Great River Bluffs: O.L. Kipp and Gently Walking Scientists

In our quest to conquer the southeastern part of the state, we next made our way over to Great River Bluffs State Park, which started out in life in 1976 as O.L. Kipp State Park. I guess that wasn’t descriptive enough, so the name of the park was changed in 1996. (Note to self: find out who O.L. Kipp was. I kind of like the name – rolls off the tongue with a delightful snap. Say it out loud – you’ll be glad you did!) The 2.5 mile hike at GRB will put us over 30 miles and well on our way to Kris’s goal of getting up to 50+ miles by the end of the year.

This is a beautiful park! Get on over there – the bluffs will just get even more amazing over the next month as fall colors seize the days. I was a little worried that with bluffs we’d be doing horrendous hiking up steeply angled trails to get up to those panoramic views. Most of the uphill was done in our car – yea!!

We started out on our way to King’s Bluff on the appropriately named “King’s Bluff Trail.” It was a lovely, wide trail and we got off to a good start with cheery hearts. Kris’s dad joined us for part of the way, having the good fortune to call us when we were just starting out. I took photos while they chatted briefly.

We’ve gotten utterly complacent about the mosquito menace, by the way. We’ve seen nary a one this year…until this hike. They weren’t too bad, but I wished we’d had the foresight to bring the bug spray in our backpack.

Look! I finally got a really great photo of a bird!! I was pretty excited about this. I’m fairly certain it’s a downy woodpecker.

There were some downed oak branches along the way. I love the way their clusters of dried leaves look like a bat colony just hanging around.

We saw a sign indicating that there were Scientific Areas in the park and there were Rules and Forbidden Activities for these parts.

What would O.L. Kipp have thought of that, I wonder? Or, maybe O.L. was the mastermind behind the whole thing. Anyway, I love the part at the bottom of the rules: Walk Gently. Aww… It tickles me to think of a troop of scientists walking gently down these paths, carefully and gingerly putting each foot in front of the other as they go.

I saw them in a cluster
Walking down the path.
They had no grit, nor bluster;
Their heads were full of math.

But the thing that made me wonder
And filled my heart with glee,
Was the way their feet did blunder
As they walked so gingerly.

They’ll crush no ant nor plant,
These mild mannered stalkers.
Observe their studious slant –
They are the Gentle Walkers!

As usual, I digress. The closer we got to the bluff, the narrower and more tree-root-laden the paths became, with a gradual incline.

I wish I could tell you the Hiking Club password for GRB park – my favorite one so far. King’s Bluff was a very nice overlook in both directions – the Mississippi River on one side and a valley on the other. You could even say it was breathtaking!

We sat on the bench and had our Clif bars. (I’m starting to think that Clif should be paying me for all the great advertising that goes on in my blog, except then I remember that I only have about 10 followers.)

While we were there, another couple came up – brethren from the Hiking Club, we found out. They took a photo of us and we took a photo of them. It was all very civilized and just what you’d expect from fellow hikers.

Kris had been sending out occasional feelers about Queen’s Bluff – comments like “It looks like Queen’s Bluff isn’t too far off the path if we want to go there.” I took them as the subliminal hints that they were and didn’t reject the idea out of hand (which may surprise you if you’ve read any of my other hiking posts). However, as we looked at the map, it looked like the Queen Bluff’s area was one of those accessible only by the Gently Walking Scientists with Permits. Oh well.

On the way back to the beginning, we passed this friendly family of mushrooms who very kindly posed for me. Dad, Mom and all the littles – a large family, indeed. I was quite taken with them.

After we got back, by this time all sweaty, we took the obligatory selfie and then decided to drive to another area where we could take relatively short hikes to two different overlooks.

I had shed my jacket at the beginning of the hike and now decided to shed my outer shirt as well, feeling positively risqué! Kris doused me with bug spray and we went off to investigate. The first overlook had a selfie station – the first time we’d seen one of these on our hikes. O.L. Kipp would be so proud. The actual overlook view was interrupted by all sorts of trees (of all the nerve!).

The other overlook had a better view, but no selfie station, so we took two separate pictures and hoped for the best from our photo guru to join them together. I gave him the extra challenge of removing 15 pounds from my waistline, but I guess there are limits to what Photoshop can do.

Anyway, good job on your park, O.L. Kipp – I still honor your name even if the rest of the State Park World decided to abandon it.

“A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, Favor is better than silver and gold.“ Proverbs 22:1

P.S. I couldn’t resist inserting a hint about the password. Do you know what it is?

I’ll probably delete this in the morning….

Next Hike: Jay Cooke State Park