Posts Tagged With: La Crescent MN

Buffalo City, WI Sept. 8

The Great River Road follows the Mississippi River from its headwaters at Lake Itasca in northern MN to the Gulf of Mexico. Other blog posts have discussed the river at Itasca, along the MN-WI border, down to Louisiana, etc. This entry is for a three day, two night trip along the river in MN-WI to celebrate our 49th anniversary.

Buffalo City is not a tourist hot spot. Chris originally was planning on a camper cabin at Forestville State Park in southeastern MN. I upset her plans. A skin cancer surgery a week ago made her hesitant to stay at a camper cabin-no running water. This mom and pop small collection of cabins (Big River Escape Riverside Cabins) is right along the Mississippi River in a town of about 930 souls. Our cabin has two bedrooms with bathroom and kitchen and, importantly, a screened in porch. The Mississippi River’s main channel is closer to the Minnesota side; we have several backwater channels, islands, and sloughs between us and the main channel. The entire river complex is much wider here than it is in St. Paul.

Buffalo City is about 90 miles from St. Paul and yet a world away. Chris keeps saying: It is so quiet here. It is so quiet here. And it is-at least mid-week in September. The town is well-maintained, numerous parks, grass cut, houses neat. It has lost population in the last 10 years. We purchased milk and juice at a Dollar General-a chain we normally avoid but the best option we could see.

The day’s experiences began in Minnesota though. We drove down to Great River Bluffs State Park, a two hour drive, southeast of Rochester MN, along the Mississippi River. This part of MN is called the Driftless Area since the last glacial period (the Wisconsin) which ended 10,000 years ago skipped this area. The rest of MN was impacted though. The result is that the land drops down 500 or more feet to the river bed from the plains, prairies and pasture lands of Minnesota west of here. Limestone bluffs bracket the river on both the Minnesota and Wisconsin sides. The meltwater from Glacial Lake Agassiz (we will skip the details) 10,000 years ago carved out the Mississippi River that we viewed today.

Great River Bluffs State Park has a hiking trail that takes the traveler out to three overlooks which view the river from 500 feet above. The trail starts in a pine forest, not native to the area but which was planted by farmers. After a bit, the trail takes the hiker into the native hardwood forest of oak-hickory-basswood trees. The hard dolomite rock leaves tree roots exposed so a lazy hiker who does not lift their feet high will trip. The view over the river valley from up on high makes the tripping hazard worth the risk.

Unique to the area are ”goat prairies”, steep treeless patches of prairie high on the southwest side of the bluffs. The hot sun keeps the soil hot and dry, not suitable for the normal trees of the area. The name comes from the belief that only goats could survive on the steep slopes. The prairie today still had summer flowers predominantly of yellow, but with highlights of white and blue; the fall colors of red and orange have not arrived yet.

After lunch in the park, we drove 20 miles to La Crescent MN, a hot spot of apple growing. We picked up a bag of Zestar apples, fresh today from the orchard. Zestar is an early ripening apple with a sweet-tart taste. It was developed at the U of Minnesota Horticultural Resource Center.

It was an easy hour drive to Buffalo City, our cabin and a light dinner in our screened in porch. Tomorrow-another day of high excitement.

Ed and Chris

Buffalo City, WI Wednesday Sept. 8, 2021