Our first hike at George H. Crosby-Manitou State Park was on June 23rd, 2023.

It had been raining on and off all afternoon. Dampness had set in on the land around us and the air was humid. We began our hike on the Middle Trail.

Large rocks and tree roots were exposed on the trail.

We made our way to the stunning falls. A bit of fog lingered in the air.

We thought the trail continued past the falls, however, we could not locate it. If you have followed this blog for a while, you may notice that at times we are a bit directionally challenged. Especially, when we are near water. I find hiking along the water so peaceful which can make all my common sense be tossed to the wind. So…since we didn’t locate the trail, we thought we made an error when reading the map. We backtracked a bit and began hiking along the Manitou River.

The Manitou River

The terrain at George was not necessarily easy. We climbed up and down lots of large rocks on the trail.

We crossed over the river. Now, in the back of our minds we knew we weren’t supposed to cross the river, but we continued moving forward despite this thought.

The trail became very steep and we had to navigate through large rocks on the trail. Again, thinking we were on the correct trail and we knew it was a loop, we persevered. I mean, we only had to climb these giant rocks once, right? Once we made it to the top of what felt like a mountain, a gorgeous view appeared. Totally worth the climb!

All of a sudden our phones had service. We pulled up a map of our current location and we were nowhere near where we were supposed to be. We had been hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail. For a moment, we contemplated continuing along the trail until we reached civilization and hoping someone would give us a ride back to our car. We thought long and hard about what our next move was going to be. The trail was so hard and steep we really were not looking forward to hiking it again. To give an idea of how hard the trail was, it was taking us 45 minutes to hike a single mile. Normally we hike a mile in 14-17 minutes. After a few moments of rest, we admitted defeat and began our hike back to our car. George kicked our butts!

Our hiking adventure was 5.9 miles.

On August 18th, 2023 we made our way back to George. We decided to hike the trail loop in the opposite direction from our last visit. We began on the Hump Back Trail.

We noticed these cool blue berries growing on the side of the trail. I’m still not sure what they are. The blue was stunning though.

The trail continued up and down the rocky landscape.

The higher elevation views were impressive.

At times, the trail was hard to see due to all the overgrowth of the plants.

The trail led us near a small pond. Across from the pond was an old dried up fallen tree. The roots were sticking upright. It looked like a sculpture or a creature from fairy tales.

The trail became all rocks. At times, we didn’t know which way to go.

Once again, the views from the higher elevation were worth the climb.

We reached the Manitou River Trail. Excitement rushed through us as we knew the falls were not far ahead. We were eager to see the trail we missed on our last visit to George.

We approached the falls from the top and made our way alongside the rocks for a frontal view. Another sensational view!

The next two photos are of the trail we didn’t see the first time at George. With the trail being wet on our last trip, I can understand why we missed it.

We hiked the Middle Trail back to our starting point.

We conquered George! Our hiking adventure was 3 miles.