A GORP Content Partner
Adapted from
Scenic Driving Minnesota
by Phil Davies
Bluff Country Bliss
Part Two: St. Croix River Valley
Hastings–Stillwater–Taylors Falls
Special Attractions: Wonderful views of the forested bluffs and islands of the St. Croix River; historic river towns of Hastings, Afton, Stillwater, Marine-on-St. Croix, and Taylors Falls; Northern Vineyards and Alexis Bailly wineries; dramatic Dalles of the St. Croix and glacial potholes at Interstate State Park; hiking, canoeing, cross-country skiing, and birdwatching at three state parks and Carpenter-St. Croix Valley Nature Center; antique shopping, riverside picnicking.
Drive Route Numbers: U.S. Highways 61, 10; Minnesota Highway 95; Washington County Road 21.
Location: Eastern Minnesota. The drive begins in Hastings southeast of the Twin Cities and ends at Taylors Falls on the St. Croix River.
Travel Season: Year-round. Autumn color peaks from late September to mid-October, but so do the crowds in Stillwater and Taylors Falls. Later winter and spring—prime time for eagle and osprey watching on the river—are considerably less hectic.
Camping: Greenwood Campground, south of Hastings off US 61; Golden Acres RV Park, north of Stillwater on Partridge Road; William O'Brien State Park near Marine-on-St. Croix; Interstate State Park in Taylors Falls; Wildwood Park, west of Taylors Falls on U.S. Highway 8.
Services: No shortage of gas stations, restaurants, and motel/bed and breakfast accommodations in Hastings and Stillwater. Bed and breakfasts and more limited dining opportunities in Afton, Marine-on-St. Croix, and Taylors Falls.
Nearby Attractions: Swedish cuisine and crafts in Lindstrom, west of Taylors Falls on US 8; Wild Mountain Water Park and Alpine Slides, north of Taylors Falls on Chisago County Road 16; North West Company Fur Post, a reconstructed nineteenth century trading post near Pine City; Carlos Avery Wildlife Area, west of Lindstrom; biking on the Cannon Valley Trail between Cannon Falls and Red Wing.The Drive
The beauty of the St. Croix Valley has enthralled visitors for hundreds of years. A land of high, rolling bluffs and deeply wooded ravines watered by small streams, the valley was one of the first areas of Minnesota to be settled. Yankee lumbermen set up camp here in the 1840s, founding river towns such as Taylors Falls, Marine-on-St. Croix, and Stillwater. With their nineteenth century buildings converted into antique shops, restaurants, and bed and breakfasts, those towns still exude character and charm. And their inhabitants—joined by large numbers of daytrippers from the Twin Cities—do indeed pass the time delightfully, on land and water.The Lower St. Croix, a federally protected wild and scenic river, is unpolluted and easily navigable by canoes and powerboats. Three state parks attract hikers, cross-country skiers, mountain bikers, fishermen, and rock climbers. The valley even boasts local wines made from cold-hardy grapes. Plan on at least half a day, preferably a full day, for this 60-mile drive up the valley to Taylors Falls and the dramatic Dalles of the St. Croix.
The drive begins in Hastings, a town of 16,000 on the Mississippi River southeast of the Twin Cities. Only thirty minutes from St. Paul on US 61, Hastings retains a distinct identity as one of the state's oldest communities. Architectural treasures in the historic district include City Hall, an imposing structure that blends Gothic, French Renaissance, and neoclassical styles; and the LeDuc-Simmons Mansion, the Gothic Revival home of a Civil War general. Second Street, lined with brick and limestone storefronts and warehouses, has remained virtually unchanged since 1895. A self-guided walking tour of the town is available from the Chamber of Commerce on the corner of Third Street and Vermilion (US 61). On the waterfront you can watch barges, cabin cruisers, and sailboats plying the broad Mississippi, the setting for a boat parade, water-ski show, hot air-balloon lift, and other events during Rivertown Days on the third weekend in July.
South of town, off US 61 (turn right on 180th Street), Alexis Bailly Vineyard produces award-winning vintages from vines that must be buried in the winter to survive 40-below temperatures. Winemaker Nan Bailly is a descendant of Alexis Bailly, one of the four original founders of Hastings.
A bright blue steel truss bridge leads the way out of Hastings on US 61. At the top of the hill, turn right on U.S. Highway 10, the road to Prescott, Wisconsin. The highway rides along the blufftop for 2.5 miles, passing an apple orchard and grand views of the Mississippi River and downtown Hastings. The St. Croix River joins the Mississippi at Prescott; just before US 10 begins its descent to the water, turn left on Washington County Road 21 (the St. Croix Trail). Scaling the precipitous, thickly wooded bluff in a series of hairpin turns, the road quickly emerges into rolling, lightly wooded cropland. Stone pillars flanked by pines mark the entrance to Carpenter–St. Croix Valley Nature Center, a former country estate with 15 miles of hiking and snowshoe trails through blufftop prairie, wooded ravines, and bottomland forest. Great blue herons, bald eagles, and red-tailed hawks frequent the nature center.
