Minnehaha Falls on Independence Day

Our last stop in the Twin Cities was Minnehaha Falls.  We happened to visit on July 4th.  It was a zoo.  Take my advice and never go to Minnehaha Falls on July 4th!  It was a nice day and it seemed like everyone in Minneapolis thought it would be a great day to go to Minnehaha Falls.

The Falls were named by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a famous New England poet.  He mentions Minnehaha in one of his more famous poems, The Song of Hiawatha.   They drop 53 feet, and are quite picturesque.  I had to dodge the crowds to get a good picture or two.  Seriously, the falls are nice, but it's not worth dodging the crowds on a summer holiday to see them.


One final thing, the residential streets just north of the park have "Parking Permitted" signs for the first block or two.  We nearly parked there, but asked an officer what exactly the "Parking Permitted" signs mean, as they are very ambiguous (just like the "Fine for Parking" signs I've seen elsewhere). He told us that you need a parking permit to park there.  Good to know.  We parked somewhere else.  Apparently the residents were tired of park visitors parking in front of their homes so they encouraged the city to enforce a parking by permit only zone. 
Seriously Minneapolis! You can do better then that!  If you ever change the signs, please put up ones with different wording, such as "Parking by permit only".  If I had parked and gotten a ticket, I would have protested it.  "Parking Permitted"...hmm..does that mean "Parking Allowed" or "You need a permit to park here"?  Any half decent lawyer (or even a normal person with common sense) could easily point out the double meaning that the signs currently convey. 



Nearest City: Minneapolis, MN
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 30+ minutes
Difficulty: easy-moderate
Kid Friendly: yes
Additional Info: Minnehaha Falls Regional Park

Mill City Ruins, the Minneapolis Locks, and St. Anthony Falls

Headed south.  We left Duluth and went to the Twin Cities.  We wanted to go to where Minneapolis was born, so we visited the Mill Ruins Park.  The park preserves the ruins of several flour mills on the south bank of the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis.  The ruins are impressive to see, especially with the stone arch bridge and portions of the Minneapolis skyline visible.  

The city sprang up around St. Anthony falls, a large waterfall on the Mississippi River.  The millers knew they could use the power generated by the falling water to power their grinding wheels.  Due to the the mills, the transportation the river offers, and the proximity to large fields of grain, Minneapolis quickly rose to prominence in the field of cereal grain processing.  Numerous well known companies began there, from General Mills, Malt-o-meal, Pillsbury, and others.

Adjacent to the park is a lock used to allow ships and barges up above St Anthony Falls.  We took the opportunity of taking a tour.  The lock is controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers, but is currently not operating.  It is indefinitely closed to prevent the spread of asian carp.

While touring the lock, we learned about the great St Anthony Falls collapse.  There is a stretch of hard bedrock that extends under the Mississippi River, forming St Anthony Falls.  It's only about 1000 feet wide.  In 1869, a tunnel that was bored through the bedrock to create more power collapsed, and nearly collapsed the waterfall into a gnarly rapid.  It took several years to stabilize the waterfall, and now the falls are completely encased in concrete to prevent the possibility of collapse.  If they would have collapsed, Minneapolis would have never grown up to be the big city it is.

Nearest City: Minneapolis, MN
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 2 hours
Difficulty: easy
Kid Friendly: more geared to big kids
Additional Info:

Duluth Harbor Walk

We took a walk along the shorefront at the Duluth Harbor.  The lift bridge is fascinating!  It lifts to let boats through into the harbor, but lowers to allow vehicle traffic across.  We watched the bridge go up and down a few times, then we walked underneath it.  

The kids really wanted to see some light houses, and were absolutely thrilled about the two that guard the mouth of the harbor.  It's a popular walk and is very busy.

It's a great view of Duluth to the west.  The city stretches up the hill.

The boats were enjoyable to watch as they came in and out of the harbor.  Back near the bridge there is a park with lots of relics that have been retrieved from shipwrecks.  Anchors, ships bells, etc.  Each item has a small sign near it that tells more about it and the wreck it was from.  There's a lot of history in Duluth, especially of Great Lakes shipping.  The harbor is a great place for any fan of ship or naval history.

Nearest City: Duluth, MN
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 1+ hours
Difficulty: easy
Kid Friendly: yes
Additional Info:

The Duluth Great Lakes Aquarium

The Duluth Aquarium was one of the kids' favorite stops.  They liked the life-sized replica animals, the fish, the otters, the controllable camera in the fish tank, and especially the hands-on play area  demonstrating the Great Lakes and the locks between them.  Seriously, that was their favorite part.  They would have played with the toy boats and the locks the whole time.  Forget the fish, lets play with the boats!

There was a control deck for a real boat as well, so they liked turning the wheel and blowing the horn.  

The fish were fun too.  They had trout, salmon, walleyes, and other native freshwater fish, but also had some piranhas, an electric eel, and fish from elsewhere.  I liked the shipwreck exhibit they had.
The Great Lakes Aquarium is a bit pricey, but when you're on vacation, you plan on splurging a little bit.

Nearest City: Duluth, MN
Location: 353 Harbor Drive, Duluth, MN  55802
Time Needed: several hours
Difficulty: easy
Kid Friendly: yes
Additional Info: Great Lakes Aquarium

St Croix National Scenic Riverway

We visited the St Croix National Scenic Riverway twice on our trip, and it's a beautiful river.  I would have loved to get out and spend a couple days canoeing and fishing.  Our first stop was at the Namekagon Visitor Center in Northern Wisconsin.  We enjoyed learning a little bit about the river that forms most of the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin.  The rangers were very informative about boating and fishing regulations, as well as knowing that seeing bears along the river is much more common then wolf sightings are.  Much of this area was logged back in the lumber baron heyday, and logs are still fished out of the river occasionally with the end mark of the various mill that had cut the tree and sent it down the river before it sank.  Actually, is at least one lumber reclamation company on Lake Superior strictly dedicated to finding and retrieving the old-growth logs.  

Up north the river is a beautiful little river, flowing past tree-lined banks, with sandbars and occasional islands.  Because the river is so long, the standard NPS brochure doesn't have enough information on it to really be that useful beyond being an overview, so they have smaller river maps which break the river down into 7 or 8 segments.  I picked up the smaller maps as well.  

A little later in the trip the smaller maps came in greatly handy.  In addition to showing distances and river hazards, the map also shows launches & take outs and camp sites.  We were somewhere between Duluth and the Twin Cities and wanted to stop for the night before we got there.  I pulled out the maps and found a primitive campsite nearby on the Minnesota side of the river.  

We set up camp and had a great view of the river, here much wider and slower.  The kids thought it looked like a big lake, but when I showed them that the water was gently flowing they thought it was the biggest river ever.

Nearest City:
Location: varies
Time Needed: varies
Difficulty: varies
Kid Friendly: yes
Additional Info: St. Croix NSR Maps