Hidden Falls Walk

It's sometimes limiting when you don't own a car in the Twin Cities.  It's been about 4 years since I sold the old beast.  The upside is when you don't own a car and you want to take a walk through one of our many great hiking spots, you don't have to think about walking in a loop to get back to your car.  The challenge is how do I get to my starting point using public transportation.  Wednesday we wanted to walk through Hidden Falls Park in St. Paul and find out if there is actually a falls in the park.  From downtown Minneapolis there are several ways to start that hike.

Take the green line light rail to St. Paul and transfer on Snelling to the 84 bus heading south.  At the end of the line where the airport park and ride meets Sheppard Road and the river, get out and tell the bus driver you're walking back to Minneapolis just to see the look on his face. Cross Sheppard and you'll find this path going down to Crosby Park.    

Once farm land along the river, Crosby Park is frequently flooded.  If you head upriver and cross under the Highway 5 bridge you'll be in Hidden Falls.  I had resolved to pick up trash on this walk, even though I haven't been doing much of that this summer.

The two bags of trash I carried out came mostly from one spot.  I could have used a trash can earlier than the one that finally I located around the picnic area.  I deposited my junk and went off in search of flowers instead.

There was a huge field of sunflowers along the river.  With sunflowers I have trouble identifying one type from another and so I'm going to guess these are woodland sunflowers.

We could have biked home at this point.  Download the app on your phone and take the bike and ride home.  Leave it wherever you please?  I would not have wanted to bike up that hill going out of the park.

Across from Hidden Falls Park you can see the dog park, the stormwater outlet and the bridge where Minnehaha Creek empties into the Mississippi River.  I'm usually on the other side of the river.  The water was low enough that we could see a couple of folks sneaking into the stormwater tunnel to check it out.  There were a few folks swimming too.  So where are those falls?

We walked in a big loop around the park looking for the trail up to the falls.   I'm not sure if that trail was even marked but we finally found it.  A lot of nice rock work.  WPA project perhaps?

Not what I would call a grand water fall, more of a drizzle.  Was there a creek up above at one time and now it is just stormwater runoff?

The best part of the waterfall trail was seeing this short cut out of the park.  The staircase leads up to the top of the Ford Dam. 

Access to the Ford Dam (lock and dam #1) is on the other side of the river.  On the St. Paul side there is this shuttered door.  Closer look needed.

No way through that door, but you can take a peek through the key hole.

I can see some eyes staring back at me from the other side of the river.

Just a bit closer.

Is it time to remove that dam?  Some folks think so.  Return the Mississippi River Gorge to its natural state.   https://www.fmr.org/news/2018/04/13/is-it-time-remove-dams-mississippi-river-gorge 

That would be so cool to see the gorge with rapids swirling over exposed rock.  Will this happen in my lifetime? 

By the way that building on the other side of lock#1 is the Old Soldier's Home that was built to house retired Civil War veterans.  My great great great uncle was one of those guys who lived there, fighting in Minnesota's 1st infantry at Antietam and Gettysburg.  By the time we walked across the Ford Bridge and back over to the Minneapolis side and Minnehaha Park for a late lunch and beer we were well on our way to clocking 8 miles for the day.  It was well worth it.