Minnesota Hiking Club #49 - St. Croix State Park

Minnesota Hiking Club

#49 - St. Croix State Park

Date Hiked: March 8th, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Jay Cooke State Park, George C. Manitou State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 2.58

Fellow AllTrails users, come here. Come on, come over here, I need to tell you a secret. I'm gonna whisper, come right next to me now, that's it...

Minnesota is muddy in March.

Okay, take a second, I'll let that permeate in the thought meats for a little while. We good? You understand? You're not gonna go... Yep, you already downrated yet another trail because it was really muddy, of course you did. Let me guess, you also gave out two-star ratings in January because it was icy? Naturally. When it's July, do you give bad ratings because there are mosquitos? Thank you, you've been so helpful toward understanding what's a good trail versus the facts of existing in Minnesota somehow being the trail's fault, carry on. 

The hike at St. Croix State Park wasn't that muddy, though I only say that in comparison to a few that would come at the end of this Hiking Club speedrun. That said, a significant portion of this trail did feel like wading through an inland pond at times. 

I was really impressed how far I had to drive to get from the sign to the actual park entrance. Though I was heading down from the two North Shore-ish parks listed above that day, I can't imagine I'm alone in the experience of turning to enter the park, and then being surprised that it's another 5 or 6 miles before the office. 

This was the day, toward the end of my speedrun, that I started seeing other cars in the parking lot more often. This isn't a complaint, just an observation, but the changing seasons were quite apparent. It should be noted though, March of 2025 was having fun with its temperature variance, often jumping around 40-plus degree differentials by the day, so what can one do other than embrace the chaos and plan accordingly? 

Two of the three hikes on this day were W-coded, with the third (Manitou) being more just "well, if you really want to, I guess" in terms of winter hikability. Though tempted to also knock off Wild River State Park, the length of this one after the other two were not exactly Lake Louise in terms of length and elevation, I opted for this to close out Slushfest '25, being close to five miles and all. 

It's an interesting combination of trail types, I must say. It's technically a loop, but it's more similar to a section of Banning State Park where the proximity of the out-and-back is within sight. But because it is a loop, technically, it doesn't matter which way you go first. That is to say, one side is a paved bike trail and the other is a very narrow riverside excursion, so plan accordingly. 

It isn't my favorite of the long line of state parks dotting the St. Croix, but that just speaks to the quality of that grouping. None have been listed yet, so being the first of the many says a lot.