Minnesota State Parks Revisited: Great River Bluffs State Park

 

Great River Bluffs State Park

Date Hiked: October 13th, 2025

Trail Hiked: Great River Bluffs Trail, King's Bluff Loop, Sugar Loaf to Garvin Heights Trail

Distance Hiked: 9.9 miles

Elevation Gain: 1368 ft.

Duration: 4:03:20

The last time I visited this park, the allegedly glorious views from the eponymous bluffs were nothing more than a Pyramidhead haven of the void, which to be fair was plenty appropriate for how I was doing at that time in my life. Imagine my relative delight when I headed back to the Winona area on the revisiting quest and the visibility was quite the opposite! 

One really can't go wrong on the crescent of this state. While there are plenty of gems throughout the rest of the state, some of which I've ranked pretty high, the North Shore and the bluffs along the river road are easily the most consistently good. So much so that in addition to hiking the longest trail in this state park (which, among long trails in Minnesota State Parks, isn't that long), I also decided to stop on down in Winona proper to climb on up to Sugar Loaf, head over toward Garvin Heights, and make a blufftastic day out of it. 

The fall of 2025 was extremely kind toward fools like me, even though I'm someone who will hike in anything above -30. The autumn leaves are lovely, though being from the northeast it's hard to compare to New England, which is likely why the Gilmore Girls binge comes around that time with the season. But, the weather stayed pretty consistently mild until the middle of December for the most part, and as the bugs, ticks, and bears started going away along with the throngs of tourists, I was lucky enough to see state parks like this one without a scarf over my face, thus causing my breath to freeze on my sunglasses. What more could one ask for?

I noted before, but this park is a bit of a pain to get to, including trekking over some roads that would make even the fine citizens of Flint give some side-eye. For what it is, it's beautiful and a nice way to spend a clear autumn afternoon, but given how much wondrous nature and Appalachian-esque terrain is available, it leaves a little to be desired. Maybe I was spoiled by growing up in the aforementioned mountains or spending time on the Superior Hiking Trail close to this time, but I felt like it could be so much more than it is. Great River Bluffs, to me, inspires thoughts of steep climbs and difficulty-pushing hikes, but most of the trails there are already on top of the bluffs. Which is fine, I'm not knocking the access to glorious aerial views, but if I'm gonna travel several hours to hike on some bluffs, I want some sick elevation gain out of it. Thus, I also hiked another trail that starts from the bottom and allows for some leaftastic pushes up the sides of these ridges. 

Great River Bluffs State Park is beautiful and remote, and I'm in no way knocking going to visit or spending time exploring its trails. But, it could be even better. 

Minnesota State Parks Revisited: Banning State Park

 

Banning State Park

Date Hiked: October 6th, 2025

Trail Hiked: Quarry, Hell's Gate, Wolf Creek, Cartway, Cut Off, Skunk Cabbage

Distance Hiked: 8.2 miles

Elevation Gain: 420 ft.

Duration: 2:49:00

 

Banning State Park is pretty cool, but much like Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, the best the park has to offer is pretty much contained in the Hiking Club trail. 

That's not to say it's necessarily a bad thing. I ranked Banning pretty high up on the list of Hiking Club trails, but exploring the longest trail in this park was mostly a retread of what I'd already seen in much colder context. The above waterfalls were the only noteworthy exception to this rule, and that was merely going down farther than the Hiking Club trail looped back. Very beautiful secluded falls, don't get me wrong, but not really high on the list of reasons to make visits somewhat regular. Granted, Banning State Park has proximity to the 35, which is a major convenience for such things, especially if my fellow completionists can appreciate the Hell that is getting to Lake Bronson State Park from the Twin Cities, but alas. When one can spend a little more time to get to Jay Cooke State Park and everything along the shore, this is a great pick for "I only feel like driving 90 minutes today." 

This opinion may also have something to do with the latter half of the hike. 

Again, much like Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, what could basically be considered the perimeter route wanders off into the woods on a trail that's far less maintained and not exactly what one might call scenic. Not that it has to be, and at least I didn't run into Joshua the "Holy shit that's a giant" Bear, but I'm also not a fan of dodging thorny vines smacking me in the face like I owed them money, At least it was October so the bugs weren't as awful? Gotta appreciate the small mercies. 

October wasn't exactly late August in terms of how much my 2025 could repeatedly and exponentially go fuck itself, but I wasn't having a great time either. In fact, I was a short time away from someone pulling the greatest reverse disappearance accusation I've ever seen, but fortunately getting my shit together and doing stuff like this has steadied my mental health more than I ever thought was possible. I'm not gonna pretend that as of this writing, my life is in the best place it's ever been, but it's definitely the steadiest. 

I can now hike for hours without feeling an internal spiral that caused ridiculous and impulsive decisions. I can now hike for hours without having a compulsion to torment myself. I can now hike for hours without feeling a growing void within my stomach causing me to fear the inevitable. For the most part, I just am, I just exist. I just go cool places and see cool shit. This place has some of that, even if I've seen most of it before. Not a bad way to spend a day. 

Banning is worth the visit, but I don't feel I saw anything new on this hike.