In our last conversation with Luke, we heard about his travels in the south-eastern part of the state, visiting the bluffs of the Mississippi River and experiencing the Driftless region unsullied by the receding glaciers that carved the rest of Minnesota's topography. This week, Luke headed to the southwestern part of the state and began his journey northward up into the Minnesota River Valley. Parks Luke visited since the last installment of Just a Day in the Park include: Forestville Mystery Cave, Beaver Creek Valley, Highland Woods, Lake Shetek, Camden, Split Rock Creek, Blue Mounds, Flandrau, and Ft. Ridgley.
Luke called in from Redwood Falls, where the weather was humid and cloudy, and he was hoping for less humidity as he ventured out to explore the parks.
Blue Mounds State Park was noteworthy to Luke this week for a few different reasons. Luke was able to visit the bison herd that the park is well-known for, but only viewed the animals from a distance. The climbing features of the park were also impressive to Luke. "Blue Mounds was the most interesting this week geographically," he said. "There are plenty of places to rock climb there, with a dedicated rock-climber parking lot. Blue Mounds has a 100 foot tall rock cliff made of pink quartzite that stretches for 2 miles, and it's very popular for climbing."
As we know from chatting with Luke for a few weeks now, Luke is an avid hiker, so he's been on a lot of trails. So when Luke began describing his experience in Beaver Creek Valley, hiking their trail system, he became a bit whimsical as he remembered his experience. "In terms of a whole trail system, the trails at Beaver Creek Valley were like walking in a fairy tale. It was 53 degrees and misting when I was there. There were lots of flowers and I was walking over all these little bridges."
This missive from Luke's journey took place just after Memorial Day, when the tourist season in Minnesota truly heats up. Luke noticed an uptick in fellow-travelers out on the trails. "There were a lot of people at the parks, mostly in the campgrounds, but I was seeing people out on the trails every 5-10 minutes. Much more crowded than in other parks I'd been."
As Luke's journey continues, he will begin to travel north up through the Minnesota River Valley. Luke's parks for the next part of the journey are: Ft. Ridgley, Upper Sioux Agency, Lac Du Carl. After that, Luke will take a few days off to travel home to spend time with his sister who is graduating high school (congrats! ) and then back to the journey with Monson Lake and Glacial Lake.
Catch up with Luke on his journey right here on KAXE/KBXE as we continue to follow along as Luke spends Just a Day in the Park.
