Trash Talk: Father Hennepin Bluffs Park

Yesterday was one of those top ten weather days. Early November and it's t-shirt weather outside. We walked across the river over to Father Hennepin Bluffs Park. It's 5.5 acres of park along the bluff as well as down along the river. There are some pretty rickety old wooden steps that take you down the bluff to the lower trail.

http://www.nps.gov/miss/planyourvisit/fatherhennepin.htm

There would normally be more water down here, but that just gave us an opportunity to explore. All the old mill ruins are now a graffiti playground. This park is pretty much neglected. There is plenty of trash to be picked up. Will do that some other time.

Urban Grotto

Ghetto Protected. Nice angel.

See that yellow guy? That image is all over town including a new red one that is along River Road on the downtown side of the river. He gets around.

That's the Pillsbury's Best Flour sign on top of the old mill buildings. It was refurbished in the last year and finally relit in the last week. Workers were down in the lower trail area working on the hydro project that will power the A-Mill building which has been turned into artist lofts.

http://millcitytimes.com/news/a-mill-hydro-project.html

Good time to explore. Thanks for leaving the ladder.

What's behind that door?

At the south end of the park you can stand on the shore directly under the Stonearch Bridge. It's a hot mess of graffiti down there. Across on the downtown side I could see that this area looked like it had been recently painted which is why I wanted to see for myself.

That barrel should be recycled.

I did find a nice covered bench to admire the view of downtown.

You will be okay. Just don't use the south end steps to go back up the bluff from here. There is a five foot gap about half way up. Better to bushwhack it up the hill and through the woods or go back through the park. Didn't intend to keep walking after Father Hennepin Park, but it was just so nice out. We decided to walk towards the U of M since we had never done that on the east side of the river. We got distracted by a path off in the woods.

It's a graffiti playground down in that pit. Nice view of downtown from here.

Looks like sometimes this pit is home for some folks.

Looking back to where we have been. The bike path is right off to the left so you don't have to walk on the track if you don't want to. There is a graffiti culture over here both on the outside and inside of the railroad cars. This area looks like homeless folks are finding shelter here too.