Perfect Fall Trip - Willow River State Park
We decided to take another day trip during this for a weekend in the fall. While the original plan was to go to Como falls near Minneapolis Minnesota when we got there the falls were bone dry. Apparently it's been very dry, with no rain and there was no water running. While they were still tons of trails and areas to explore for a few hours, we didn't really take that many pictures. Walk down to see the dam at pool number one and the Mississippi like back to the car and then decided to drive off to find a new place to hike.
Willow River State Park - Large state Park with lots to do and see.
Going to the themes of waterfalls Willow River was on our list of places to go that weekend. It's a place that I had not heard of before but my wife had found, and was it supposed to be very pretty. I like the fact that it's out of Minneapolis in St paul, and over into Wisconsin in this much smaller town of hudson. Hotels for reasonable plenty of food choices, and it just felt much more relaxed than in minneapolis.
The park itself is really large and you could spend in a long time hiking all of the trails, especially if you do a full loop. We were really only targeting the falls in a small hike afterwards given that we are doing this later in the day.
As you can see this is a significantly sized state park with lots of camping kind of recreation, and multi-use places. I could see spending a full day or two here hiking the trails and really taking it in. I think you could put on a 20 mile day it taken a big loop. It might be more than that but it really shouldn't be too hard to take in the whole thing that day if one wanted to. Not sure I'd want to hike that much or if I'd rather spend my time maybe kayaking or canoeing a little false lake and seeing what the fish were doing.
The Water Falls
Psychopath down to the falls has actually down a very very steep hill. So steep that in fact my needs and ankles are hurting from the decline. I have a hard time walking downhill and I do uphill, seems to be more jarring and a joint as I try to stop my momentum. It probably has something to do with getting old and being overweight, but I'm not trying to go uphill and just Pace myself and go downhill.
The waterfalls were better than advertised. It was several series of waterfalls his water cascaded down them. Was an amazingly cool refreshing breeze coming off the water, The sound drowned out all but little conversations and made it quite peaceful.
As you can see a lot of people ventured off and up into the left of the trail. There were some pre-established climbing routes that were being used and allowed people to try to climb up the cliff, as well as people would go up and wait in line to try to climb under the edge of the falls just have a photo
View from under the falls
We took the kids and had them climb under and we snapped a photo, and I won't lie it was cold wet and slippery and awkward to get under there. But no one slept in and no one fell. In fact we didn't see anyone slept in fall out of about 25 or 30 people although I'm sure people do fall every day. I climb back in after the kids and took a few photos of the view from underneath the falls from the little crevice.
Views Down Stream on the Bridge
Looking downstream from The falls as much less impressive, but it would be a great place to sit in a kayak or canoe just float down with the current. It's still very beautiful that you get past the man-made canal.
We decided to go hike up behind the trail and do a small loop before heading back to the car.
View from the lookout above the falls - Trees in the way
We got decent views from above from the viewing platform. The falls were partially blocked by trees and it made it much more difficult to see them. I wish it was a little bit clear of you to really take the falls in, but the downstream view was beautiful. You can see the lake off in the distance and the stream that falls there.
A small hike up and down some steep hills.
I highlighted in purple the path we took to the falls and then the hike path we took up and above. I made a mistake because I originally wanted to include that small red loop off to the side but went the wrong direction and cut that portion off. It's okay because I think we're all tired and hungry I'm ready to get back to the hotel.
All the hike was short and we didn't have a lot of vertical up and down, with not much rolling hills. Straight down to the falls straight up to the overlook straight back down to the falls straight back up to the parking lot. It was plenty of up and down after a day of sitting in the car. So headed off to Perkins in a hotel to let the kids swim and have some fun
Might have to go back and do some more hiking.
It's close enough that we could go back again to the state park, and easily do some more of the trails. I think would be a good one to have in our back pocket for places to go or things to do as an add-on to another trip. It's far enough away that we could do an overnight up there if needed on our way back or two somewhere. Or if we are doing some other activity in an area and wanted to add on some hiking.