Hinkley Minnesota has more than just a state park – it has a White Castle! While deciding a place to visit for this blog, I had it in my mind that I was going to Hinkley for White Castle and I would look at a map and pick a place either there or along the way. I had my eyes set on St. Croix State Park. Their DNR page was more expansive than I bothered to investigate before making the trip. One or maybe two of the lines stuck – “Park at the St. Croix Lodge and Hike the 1-mile loop from the River’s Edge Trail to the River Bluff Trail.” and “Take the Sundance Self-Guided Trail. Pick up a self-guiding brochure and learn about park history, wildlife and habitats along a gently rolling 1-mile trail.”
One mile? Awesome! That would be a beautiful place to explore a little, take a couple of pictures and enjoy my White Castle. I invited my partner to come with – they are not the biggest fan of being outside but hey- it’s just one mile! Two if we do both parts! Its early October and the leaves are changing.
I failed to read some of the other parts of the page. The fact that the entire park is over 34,000 acres was lost on me. The DNR page for St. Croix State Park goes on to say that there are miles of trails to explore for everything from horseback riding, hiking, or snow showing/skiing in the winter. Over 21 miles of the St. Croix River and over 10 other streams making hundreds of square miles worth of water for things like canoeing, fishing, and kayaking. Not to mention their multiple camp sites. I did not look at the map closely besides the name of my destination and its proximity to White Castle.
I’m wondering if you can see where this is going. I was completely unprepared for this massive park. According to a sign, the biggest State Park in Minnesota. From the main road going through Hinkley we drove nearly 18 miles before we were even at the park’s visitor center. Nervously my partner asks if we are going to stop at the visitor center to figure out where to go? I laugh and say nah lets just go this way I’m sure it’s not far to get to SOMETHING! Eventually we start seeing signs for the Fire Tower. Great let’s keep going and we will walk around there. We are going….and going…finally after 12 miles, a lot of doubt, squeezing by other cars going the opposite direction, we arrive at an end. The fire tower.
As per the virtual tour on the DNR website, “The 100 foot tall fire tower was built in 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Watchmen sat in the tower for hours scanning for fires with no breaks, no reading, and only ten-minute visits allowed. This fire tower was staffed until 1981, when aerial surveys became the standard. These days the fire tower is open for park visitors to climb—don’t miss this amazing view from above the trees!” Okay well…guess what else my partner isn’t an enthusiastic fan of? Heights! There was just no way we were going to go up that rickety tower. As brave as I wanted to pretend to be, I am glad I could use them as a scape goat. Well, no problem. I will take a picture of the sign and a close up of the fire tower. We got to see it after the long drive and surely there is a walking trail over here.. oops wrong again! With nowhere to go except awkwardly stand by this tower when other families were climbing, we got back in the car and started driving back down the dirt road.
After a few miles and a few random turns we saw a small parking lot. We pulled over and saw an entrance to a walking path and decided we were done driving. We found an entrance to the woods. This path, wherever it took us, was the walk we were going on. It was actually quite short, maybe a mile long. At the end of it we arrived at Big Eddy, a canoe landing on the Kettle River. We stood there; arms wrapped around each other enjoying the view of the water.
We get back to the car. At this point I’ve driven hundreds of miles; I have no cellphone reception and we are in the middle of this park somewhere. It’s not an exaggeration to say, we spent over an hour taking the wrong turns before we finally got back on track. At this point I’m afraid I have upset my partner. I am worried I have ruined the day by getting us lost. They didn’t want to be outside in the first place, I dragged them outside of their comfort zone into something beyond my own. I check in, tears in my eyes, are you mad? They respond, I would go anywhere with you. I will get lost with you and have fun every time.
I didn’t get a lot of pictures, I didn’t get to walk any specific trails, but I did get to spend a lot of special time with someone I care a lot about, our relationship growing that day. I got to be removed from technology and immersed in fall leaves. More important than anything of course, I got to eat some cheese sliders.