nice reminder that the world is beautiful, and spring will come again someday.

More photos from Lake Maria (this includes photos from other visits)

Even with the late push with longer bike trips in the fall, I only made it to 68.3 miles. Rockstar Sara of the Nerstrand adventure, though, completed all 125 miles, and all on foot! I’m looking forward to seeing new parks and trails in 2017, even without a mileage challenge to push me.

Christmas decoration road trips

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Crystal

I love road trips in December because of the vintage Christmas decorations in small-town Minnesota. This year I took two trips just to see the lights – the first heading west along Highway 12 to Dassel, then north to 55 back to the Twin Cities (though it was too dark for pictures for the journey back), and the second south on 35 to Owatonna, back to Faribault, and then west to Waterville and New Prague. These were my favorites from the adventures (along with a couple extra photos from shorter trips).

My new favorite scene is in Montgomery, a city that celebrates its Czech heritage. These 3-D Christmas trees are paired with a blue banner that says “Peace” and “Joy” in both English and Czech.

The town also has two other styles:

Its neighbor, Lonsdale, has many design variations on the Season’s Greetings lights.

Antique street lights share a pole with the regular city spirit banners in Delano:

Owatonna’s Central Park has trees in each corner, including a picturesque spot across from the historic National Farmers’ Bank:

Snowflakes in Northfield:

Simple wreaths in North St. Paul:

New Prague has candle wreaths like many other towns, and this jeweler added its own tree:

Grocery stores are painting their windows in New Prague…

…and Farmington:

Garland crossing the intersections in Cannon Falls:

Cannon Falls also has wreaths on its lampposts – an effect that is somewhat muppet-like when viewed up close:

Snowflakes on lampposts that look like candles in Faribault:

This was the second time I drove through Morristown and Waterville, and I have a hard time keeping their names straight. I can remember the “Morris” and “Water” but never remember which is a town and which is a ville, so I usually end up saying Morrisville and Watertown. I reached these two just as the last light was fading, and the snowflakes were blinking on in Morristown:

Shooting stars in Waterville:

Skinny wire in Medford:

A variety in Rockford, including curly trees I haven’t seen anywhere else:

Darwin had the most shapes of one style of decoration – in this case, white wire.

Waverly has two styles, the white-wire along Highway 12…

…and “tinsel” style on Main Street.

Montrose wins my Most Variety Award for 2015. Many different banners and tinsel shapes along Highway 12, snowflakes on the south side of County Road 12…

…and my second-favorite of the season, these ornate vintage street lights on the north side of County 12.

Other small-town Christmas trips

2014
2013

Categories: Dakota County, Goodhue County, Le Sueur County, Ramsey County, Rice County, Steele County, Washington County, Wright County | Leave a comment

Minnesota state parks in springtime

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Crystal

I’m always on the lookout for wildflowers, so at the first sign of spring, we headed out to four parks to see what we could find.

Wild River

I had a day off in early April and headed an hour north of the Twin Cities to Wild River State Park by myself. It was too early for wildflowers! But there were very clear views of the river and woods since none of the vegetation had grown in yet. It was a great day for a solo walk; I saw only one pair of runners during this 1.5-hour visit.

Quiet path through the woods.

Down by the St. Croix River.

Bright orange mushrooms popping out around brown leaves

These orange mushrooms (I’ve already forgotten their name) were a bright spot of color on the mostly brown ground.

Wild River Canoe Rental building, boarded up

Waiting for warmer weather (and tourists).

Wild River State Park

One hour north of St. Paul
Date visited: April 13, 2015

Sibley

Maybe it was the dreary weather the day we visited…

Lazy, hazy, crazy days of… early spring.

maybe it was the fact that we got lost more than once on the trails (which could use better signs, in my opinion)…

Which way does this path go – left, straight, or right?

maybe because it was still too early for wildflowers (not the park’s fault)…

The only green the entire trip.

but I quickly decided this wasn’t my favorite state park. Still, there were things to enjoy along the way.

First loon sighting of the season!

Many buildings built by the Veterans Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Observation tower, viewed from the ground

Lookout at the top of Mount Tom, the tallest spot in the area.

Sibley State Park

Two hours west of Minneapolis; 20 minutes north of Willmar
Date visited: April 18, 2015

Carley

Carley State Park is famous for Virginia bluebells – and in May, there are millions.

The weather was much more pleasant for this wildflower trip. Plus, we actually got to see wildflowers.

Yes, I WILL take the wildflower trail.

Bluebell-lined path.

Several false rue anemone along the river

There were at least as many of these white flowers – false rue anemone – as there were bluebells.

Non-accessible walk across the stream.

Climb the stairs.

Carley State Park

1.5 hours south of St. Paul
Date visited: May 2, 2015

Nerstrand-Big Woods

As long as we were in the area, we stopped by for a quick visit to try again to find dwarf trout lilies. And we did!

A small white flower among much larger green leaves

Dwarf trout lily is so tiny, it’s easy to miss.

Marsh marigolds on both sides of a small stream

Marsh marigolds, on the other hand, aren’t easily missed.

And, of course, Hidden Falls is a must-see attraction.

Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park

1 hour south of St. Paul
Date visited: May 2, 2015

Now, on to summer adventures!

