Minnesota Hiking Club #16 - Gooseberry Falls State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#16 - Gooseberry Falls State Park

Date Hiked: December 22nd, 2024

Other Hikes That Day: Split Rock Lighthouse State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 3.92

This is where it all started, in more ways than one.

Yes, this was my first stamp and my first Hiking Club trail of this speedrun, but it's more than that. This was the first Minnesota State Park I ever visited, years ago before I even lived here. I walked on a waterfall for the first time while I was on spring break from university. An unseasonably warm day, I was in a t-shirt and standing on a frozen waterfall on a lovely March day. That was the first time I even knew about the North Shore, let alone Split Rock Lighthouse, Two Harbors, or anything else. I owe Jerry a great deal for taking that road trip with me. He didn't have to go with me that day, I was just his kid's friend and he'd met me one time. Yet, he not only did that but wrote me a letter of recommendation for grad school. Wherever he is, I hope he's well. 

I say this was my first Hiking Club trail in more ways than one too. 

The Hiking Club and Passport booklets had been sitting on my table. A brief foray into a hiking-specific Instagram led me to discover that the Hiking Club was even a thing, and when I saw there were two options, I was a bit extra (as always) and decided to do both. It wasn't until I got the yearlong pass that I opened up the book and started figuring out where to go. Most of the names I didn't recognize, as I'm not from here and have mostly traveled along the eastern border of the state, both north and south. The two names (other than Fort Snelling, it was winter and I couldn't go there) that I knew: Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse. Those I could do.

But also, I'd hiked this exact trail before without knowing I could get credit for it. 

On a long Geocaching hike when the weather was perfect, I wanted to see Gooseberry but also needed to be far away from the hoards of tourists. I saw a single Geocache way out in the park, and the only way to get to it was to cross the bridge over the falls and follow a trail out to a cliff. I got that find, and the view I would see from that giant ridge down into the valley looked very familiar when I did my first Hiking Club trail. Though this time the trail was covered in ice, and those cliffs were a lot scarier upon realizing one bad slip and my booklets would remain forever one and only. 

Yes, this is personal and anecdotal, but what the hell else am I gonna write about Gooseberry Falls State Park that nobody else has? Multiple tiers of waterfalls, frozen in the winter, a ubiquitous rest stop always. The Hiking Club trail is on the side without all the people, tread carefully. It's a long way down. It's awesome.