This evening Noelle, Sierra and I braved the snow covered roads and heavy traffic to visit the Ice Castles at Lowell Park in Downtown Stillwater, Minnesota. I had some slight reservations about visiting such a touristy place, but Sierra's enjoyment of the place (along with mine and Noelle's) made our visit very worthwhile. It didn't hurt that the visitation was light, given that we were visiting on a Monday evening.
Our entrance was valid for the 4:00 to 4:30 entrance. I had timed it that way on purpose so that we would be able to see the ice in daylight, as well as lit up at night. We checked in and headed into a hallway made of ice.
It really reminded me of Noelle's and my days working at Carlsbad Caverns, but instead of stalactites, the place was decorated with ice. Noelle visited with Olaf,
and then Sierra and I checked out a cool little dome.
From the dome we headed into the maze. There were crawling passages,
as well as tight walking ones.
There was even a cool view of the Stillwater Lift Bridge!
Next we headed over to the small ice slide. Sierra really enjoyed the small ice slide.
She must have gone down it at least 30 times. Noelle and I also went down the small ice slide.
We even got a few family photos of everyone on the slide at the same time.
We all took turns going down the large slide also. This slide was enclosed in ice with lights that turned the ice different colors. Sierra desperately wanted to slide down the ice slide while the lights were green, but I don't think there were green lights at the slide. She still went down about 6 times, a few by herself.
We spent the rest of the time making our way through the Ice Castles again, this time in the dark.
It was really cool to see the formations lit up in different colors.
Among the attractions was an ice well that had lights inside that changed colors.
Eventually we decided it was time to leave.
We hadn't eaten dinner yet and were starting to get hungry. I would say we all had a great visit to the Ice Castles.
From reviews that I've read, it seems like going during the week, as opposed to the weekends, is the way to go. It's not as crowded and smaller crowds offered more opportunities for using the slides and exploring.
Yesterday Noelle, Sierra and I packed up the car and headed down south to Stillwater, Minnesota for a weekend of adventure. We checked into our hotel last night, went for a swim, and met up with some friends, before turning in for the night.
Today we made the short drive from our hotel to check out town and surrounding area. Our first stop was the St. Croix Boom Site.
It's a place where long ago logs that had been floated down the St. Croix River were sorted and pulled out of the river. I had heard there was a cave there, and so I braved the icy path and headed down to the
riverside where,
sure enough, I found the cave.
We read on an interpretive panel that it was carved out of the rock to provide storage for food used to feed the workers at the boom site.
On our way back to town we stopped by Fairy Falls. The path was icy, but Sierra, Noelle and I were able to get a decent view of the frozen waterfall
by walking in the snow off to the side of the path. On the way back to the car Noelle and Sierra skipped the path altogether and bushwhacked.
We then headed into downtown to walk around and eat lunch at Leo's. Sierra rode a horse she liked
and we walked up a set of stairs to a wonderful view
of Stillwater, the St. Croix River, and the famous lift bridge. We will be returning to town this evening to check out the Ice Castles.
It was snowy gently this morning as I strapped on my skis and started out on the Tilson Connector Trail. I made my way along the snow covered Rainy Lake Recreation Trail to the point where the Tilson Connector splits off, crosses the entrance road and heads into a wetland.
I quickly found an interesting snow covered bird's nest; I'm thinking it's a wren's nest.
Soon the trail headed into the forest.
I passed a trail shelter,
but continued on,
taking a side trip on a "new" trail
that went steeply up and then down a hill. I have to admit that I fell on the downhill. Nothing too catastrophic, but I fell nonetheless.
I continued on past a view of the what I believe to be a view of the trail's namesake Tilson Creek.
Soon I found myself at the intersection with the main portion of the Tilson Creek Trail system. I turned around at this point and started to make my way back to the car. This time I stopped at the trail shelter
for a short break
and then continued on back into the national park. I didn't notice the point when the trail left the park on the way out, but it was obvious on the way back; marked with a "no hunting" sign.
I looked for the Hike to Health rubbing post on way back, but never did find it.
Today we kept our tradition of participating in a hike on the first day of the new year. This year was a little bit different though. There aren't any organized first day hikes in our area so we headed over to the Rainy Lake Visitor Center area to do a snowshoe on the Oberholtzer Trail. It was Sierra's first time on snowshoes and she was very excited.
We parked in the lot near the boat ramp and strapped on our snowshoes.
Sierra tested them out immediately by walking in the deep snow off to the side of the parking lot.
We took a shortcut through snow-covered low shrubs
and joined the official trail.
Sierra was pretty good on her snowshoes, although she fell many times.
Often, her fall was on purpose; an excuse to play around in the snow.
We passed the snow covered expanse of cattails on Black Bay,
made our way through a forest of snow covered trees,
and continued on through a boulder passageway
to the overlook with the bench.
We relaxed at the bench for a bit,
huddled together for snowshoe photo
and then turned around for the walk back to the car.
Because we didn't move very fast with Sierra, I was getting quite cold by the time we were back at the car. Altogether, it was a nice way to start 2017 and a good first snowshoe for Sierra.
Not the best ski conditions today, but I am really just itching to get out on the trails. Yesterday I went and purchased my Great Minnesota Ski Pass and so today, despite the howling wind, I headed over to Tilson to give skiing a try. It snowed a little bit last night and so when I arrived at the trailhead I found that the classical tracks were a bit filled in.
Still, it felt good to be outside. The only section that was groomed was the first section of trail. That turned out to be okay though, since the warm weather (it was 31F after a week of temperatures hovering around 0F) made the snow stick to my skis.
The trail was easy and traversed some pleasant scenery.
The grooming ended at a trail shelter
and so I headed back the way I had come. My curiosity got the best of me at a trail junction and so I took a short section of ungroomed trail into a tamarack bog to have a look around.
I quickly turned around and then headed back to the car. Not a bad first trail ski for the season, but we are in desperate need of more snow if we want some better conditions.
Update December 30th:
We were authorized early leave today. Normally I wouldn't be able to take advantage of it, due to the fact that I've got a visitor center to keep open. Today, however, a coworker offered to staff the visitor center and so I headed off to do some skiing. Today I made it around the Orange Loop. I moved pretty fast through the Green Trail,
which I had skied 10 days ago, and checked the map posted at the shelter before decided to take the Orange Loop. There were some steep hills on the Orange Trail, but nothing that I couldn't handle. Soon enough I made it to the junction with the Blue Trail
which leads to the Rainy Lake Visitor Center. I opted to save that trail for a different day though.
I continued on the Orange Loop, up and down some nice hills. Eventually I found myself at the top of a steep hill with a chair off to the side of the trail.
Maybe to sit down and take off your skis if you don't feel comfortable skiing down the hill? After a bit more skiing I made it to the tamarack bog that I had skied a short way into last week,
and then I was back at the parking lot. A nice ski in light snow and somewhat cold temperatures.
The views off to the side of the trail were pretty awesome too!
I think I will make skiing the Recreation Trail a regular activity. That is, just as long as footprints and other uses do not making skiing too hazardous. After all, the trail is open to multiple uses and is not groomed for skiing. This first ski trip for the season has me thinking about future adventures across the frozen surface of Rainy Lake to Oveson's Fish Camp and Cranberry Bay.
