Minnesota Hiking Club #64 - Monson Lake State Park

Minnesota Hiking Club
#64 - Monson Lake State Park
Date Hiked: January 12th, 2025
Other Hikes That Day: Sibley State Park
Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 2.08

I'm sure this place is really nice in the summer!

That was my second thought upon arriving at Monson Lake State Park. The first was "I didn't know my car was interested in ice skating."

Looking at the map for this trip, my initial intention was to knock out three that, on a map, looked relatively close together. Once I saw the distance between Monson Lake and Glacial Lakes, as well as the distance and difficulty of Glacial Lakes, I decided two would be enough for this day.

Well, to be fair, any consideration for hiking a third park, on this day specifically, froze out with the rest of me when I felt the temperature drop 17 degrees in less than the 20 minutes during this quick lake loop.

Sibley State Park, earlier that morning, had been a joyous solo adventure, but it's also very forested, thus protecting me from icy winds. However, in the short time between leaving my Kerrigan-esque car and returning to it, the "feels like" temperature dropped from 3 to -17, so I likely would've been somewhat inhibited regardless.

There is nothing wrong with Monson Lake's short lake loop. Most people who hike this trail won't be combatting agitated snow drifts as they regret their life decisions, and the likelihood of spotting a halo rainbow around the sun from all the ice crystals is very low at times when there are leaves on the trees. The winds started howling like I owed them money, and if my face weren't as frozen as Jor-El's head in that weird shot from Superman: The Movie (1978), it's possible I may have been singing a "hey-nonni-nonni-hey-nonni-nonni-hey!" for my regrettable climate-based choices.

Some of the Hiking Club's trails are only a mile long, and this is not the only one that contains that minimum distance with a flat loop around a lake. It is Minnesota, after all. While some may feel disdain about driving hours of distance only to complete a trail that can be described as hiking only in the most generous of terms, the brevity of this ground halo to the lake's sun not taking much time was a welcome reprieve.

Upon beginning the lake trail, I was reminded of my non-Minnesotan origins, as the ice huts and pickup trucks on the lake's surface incessantly nag at my transplant meter. Despite Gordon Bombay teaching me at a very young age that it'll be alright to take a vehicle with several hockey players on the ice with no problem, that is one line I have yet to cross for assimilation purposes. While the danger of ice melting at temperatures that would make Jupiter shiver is relatively minute, I'll keep my outdoor activities limited to the ground. Or, at least, what I assume is ground beneath those ever-changing snow drifts.

Monson Lake State Park is probably a beautiful respite on the prairie when the humidity and bugs are at choking levels, and that's presumably when most people will experience its splendor.