Hike With Me - Frontenac State Park

Frontenac State Park

Frontenac, Minnesota

Trail Hiked: Waconia Cliffs Trail, Sandstone Trail, Upper Bluffs Loop, 

Distance Hiked: 7.57 miles

Elevation Gain: 883 ft.

Duration: 2h 50m

Frontenac State Park is one of those places that I end up more often than intended. Not in a negative way necessarily, just that it's closer than the North Shore, less crowded than Barn Bluff, and good to get some elevation gain when I can't get out to a place with mountains; which, given that I live in Minnesota, is most of the time.

One particular thing I enjoy about (some of) these state parks is when I find a trail that I didn't know about, even after a dozen visits like Frontenac, and what a lovely time to discover them as when I'm coming back because "well, I've been there plenty of times, but never with my camera, so that's a new way to give these trails replay value." Doesn't always work (see future episode or previous entries for Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park), but this was a pleasant instance.

Typical traffic flow (if you can call it traffic most days) heads up the Hiking Club trail toward the bluffs. That is, unless they parked at the top and skipped the initial incline, but that's their prerogative. Most people I've seen are headed that way and end up on the bluffs trails, upper and lower. On other visits, I've taken the prairie loop on the front side, and there's also the oddly separate Rattlesnake area that's lovely... if you can find it on that road so remote it makes Lake Bronson State Park in the winter seem metropolitan. 

On this hike, I was headed the opposite way, intending to take the initial elevation gain up toward the campground, mostly to mix it up a little given the aforementioned frequent visits. But, at the point where I would've turned right to head up the grassy rise, I saw a small brown sign indicating a Waconia Cliffs trail. Not on AllTrails, and since that junction was usually where I turned toward the parking lot, I never noticed it before.

A wonderful world of hills and wildflowers awaited, followed by views of the same quality as the Hiking Club trail and other blufftop hotspots. At the vista point over the lakes below, another brown sign for the Sandstone Trail indicates another access point to these views, so I looped back to the initial junction and took that route. While easily the least maintained of the contiguous park trail, the name isn't false advertising. Journeying up the sandstone cliffs over which the vista peers, they aren't quite as towering as the climbing hotspots back in the other areas, but still rather nice all the same. I don't think I saw another person on either trail the entire time.

With those two completed (and submitted to AllTrails afterward as new routes, so expect to see them never,) I did a final loop around the more common areas. Still gotta get those miles and elevation gains up, after all. Those trails were predictably crowded on a beautiful August day, but at least I enjoyed solitude first.