Categories: Chisago County, Kandiyohi County, Rice County, Wabasha County | Tags: spring, state parks | Leave a comment

Hunting for the rare dwarf trout lily

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Crystal

The Minnesota dwarf trout lily is a federally endangered wildflower that grows in only three Minnesota counties (Rice, Goodhue, and Steele) and nowhere else in the world. Nerstrand Big Woods is the only state park, and perhaps the only public location, where visitors can see this rare flower.

One late Saturday afternoon in April 2012, I was traveling through the Nerstrand area and decided to try to find this special wildflower. Even though it was getting dark so the blooms were closed for the night, I was excited to find lots of white trout lilies:

…until I got home and did some more research, only to learn that the park is also home to regular white trout lilies. Since I’m familiar with yellow trout lily, which is about the same size as what I found, my heart sank to realize that I had not found the dwarf variety.

The next spring, after a visit to Faribault, my husband and I headed just 10 miles northeast to the state park. This time, I knew that the white flowers we saw were not dwarf, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying them:

Fast-forward to 2014. Surely, the third time would be the charm, right? But it was mostly cloudy with a few scattered sprinkles the one day we could head to Nerstrand Big Woods − not exactly prime trout lily weather, so none of the flowers were open. It was nearly impossible to see any buds, but we searched anyway. Finding one by identifying its leaves wasn’t an option since they are identical to the leaves of the regular trout lily, so we would need to find a bud.

We found several closed buds that could have been dwarfs. But “they” say that if you find one, you’ll know, so almost certainly this is not one:

In its closed state, with a shorter stem than ones that were definitely regulars, I’d call it a “medium trout lily.” If it were open, it would be more clear. But because we didn’t know, it probably wasn’t what we were looking for, so we kept walking. There were plenty of leaves to study:

Any other day, I would have been thrilled to see all of the other wildflowers: my personal favorite, bloodroot, plus Dutchman’s breeches, marsh marigold, wild ginger, cutleaf toothwort:

But this day, nothing but the dwarf trout lily would do. Fortunately, the sun was beginning to shine, so the flowers were starting to open. We remembered seeing a DNR camera on the boardwalk, likely pointed at one of the dwarf lilies. Sure enough, after retracing our steps to the camera, we found one. The petals weren’t fully open, but it was definite:

Cheating? Maybe. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Next year, we’ll try again.

More about wildflowers

Visited: May 9, 2014

Categories: Rice County | Tags: parks, spring, state parks | 5 Comments

Overnight in Faribault

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Crystal

We wanted to spend our anniversary at a state park, and what better place to visit in early spring than Nerstrand Big Woods, the exclusive home of the endangered dwarf trout lily? Faribault is close by, so we decided to make it an overnight trip and visit the park in the morning. I was surprised at how quickly we arrived: it’s just 35 minutes south of Lakeville. Far enough to be out of the Twin Cities, yet still reachable when beginning the journey after the workday.

Downtown Faribault: Paradise Center for the Arts and original storefronts with elaborate architecture.

After picking up some dahlia bulbs and plant markers at Farmer Seed & Nursery (the building with the giant Northern Grown Faribo Seeds sign painted on the side), we checked into our bed-and-breakfast, the Historic Hutchinson House. We stayed in Johnson’s Pride, which is just underneath the building’s iconic turret, so the room had a sitting area in an angled alcove.

The Queen Anne Victorian home, built in 1892, was converted to a bed-and-breakfast in 1987.

In the morning, we enjoyed breakfast at the kitchen table rather than the bigger dining room table, since it was a spring weekday so there was only one other room booked. Host Tami showed us around and told many stories about the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo collage of the grand staircase, antique photos on the wall, an up-close view of the organ, the fireplace

So many beautiful details inside and outside.

And she told us we couldn’t leave without stopping at Faribault Woolen Mills.

Photo collage with a view outside the Faribault Woolen Mill, two closeup images of blankets, an image of several blankets for sale, and a coffee sleeve.

The mill is located next to the Cannon River. Images at top right show what’s available in the store. Bottom right row shows the yellow blanket we bought, plus something we found just last week for a gift when traveling out-of-state: blanket remnants turned into coffee sleeves, a joint effort by two Minnesota companies, Faribault Woolen Mill and Caribou Coffee.

We spent quite a bit of time in the store and carefully considered practically every item before choosing a beautiful yellow blanket, which is handy now that we are in a Minnesota winter. I’m charmed by the company’s tagline, “Loomed in the Land of Lakes.”

We would have liked to spend more time exploring the city, including touring the mill and visiting the cheese cave and the historic downtown, but all too soon, it was time to leave.

At least two things have changed since our visit in May:

The restaurant where we ate dinner, Augusto’s, closed in July. When we were there, only one other couple was eating, so it’s not a big surprise, but it’s always sad to see a small business close.
The Hutchinson House was voted Best Hotel, Inn or B&B by Southern Minnesota Scene readers. I can’t compare it to others in this category, but the title is well-deserved from what we experienced.

As for the park: we saw lots of trout lilies but no dwarf trout lilies — but that’s a story for another day.

Historic Hutchinson House

Visited: May 7-8, 2013

Faribault Woolen Mills

Visited: May 8, 2013

Categories: Rice County | 1 Comment