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. 

Minnesota Hiking Club #9 - Banning State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#9 - Banning State Park

Date Hiked: January 31st, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Moose Lake State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 4.17

The autistic special interest trap nets me a higher score yet again! Regardless, Banning State Park is really freaking cool! 

Excuse me one moment though... ABANDONED BUILDINGS! STACKS OF GIANT ROCKS! ABANDONED MINING STUFF! COOL BRIDGES! ... Okay, we now return to your regularly scheduled programming. 

Somehow it was t-shirt weather at the end of January. I certainly wasn't going to complain. Both Moose Lake and Banning are right off the 35, or at least a lot closer than the signs for William O'Brien and Wild River would have you believe. Banning is a massive state park that has its own little journey just to get to the appropriate area for the Hiking Club trail, and the snow drifts in the beginning weren't to last.

It's an odd route of intersecting trails, more than one of which I want to go back and do all on their own. Hiking Club appetizer sampler tray, you got me again. You know what you're doing. The loop itself looks like a flimsy axe in the middle of being bendy flung like a javelin. Does that make sense? Are you expecting it to this deep in the list? That's on you then. 

The trail goes from a standard Hiking Club trail trope of a walk in the woods, but descends into a skinny out-and-back trip through an old quarry. They could've gotten rid of all this stuff. There are plenty of parks built on repurposed areas that don't have evidence or cool things left from what it used to be. Not the Banning State Park's Hiking Club trail! It goes right next to the cut-out rock faces. Then there are stacks of rocks the size of glacial erratics just hanging out on top of each other. There's old equipment around. There's a massive shell of an abandoned building. There's probably even more of which I would've taken a million pictures and sent them to someone specifically had I not been in a speedrun. It was date night after all. 

This place has that undefinable quality of off-the-charts vibe, and yes I'm heavily biased because they're the vibes I specifically wanted that were enhanced by my subjective ranking system, but show me a travel writer who isn't more excited about the things they like. Throw in neurodivergent giddiness, and I am unapologetically geeking out over abandoned shit that also gives you a badass hike by the river. I make absolutely zero apologies to anyone who has a problem with unfiltered happiness. I call myself the damn Wanderloon, are you expecting a transcript of an informational brochure? I'll just be over here, skipping and posing like Toni Storm on the bridge. Watch for the SHOEEEEEEEE! I'm ready for my close-up, get the abandoned quarry as my backdrop. Dramatic pose, and.... Scene. (Yes, I absolutely did a Toni Storm dramatic pose on a bridge on this hike and there's nothing you can do about it. That's who I am as a person.)

Banning State Park is absolutely amazing.