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A long day trip

We started off our hike on Saturday in one county and ended up in another. Granted, the county parks we visited were not too far away from each other, and we ended up going on a longer walk than anticipated.

A Facebook post the other week led me to suggest going to Red Rock Falls Park. It is located in Cottonwood County, near Sanborn. One of the main attractions is a 30-foot waterfall. Some of the rock around the area was cool to look at, and I noticed a date and a name etched on the surface of one of them. I swear the year said 1896. I could be wrong, but it’s fun to imagine a more than 120-year-old carving in a rock. The waterfall was a beautiful feature. We stayed there for a while until we ventured onward.

Our next stop was along a stream (or river, I’m not all too familiar with Cottonwood County). Ross noted fish swimming upstream, so we watched them for several minutes. We weren’t going anywhere for a while. Ross lamented that here he was, on the fishing opener, without a fishing pole or a license.

We kept going toward what we figured is part of Mound Creek County Park, which is in Brown County. According to Brown County’s website, it’s the county’s newest park, being dedicated in August 1993. It’s a “day-use” park, which is open from 8 a.m. until sunset. So we set off on a mowed trail that meandered along the treeline toward open prairie. There was a farmsite to our left and the reservoir to our right (I didn’t know it was a reservoir until I looked it up on the Brown County website). The reservoir is created by the Wellner-Hageman Dam.

So we kept walking, and walking and walking. The trail seemed never-ending. We didn’t have a map to follow, so we hoped for the best. The sun was sort of beating down on us, but it wasn’t overwhelming and we weren’t sweating that much. Along the way, Ross pondered why an oyster shell was in the grass on one side of the trail. Beats me. We soldiered on. We could see the campground, people enjoying the water, people fishing. But here we were on the other side. I wondered how we were going to reach that other side. Eventually we reach a small bridge. But we were still a ways away from the boat launch and a picnic shelter.

We walk a little ways and stumble upon one of the holes of a disc golf course. Finally, signs of civilization! Or well, at least we knew it wouldn’t be far to where we were parked. Mound Creek Park has a 9-hole disc golf course, a beach, two picnic shelters, hiking (of course), fishing, sand volleyball, etc. for those interested. We reach the boat launch area. I flop onto a picnic table, I was ready for a rest. Ross wandered down to the boat launch to talk to some people who were fishing. Apparently a couple of them had seen us hiking on the other side. A woman, who gave Ross a bottle of water, said isn’t that a long way, about 3 miles? regarding our hike. I’m not sure how far we walked, but we weren’t to the point of exhaustion. We were offered a ride to where we were parked. We contemplated that for a while as we rested on the picnic bench and had some water. But we figured we’d be OK to go the rest of the way to our car. And we made it.

Since we were only a few miles away from the Jeffers Petroglyphs, we decided to head out to the site. It was after 6 p.m., so the visitor’s center was closed. According to the Jeffers Petroglyphs’ website, there are about 5,000 American Indian images carved in the quartzite outcrops, which are preserved by the Minnesota Historical Society. The carvings are anywhere from 250 years old to 7,000 years old. There’s also 230 species of plants there, some of which are rare. I’ve heard about the petroglyphs for many years, and this is the first opportunity I’ve gotten to see them.

It was later in the day, so we hoped we’d get a better chance to pick out the various carvings. Sure it involved more walking, but it was fascinating to see the history of this area. We were able to see quite a few of the petroglyphs as the sun lowered in the sky. We made our way along the trail, looking at the prairie grasses.

It did get to be a long day, but it was definitely productive.

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