St. Croix Crossing Trail Loop
Stillwater, Minnesota/Houlton, Wisconsin
Trail Hiked: St. Croix Crossing Loop Trail
Distance Hiked: 6.99 miles
Elevation Gain: 502 ft.
Duration: 2h 10m
Despite my usual need to complete new trails for verified complete badges, and even with how insanely crowded this trail usually is, it was my 400th hike for 2026 and I just felt like filming something I hadn't before.
Also, as no doubt the weather will show, anything else was not particularly ideal for the circumstances.
I've written about this hike before. Hell, I used it for my Wisconsin portion of the Great Wander of 2026, although that decision was made out of far more distress than this one. Sometimes, something old and familiar with confidently assured miles and a decent level of elevation gain is all one needs, and though
Stillwater is a beautiful town of old industry that has adapted to the insatiable need for repurposing and consumerism, and I'm not saying that's entirely a bad thing. Clearly it's working. Drive down up the 95 on any day between Memorial Day and Labor Day... if you can... and the parking lots will be almost as full as the crosswalks where folx feel the need to take selfies regardless of the light status. The hike itself is no flat old railway bed (see the nearby Browns Creek State Trail for that itch to scratch), but it's also not so difficult that entire hoards of families on a day with temperatures without any minus qualifiers to toddle along while being completely oblivious. For, in a tradition I imagine is even older than the town itself, gaggles of tourists can't help themselves but walk entirely side-by-side on a busy trail and somehow get offended if anyone else dares to not completely avoid their special bubble... even on a suspension bridge where one side is traffic and the other side is a funny little droppy drop to the river below.
Hard to imagine why it is that I don't like finding crowded areas at the peak of the nine and a half minutes of perfect weather we get in Minnesota, isn't it?
My utter disdain for trail tourists (and tourists in general for the most part) aside, on a good day this trail is scenic and picturesque, even if it takes five solid minutes to get one unobstructed. The lift bridge is iconic, regardless of its timely capacity, and the views are spectacular when you can get them. The lift bridge crossing is significantly better than the suspension bridge, mostly because the former isn't parallel to a busy highway with distorting noise pollution at the best of times. Conveniently though, the suspension bridge carves out several places off the trail to snap some of those elevated photographs, and sometimes the trail tourists even manage to find them instead of getting huffy because you dared to go around them while they were taking their 38th selfie in a row while holding up traffic both ways. How dare you, hypothetical person not engaging in this behavior. The 38th selfie was the bestofies, don't you know anything?!
The hike itself? It's fine. Paved, but fine.
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