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Our 2024 Minnesota State Parks Trip--Day 5
6/14/2024
State Park #14--Great River Bluffs State Park
With a newly filled gas tank, we were on the road before 8:00, on our way to Great River Bluffs State Park. This would turn out to be our favorite park, not because of the hiking (we didn't do much of that) but because of the impressive overlooks of the Mississippi River Valley requiring very little hiking to get to!
There are a few trails which are short but reward the hiker with wonderful views of the Mississippi River and the valley below. We hiked the short trails to the North overlook and South overlook, leaving the King's Bluff Trail and the trail leading to the East overlook for another time.
Beginning ot the trail to the North Overlook
Mississippi River views from the North Overlook
A closer look
Patty's content because it was only a 0.2 mile hike!
One final view from this outstanding overlook
South Overlook with a nice view of US 14 below
Bluffs to the south of the South Overlook; beyond that is, I believe, the East Overlook
Leaving this park, we drove south with Buffalo Valley State Park being our destination. Failing to find it, we blame the iPhone map program.  Siri did correctly have us on a road which would eventually (with one turn at the correct location, in Caledonia) have taken us directly to that park, but the turn she told us to take, followed by an immediate left turn, landed us on a narrow dirt road. No problem, I thought, a few of the smaller parks have dirt roads leading to them. But this road grew narrower and narrower, eventually dead ending! We pulled into a driveway with a warning sign about surveillance cameras being in place (mind you, we are basically in the middle of nowhere), got turned around and headed back.
Exacerbating matters, this was one of many areas including inside most of the state parks we visited where our cell phone service would cut out. So the maps program on our phone was of no help. Likewise, when we said, screw this, and decided to drive back to Rochester, there were no directions pointing us back to I-90! Luckily I had some sense not of where we were but of where we needed to get to and the general direction we needed to take. Eventually the cell service resumed but we had ended up about 20 miles east of where we had exited I-90, requiring a longer drive back to the city.
When we got back to the hotel, I studied the map and realized that if we hadn't taken the Siri-inspired wrong turn and stayed on that state highway, we would have eventually run into the town of Caledonia, where a correct right turn on Cty Road 1 would have led us straight to the park. Now, at least, we knew how to get there but did we want to go there on Sunday in light of how many miles it would have added to our trip to Rice Lake and Myre-Big Island State Parks? How much more driving would this require?
The answer is, plenty. 158.7 more miles, to be exact, which would mean driving 298 miles from our hotel to Beaver Creek Valley SP to Rice Lake SP to Myre-Big Island SP and then back to our hotel. From everything we had seen on Youtube, we didn't deem this worth the extra miles it would entail. This park would have to be pushed back to a future trip, be it to Rochester or to La Crosse (the idea of visiting some Wisconsin state parks on their side of the Mississippi is intriguing).
The Thirsty Belgian was our dinner destination and it didn't deliver. It was basically a bar which served food and the food fare was only average. Patty didn't like how the bar/"restaurant" smelled. I simply didn't like the food very much. How this place garnered a 4.7 rating on Google reviews amazes me.
I started with the Chips, Pico aznd Queso. The chips were your standard corn tortilla chips, the "spicy, house made Pico De Gallo" as described on their website was good. Not great but good. The nacho cheese sauce which came tasted like it came from a can. I would have actually preferred jarred Tostitos Salsa con Queso. Now the Thirsty Belgian Meatballs were very good with a flavor I recognized but couldn't place until the server told me the meatballs were cooked in beer (Belgian beer, that is).
Patty chose better and really liked her Apollo Pizza on Naan crust with pepperoni, Italian Sausage and other ingrediants. I tried a piece of it and was impressed. This somewhat redeemed the Thirsty Belgian but it still ended up the lowest rated restaurant of the eight restaurants we ate at during our trip. This website will be updated soon to reflect these ratings.
We found a trail just north of our hotel running along Cascade Creek and walked it to the west underneath US 52 until we arrived at Cascade Lake. Rochester has a seemingly well maintained network of paved trails running throughout the city which doesn't surprise me, considering how the Mayo Clinic is here and their apparent focus on well being. The section we walked was a nice path; along the way we stopped and chatted with a man who claimed his grand daughter from Duluth had just underwent a heart transplant and was the subject of a much publicized (at least in Duluth!) parade back in her hometown.
Trail opposite the Fairfield Inn
Cascade Creek
US 52 passes over the trail
Cascade Lake
Our "reward" for the hiking and walking we did today was a couple Haugen Daz ice cream bars. This was a fun albeit stressful (at times) day. The three remaining days of our trip hold a good chance of rain, so hopefully this will hold off and allow us to visit the six state parks we have remaining!
Previous: 6/13/2024--Our 2024 Minnesota State Parks Trip--Day 4
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last updated june 19, 2024
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