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Photo by Dlrohrer2003. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Croix_State_Park_sign.jpg

Overview

31,000 acres along the St. Croix River!

Bike Ride

I’ve done this as a two day ride — it would be a long ride in one day for me! My friends and I camped at Interstate State Parks, and rode from there. As I mentioned in the review of those parks, the last portion of the ride isn’t great. Riding from Interstate Park to St. Croix State Park is nice, though. Much of it can be done on the Gandy Dancer trail, a crushed limestone rails-to-trails.

Camping

This park is so big, and the place we camped was very remote! So it was excellent, and we felt like we were in the wilderness.

Why I would go again

  • Huge park, plenty to explore, really beautiful St. Croix Valley

Why I would not go again

  • The route isn’t the best

Story:

Riding to St. Croix State Park is the only tour I’ve done with a small child, my friend’s 2 year old, Frankie. His mom was confident that Frankie would enjoy the trip since he loved being in the trailer. And she was right, he never tired of it! But when we got out after a long day of riding, we were tired, and he was full of energy. There were three adults on this trip, and the division of labor became straightforward: one to make the food, one to setup the tent, and one to watch the kid.

On the second night, as we were approaching St. Croix State Park, it was getting dark and we weren’t quite there. We were debating whether to find a random place to camp for the night or continue riding. It didn’t feel safe to ride in the dark on a rural road, in this case Minnesota State Highway 48. I wanted to keep riding, but my friends said we ought to stop. So we found a house with a big yard and knocked on the door. The friendly person who answered was happy to have us camp in his yard! That worked out well.

The next day, we rode into the park. As I mentioned, this park is ginormous. It took a while to get to our campground, and I’m glad I listened to my friends and stopped for the night. We would have had a very difficult time finding our campground if we tried the night before.