Today’s hiking adventure was at Fort Snelling State Park.
We hiked at one of my favorite places, Pike Island. The island is surrounded by the Minnesota River and Mississippi River.
As we made our way to Pike Island, we spotted several deer having their morning breakfast.
To access Pike Island, one has to cross a small bridge with the Minnesota River flowing below.
The trails are nice and wide around the island.
The Minnesota River
We made our way to the sandy shores of the island where the Mississippi River and Minnesota River meet. Lots of people were fishing out on their boats enjoying the beautiful morning.
The Mississippi River was to our left and the Minnesota River was to our right.
We continued along the trail following alongside the Mighty Mississippi River.
We hiked Fort Snelling State Park December 23rd, 2023.
Our hiking adventure began at Picnic Island.
We saw numerous deer having their morning breakfast as we made our way along the trail.
We got an up-close view of the Mendota Bridge.
The busy beavers are at it again. Boy, they do not like flowing rivers, do they?
The air was foggy and thick. The Mendota Bridge cast a surreal reflection on the calm Minnesota River.
Two eagles were perched atop the tree across the river.
We continued along the trail around Picnic Island.
We found an eagle’s nest. They aren’t hard to miss now that the trees are bare.
A hornet’s hive fell from the tree above. Pretty cool to see how detailed their hives are.
The fog laid heavily like a blanket across Snelling Lake.
I have hiked all over Fort Snelling State Park over the years, yet this was the first time I hiked around Snelling Lake. The squirrels made lots of noise on this side of the lake. They were digging through all the leaves looking for snacks and chasing each other around.
As we made our way back to our starting point, I noticed a pink flamingo just off the shoreline of the Minnesota River. My cousin looked at me like I was crazy and said “A what…? Where?” Ha! I never said it was real.
Today’s hiking adventure began at Fort Snelling State Park.
We parked by the Thomas C. Savage Visitor Center and began our hike towards Pike Island. Let me backup a bit, this past winter Minnesota experienced its 3rd snowiest winter. This past week, the weather was in the high 80’s which meant the snow melted fast! As we neared the bridge to cross over to Pike Island we noticed…well…as you will see in the picture below, the bridge was surrounded by water. Since we didn’t have a canoe, we needed to change our hiking plans.
We decided to hike the paved trail towards Coldwater Spring. The weather was cool and rainy. It sure was nice to see little bits of spring beginning to pop out.
In the distance, we could hear running water. We exited the paved trail and began to explore the unpaved trails. A mini waterfall surrounded by colorful graffiti appeared.
As we entered Coldwater Spring, more signs of spring began to appear.
We continued to hike the unpaved trails towards Minnehaha Falls.
The Mississippi River was flowing fast. Areas that were normally dry were now flooded.
The trails led us up and down the cliffs. The heavy snow storm we had a week ago did lots of damage. Many trees were down, thick branches were snapped, and even the cliffs weren’t immune to the damage.
The trail close to the river was underwater, so back to the paved trail we went. The Ford Parkway Bridge can be seen in the distance. There is an island in the middle of the river. Currently it is under water, however, you can still see the tops of the trees.
We took the staircase back down to the trails closest to the river.
The water is close to the top of this bridge’s archway.
The trail crosses under the Steel Bridge also known as the Minnesota Veterans Home Bridge.
The closer we got to the Minnehaha Falls the louder the rushing water became.
Minnehaha Falls
As we looped back towards our starting point, more signs of spring began to appear.
We crossed over an old bridge and down an old staircase. The trail at the end of the stairs was flooded.
Neaton Adventures 