Beaver Creek Valley State Park
Caledonia, Minnesota
Trail Hiked: Beaver Creek Valley, Hole-in-Rock, West Rim, Short Loop, Campground
Distance Hiked: 7.09 miles
Elevation Gain: 814 ft.
Duration: 2h 45m
Beaver Creek Valley State Park (no matter how many times I accidentally write Beaver Valley Creek State Park) is one of those places I've been intending to revisit so long that it was among the first I intended to write about when I started the Revisited series over a year ago. Somehow I always ended up going to Whitewater or Frontenac instead.
I cannot emphasize how far out of the way this park is, especially coming from the metro. But whereas a place like Whitewater feels remote despite being 8 miles from St. Charles (not exactly a thriving metropolis but not desolate either), Beaver Creek Valley is so remote that signal disappears entirely before even entering the place. What's the nearest town of note? Houston? It's a three hour sojourn to the middle of the middle of nowhere, and I'd always lose my resolve before I made it. It's not like the North Shore where I've intended to continue on the SHT but end up revisiting sites closer to Duluth instead. Beaver Creek Valley is much more all or nothing, and despite how highly I ranked it, it took nearly two years before I finally did it again.
Hey, this time the bridge is open so I didn't have to go down and back up! And I'm pretty sure the Hiking Club password wasn't in that spot the first time (maybe I missed it, or maybe it was in the closed section? I don't know, it was cold that day.) But holy hell, what a contrasting experience between the Hiking Club speedrun January traverse and this one in late summer.
The wildflowers are unbelievably plentiful in thr flat half of the trail, to the point that I wonder if they're more prevalent there than almost any orher park I've revisited in the months where people can breathe outdoors. But, so are the bugs. Goodness gracious, the bugs. It was only the third time since obtaining a head net that they bullied me into wearing one. The rainy, overcast conditions probably didn't help. Much like the winter hike though, I barely saw anyone there (those with camping spots notwithstanding) so that remained consistent,
The bluff portion of the hike was not nearly the difficult trek it was the first time, as I've hiked a lot more steep and challenging inclines since then. The lush greens made the views less vast and scenic, but were beautiful still in their own right. And that last little portion still felt like the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, but this time I remembered to download it in advance, because as ere stated, the signal at this park is mostly non-existent.
I don't think this park has much replay value for me, given the distance to get there, but also, there isn't much to hike beyond the Hiking Club trail, and if I'm going to do something I've already done, I'll stick to closer trails of comparable difficulty. But it is absolutely worth the trip at least once.
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