Minnesota Hiking Club #6 - Beaver Creek Valley State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#6 - Beaver Creek Valley State Park

Date Hiked: February 7th, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 4.25

I always accidentally call it Beaver Valley Creek State Park, including in typing out the title of this post. I'm still not totally sure I picked the right one. 

What an adventure this park is, I can't emphasize that enough.

Turning off roads that look like they go places, one descends out of cell phone signal into a valley of the Beaver Creek variety for this majestic splendor of a state park. Like some of the other parks in the southeastern portion of Minnesota, it reminded me of growing up in the Appalachians. And, much like hikes through the famous trail can be deceivingly difficult without massive peaks like Colorado or Washington, this Hiking Club trail will test your skills and endurance at any time of year. 

At first, it doesn't seem that bad. The first three miles are a mostly flat walk in the woods along the creek as the ridges and bluffs surround the trail. "This doesn't seem like it'll have over 700 feet of elevation gain," you might think. "Why is this rated moderate difficulty?" might also cross your mind. If you do it in that order, anyway, as the trail is split into two portions separated by a road. "This trail isn't gonna take over two hours, I'm more than halfway done!" Just wait. 

Crossing the aforementioned road to the second section of the Hiking Club trail, after a little bend toward the bluffs, a narrow path leading almost straight up is the next objective. I didn't even have snow to contend with, but with the ridge being covered in brown, dead leaves, slipping on something wasn't entirely out of the question. With no one else in the park and no cell signal, that could've been disastrous. Tread carefully.

Once higher up in the bluffs, the trail doesn't get easier. It is narrow, barely wide enough for one person. On the left: rocks and the remaining wall of a hill. On the right: forest on extremely steep grade, and the picture can't quite capture the degree. It is not a simple stroll, the difficulty of this section more than earns all the miles on this trail without even considering the other half. 

Making things even dicier, at the time of my hike, there was a bridge that cut off the path for the official Hiking Club trail, thus necessitating going straight down the bluffs, and because I did indeed want the password for this trek, I had to find a place to immediately climb back up. Without detour signs indicating such, I pushed myself back up another ridge. 

Nerd note: I saw this narrow path with extremely steep descent on both sides, and my only thought was "to the bridge of Khazad-dum!" 

I didn't have a balrog chasing me, but the Fellowship theme playing through my head was a nice little push to finish the trail, despite utter exhaustion. Another descent, then a Washingtonian excursion over some mossy rocks, and Beaver Creek Valley earns S-tier status.