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| It was a beautiful day to go for a walk through the green, green forest. |
Wild River State Park is, for the most part, land that was donated to the state by NSP (Northern States Power). The park is long and narrow as it hugs 18 miles of the western/southern shore of the St. Croix River. There are canoeing campsites along the river as well as horse campsites and hike-ins. The Hiking Club Trail started at the Visitor Center, and followed an old Military Road upriver. The road had been used by travelers from 1858 onwards - a road that is as old as the state of Minnesota.
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| Lots of bees, pollinating away |
We were never too far from the crowds - picnic areas, campsites, boat launches - but I enjoyed it anyway. Although there was a lot of activity, there wasn't a hectic feeling about the park. A perfect day for a casual 3.3 mile hike.
We came upon the former Nevers Dam site to find a narrowing of the river from both sides, and a few small islands. The dam was dismantled in 1955 after being decommissioned in 1954 and suffering from a flood the next year. The islands are actually manmade - they were created to help break up logjams on the river. Joe did a bit of reading and found out that the dam itself was built to help alleviate logjams as logs were floated downriver to sawmills. One logjam clogged up the river for 57 days, and the waiting sawmill actually went out of business with no logs to process.
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| Little Islands in the Big River |
All in all, a very nice park. We really enjoyed the quiet and the beautiful scenery. Like many other parks we've visited over the last few years, we thought that this one would be fun to visit in the winter as well.
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| But for now, summer. |
Total miles hiked today: 3.3
Total miles hiked in 2013: 77.6
Total Superior Hiking Trail miles hiked in 2013: 19.7
Total ticks today: 0
Total ticks in 2013: 54
Wild River is a great place to camp! It's one of Mark's favorites. He grew up canoeing there.
ReplyDeleteI really liked it. We went to Interstate the next day, and...well, I just posted a review. Two parks on the same river, not too far apart, but different as night and day. I think I'm more of a Wild River kind of girl. The Carnival that is Interstate was a bit too much for me!
DeleteWe had the same opinion of Interstate that you did. We are glad we went, but if we had a choice, we'd stick with Wild River!
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