day hike!
🌳 st. croix state park!
when you want big adventure, minnesota’s biggest state park is a good place to be! on the weekend of may 30, i experienced great heights, gorgeous hikes, and fun bike rides — along with a ridiculous number of mosquitos and (as we would eventually discover) ticks!
st. croix state park is located along the st. croix & kettle rivers, east of hinckley in pine county, minnesota — home to indigenous speakers of the Southern Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe), Dakȟóta (Western Dakota), Dakhóta (Eastern Dakota), and Lakȟótiyapi (Lakota) languages.
the park covers a whopping 34,000 acres, its southeast boundary formed by 21 miles of the st. croix river, which forms the border there between minnesota and wisconsin. it features a fire tower, lake beach, and historic CCC camp, along with 127 miles of hiking trails, 75 miles of horse trails, and 5 miles of paved biking trails.
for campers, st. croix state park offers 211 drive-in sites (81 electric), 40 horse camping sites, a bunch of sites for walk-in, backpack, and canoe camping, a group camp, and several multi-unit cabins. we stayed in one of the cabins, which provided a kitchenette with stove and fridge, a powder room with toilet and sink, and a bed. pretty fancy stuff when you’re used to sleeping on-trail!
southern minnesota guy & i encountered a lot of cool wildlife, including turtles, snakes, deer, fish, leeches, and countless beautiful birds. signs warned visitors to the presence of black bears, but the beasts went unseen by us. and although there have long been reports of bigfoot sightings in the area, we were not so lucky as to witness any such cryptids.
my trail name’s mythic and in 2026 i’m continuing my multi-year thru-hike (m.y.t.h.) of the pacific crest trail. as i prepare to return to the pct (and hopefully tackle other section- and thru-hikes in the future), i'm going on day hikes to help keep in trail shape!
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