Photos by Caitlin Abrams
Bluffs
Red Wing’s Barn Bluff/He Mni Can is encircled by color when autumn hits.
While I have lived in Minnesota for three decades, when it comes to road trips, I have mostly headed north. Last fall, my wife and I decided to remedy this with a trio of excursions to southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin. We were looking for grand vistas, which, in Minnesota, are pretty rare. Our state, it turns out, is the fifth flattest in the Union, flatter than Kansas or Iowa. But the southeast region is the grand exception—a distinction that stems from the fact that it was spared by the last round of glaciers that scraped much of the Minnesota landscape down to bedrock. It is a land of impressive plateaus, limestone cliffs, dry prairies, and hardwood forests tucked into deep valleys laced with cool streams. At least, that’s what I read in the guidebooks.
We started our venture into the hill country with Red Wing’s Barn Bluff, now officially known as He Mni Can (Dakota for “hill, water, wood”). While I had poked around Red Wing in the past, I had not hiked the bluff, though I was fully aware of its presence. In Red Wing, it’s impossible to miss. The 340-foot bluff looms over downtown.
The trailhead, which lies just north of Highway 61 and just east of downtown, is easy to locate. Once on the trail, hiking the Barn Bluff involves a modest exertion. The two-mile loop has steep inclines (rising more than 300 feet), and we had to climb a few sets of stairs. But the views along the way were both magnificent and highly varied. At one overlook, we gazed down on Red Wing’s main street, as well as its riverfront and marinas. To the north, we studied the Mississippi River and its backwaters. Even though it was late October, the maples and oaks still had their leaves and were ablaze with color.
Atop the bluff is an impressive variety of plant and tree life. The hotter and drier west- and south-facing slopes are basically prairie, while the cooler, wetter north-facing slopes are full of trees and shrubs. The trails are clearly marked with signage that imparts information about the natural features as well as historical tidbits about past visitors, including 18th-century explorer Jonathan Carver and writer Henry David Thoreau, who both marveled at these same vistas.
While the Barn Bluff outing was pleasing, I can’t say the experience was solitary. The bluff is popular, and even though it was midweek, we encountered plenty of fellow leaf peepers. This left us wanting to explore something a little wilder, a little less well known. The options for this appeared endless. The Driftless Area—as this region of bluffs and valleys is known—covers an estimated 24,000 square miles and stretches all the way down to northeast Iowa.
We selected a destination across the Mississippi from Red Wing, in Pierce County, Wisconsin. I was lured to the spot, known as the Trenton Bluff Prairie, by the Wisconsin DNR’s website, which states that the 130-acre state natural area is home to some of the best remaining examples of bluff prairie in the state. That may well be the case, but it proved to be much more of an adventure than we planned (note to self—do more research next time). With very little signage or, for that matter, any clearly marked trails, it was a workout.
As we scrambled up the steep slope, we never did locate anything resembling a proper footpath. After a spell, my wife and even my dog bailed on the folly. I pressed on, eroding rock underfoot, through scrub and thickets of buckthorns. The payoff: The view was impressive. However, the rugged outing wasn’t quite what we were looking for and left me a bit scraped up and gassed.
The challenge of this experience made our third stop in nearby Frontenac State Park all the more alluring because here we had many options. Yes, if we’d been up to it, we could have exhausted ourselves on the 13 miles of trails in the park. But we didn’t have to. The parking lot put us atop the bluff, so we could simply gambol casually about the extensive grounds and take in glorious views of Lake Pepin with no billy goat trudge required.
Add to this, Frontenac is famous among birders, mainly because of the sheer variety of its winged denizens. We didn’t have much luck spotting the warblers—perhaps they had all passed south already—but we did glimpse a squadron of white pelicans, flying low over Pepin on their way to warmer climes. The year-round residents—woodpeckers of several varieties—flitted about conspicuously. Plus, the park harbors numerous points of historic interest, such as an abandoned limestone quarry that was the source of the stones used in the construction of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
As my wife and I motored home, I found myself marveling at the novelty of the experience. An hour’s drive from the Twin Cities and we were transported into a landscape that felt and looked entirely different from our familiar haunts. And even in late October, when the Northwoods were long drained of color, it felt like we were able to put the brakes on winter and travel back a few weeks in time. In Minnesota, you can’t beat that.
Behind the Lens
Caitlin Abrams, our staff photographer, is no stranger to these bluffs.
Photograph by Caitlin Abrams
Barn Bluff/He Mni Can
Barn Bluff/He Mni Can
“This is an extra-ordinary spot for a morning hike because the sun filters through the trees, highlighting all the rich fall colors as the city of Red Wing wakes up below.”
Photograph by Caitlin Abrams
Frontenac State Park
Frontenac State Park
“Frontenac’s upper bluff is a gold mine for photographers! Multiple scenic overlooks are hidden along this colorful trail, and I couldn’t help stopping every few minutes to snap something new.”
Photograph by Caitlin Abrams
Maiden Rock Bluff
Maiden Rock Bluff
“What starts as a lovely hike through native grasses ends at the most breathtaking bluff. This color-soaked hidden treasure was surprisingly quiet and isolated and offered an above-the-trees view of boats and cars traveling by.”