CR 21, originally a military road used to supply Fort Snelling in St. Paul, parallels the St. Croix River for the next 10 miles, roller coasting over open hills and intimate, wooded valleys. To the right, cropland dotted with scattered houses on the ex-urban fringe slopes down to the St. Croix, flowing unseen at the foot of 150-foot bluffs. Corn silos gleam atop wooded bluffs on the Wisconsin side of the river. Apples, strawberries, and raspberries thrive in the relatively mild climate of the valley, drinking up the sun on south-facing slopes; keep your eyes peeled for roadside stands and signs showing the way to apple orchards and U-pick berry farms. The countryside gradually becomes more wooded as you approach Afton State Park, at the crest of a hill with a sweeping view of the valley and Wisconsin bluffs. In the distance, on the far side of a golf course, you can see the chair lifts of Afton Alps, a downhill ski area.
The terrain of Afton State Park can hardly be called alpine, but this patch of wildness on the edge of the metro area does offer fetching views from its 18 miles of hiking and cross-country ski trails. Narrow ravines cloaked in oak, aspen, birch, and cherry drop 300 feet to the river from uplands that are being restored to native prairie. Most of the park is accessible only on foot, but an interpretive center and blufftop picnic area are located near the main parking lot. To enter the park, turn right on Washington County Road 20.
The roller coaster keeps going on CR 21, swooping down into the deeply shaded defile of Trout Brook, then climbing back up into rolling meadows and woodland. After 2 miles, just past a hilltop farmstead with a picture-postcard red barn, the road descends a long hill, curving between towering walls of fractured limestone. The village of Afton, named after a poem by Robert Burns, nestles at the bottom of the hill. It's obvious why the place is a favorite stop for bicyclists and classic car collectors touring the St. Croix Valley; Afton evokes a simpler, more sedate era with its shady main street lined with white wood-frame buildings. The Afton House Inn, a two-story clapboard structure on the right, was built in 1867; a clothing store across the street occupies an 1841 house built by an Irish lumberman. Other old buildings house a tiny post office, an ice cream parlor, and Lerk's Bar, renowned for its hamburgers. Walk down to the village marina (directly behind the Afton Inn) for a great view of the river, hemmed in by high forested bluffs.
The St. Croix Trail joins Minnesota Highway 95 in Afton. The riverbank between here and Stillwater, 12 miles upstream, is cluttered by residential and commercial development creeping out from the metro core. But north of Interstate 94, sweeping vistas of Lake St. Croix make up for the incipient sprawl. Formed by a natural dam of sand and silt at the mouth of the St. Croix, this wide bulge in the river gives cabin cruisers, sailboats, and stern-wheeling riverboats room to roam. During the summer hundreds of pleasure craft tie up at the Bayport Marina, a large complex with a restaurant, gas dock, tennis court, and swimming pool. The town of Bayport, 1.5 miles farther on, is dominated by a sprawling Andersen Windows factory and the tall smokestack of Northern State Power's Alen S. King Plant in nearby Oak Park Heights.
Another 2 miles takes you around sheer limestone cliffs into Stillwater, the hub of the St. Croix River Valley. Stillwater—the name refers to the tranquil waters of Lake St. Croix—teems with tourists on summer weekends. For your sanity, find a place to park and explore this grand old lumber town on foot. The wealth of King Pine built the more than thirty brick and limestone buildings that spill down the bluff to the waterfront, including the Freight House (1833), Warden's House (1853), and the Washington County Courthouse (1867-70). Staples Mill, a towering edifice of limestone and corrugated iron at the north end of Main Street, has been converted into a three-story antique mall. Northern Vineyards Winery, a cooperative run by area grape growers, occupies space on the ground floor, next door to an espresso bar and ice cream shop.
Lowell Park on the riverfront, with a view of the town's aerial lift bridge and Wisconsin's wooded bluffs across the river, is a popular picnic spot. A long flight of stone steps behind Vittorio's Restaurant leads up to a blufftop panorama of the historic district and the river coiling away to the northeast.
Passing the Minnesota Zephyr depot on the right—the departure point for 1940s-style train tours of the valley—MN 95 scales a forested bluff, scraping past deep cuts blasted into the limestone hillside. A wayside rest on the right offers a spectacular view of the Stillwater marina and Lake St. Croix, dotted with wooded islands at its northern end. Great blue herons nest in the treetops in the early spring, taking flight above the recently thawed river to hunt for fish. Nearby is the St. Croix boomsite, a clearinghouse for millions of pine logs in the late 1800s. Logs cut along the Upper St. Croix and its tributaries were sorted and clumped together in rafts for the journey to sawmills in Stillwater and towns farther downstream.
