Minnehaha Falls Park: July 21, 2012

In our journey to see Every Single Waterfall in Minnesota, Joe and I stopped by Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis to take a gander at the waterfall.  I grew up in Minneapolis and spent many summer afternoons playing in Minnehaha Creek, which turns into Minnehaha Falls.  It was fun to show Joe something from my childhood!

What would a blog post be without a picture of Joe Looking at a Waterfall?

The park was just crawling with people: tons of families, bikers on the Grand Rounds, people swarming around the concession stand, people lounging by the bandshell, someone playing the drums in the background.  Definitely a "city park"!

Minnehaha Park is one of the oldest and largest city parks in Minnesota.  One thing that the Founding Fathers of Minneapolis Parks and Trails did that will endear them to me forever: they decided that the lakes and creeks would be parkland, given to the people.  I have lived in places in which the lakes and creeks are surrounded by houses and gated neighborhoods: for rich people only.  In Minneapolis we have the parkways, the parks around the lakes, and no one person owns them.  Professional athletes, town politicians, high school kids, immigrant families, rich, poor, old, young - you'll see just about everybody at places like the Lake Calhoun beaches or Minnehaha Park.  It kind of brings a tear to my eye.

Anyway, we admired the waterfall from afar before we headed on down the many steps to the creek.  There are walking paths down by the creek - we didn't have any real destination in mind, we just wanted to take a little stroll.

There were nice raised walkways along the creek.

Joe brought up the idea of visiting every city/county/regional park in the 494/694 corral...once we get to all of the State Parks, of course.  I liked the idea.  It'd keep us good and busy for many, many years.  And I can think of worse ways to spend ones time than enjoying local parks and trails.

Cool thing: a swimming area built into the creek, very busy

Total miles hiked today: I am going to guess about 2.
Total miles hiked (in 2012): 85.9

Total ticks today: Joe - 0; Thunderdog - n/a; Elly - 0
Total ticks (in 2012): 47