North of this point the St. Croix becomes the domain of canoeists and kayakers. Cabin cruisers and sailboats turn around, unable to negotiate a narrow channel constricted further by sandbars, islands, and sloughs. For a glimpse of this younger, thinner St. Croix, turn right on a gravel road at the top of the hill; the Arcola Trail winds past expensive homes, under a wooden railroad trestle, and along the densely wooded riverbank before rejoining the highway in 4 miles. Otherwise, stay on MN 95 as it veers away from the river through sharply rolling woodland and pasture. Square Lake County Park, 2 miles up the hill on Washington County Road 59, has a swimming beach and a picnic area sloping down to the lake. Scuba divers from the Twin Cities frequent Square Lake's deep, limpid waters on weekends.
Swinging back toward the river, the highway rises and dips over the feet of bluffs cloaked in maple, oak, pine, and fir. Turn right on Washington County Road 7 (Judd Street); a narrow, wooded lane winds past riverside homes and over a brook into Marine-on-St. Croix, a village that rivals Afton in bucolic charm. The Marine-on-St. Croix General Store and Village Hall, modeled on the elegantly simple wood-frame buildings of New England, anchor the oldest civilian community in the state. Minnesota's first commercial sawmill operated here from 1839 to 1885, powered by the rushing waters of Marine Falls. Today the falls still tumble into the woods behind Village Hall, but the mill has crumbled into a pile of moss-covered rubble. A two-minute walk through the woods leads to an overlook above the mill site and the banks of the St. Croix. Up the street, an outdoor cafe serves homemade soups, sandwiches, and desserts.
MN 95 continues north through William O'Brien State Park, a rolling expanse of maple-basswood-oak forest, lakes, marshes, and meadows. Mr. O'Brien was an ex-lumberman who bought much of the cutover land once owned by the logging companies; in 1945 a bequest of 180 acres from his daughter became the nucleus of a park that now covers over 1,300 acres. Eleven miles of hiking and cross-country ski trails loop through uplands and along the river. Canoes can be rented for the short paddle out to Greenberg Island, a haven for mink, beaver, deer, fox, songbirds, and other wildlife. A mile beyond the park entrance you pass a modest wood-frame building on the right: Crabtree's Kitchen, a culinary institution on the St. Croix since 1949. The restaurant's December special is lutefisk (cod cured in lye) with Swedish meatballs and sausage; on weekends, horse-drawn sleigh rides aid the digestion.
The land becomes progressively more rural as MN 95 dips and rolls through lush woodland and pasture into Chisago County. Barns replace scattered houses on the urban fringe, and sheep and dairy cattle graze by the roadside. This area has become popular with ex-urbanites pursuing alternative lifestyles. After the highway makes a sharp right turn towards Taylors Falls, you'll see an unusual crop sprouting from a patch of native prairie: giant wooden and metal sculptures. Franconia Sculpture Park, billed as "the only high-profile, work/residence outdoor sculpture park in the Midwest," is open daily from March through November.
The precipitous descent into Taylors Falls on MN 95/U.S. Highway 8 is one of the most exhilarating stretches of pavement in the state. As the road curls around a sheer sandstone cliff, a magnificent vista of the St. Croix and soaring bluffs draped in oak, maple, fir, and tall red pine opens up to the right. A shallow pull-off to the right offers an excellent view of the St. Croix Dalles, a deep, ruddy canyon gouged out by an immense torrent of meltwater at the end of the last Ice Age. Rock climbers can often be seen inching their way up the 200-foot basalt cliffs; on summer weekends kayaks and canoes dot the aquamarine waters below. The Dalles are protected from development by state parkland on both sides of the river. On the Minnesota side of Interstate State Park, a self-guided interpretive trail loops around potholes, giant cauldrons, and other geologic oddities carved into rock ledges high above the river. Turn right at the bottom of the hill to reach the trailhead and an interpretive center. Riverboat tours of the Dalles leave from a dock just below the bridge.
Lumbermen from New England founded Taylors Falls in the 1840s, harnessing their sawmills to falls which are now covered by a dam. Many buildings remain from the village's golden age, including the 1884 county jail, now a bed and breakfast, and the William H. C. Folsom House, a masterpiece of Greek Revival architecture built in 1855. The Folsom House, open for tours from late May to mid-October, is located in the Angel Hill historic district, a slice of New England perched atop a high wooded bluff behind the town. The drive ends here.
Continue over the bridge to reach St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin and the eastern unit of Interstate State Park. US 8 to Interstate 35 via Lindstrom is the most direct route back to the Twin Cities.
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