Friday, September 17, 2021 Interstate State Park: Bottomless Pit

Every state park must have its claim to fame, and at Interstate State Park in Taylor’s Falls, Minnesota, theirs is potholes. Yes, potholes! This seems so appropriate in Minnesota, the Land of Potholes. Of course, the potholes at Interstate are like regular potholes on steroids. They were formed by melting glaciers, which created “fast moving whirlpools of swirling sand and water that wore deep holes into the rock.”

Oh, and by the way, there’s a matching state park across the St. Croix River in Wisconsin with the same name: Interstate, which I suppose explains the name. But does theirs have potholes? If so, I bet our potholes are deeper and bigger (this is called state rivalry and I don’t indulge in it very often).

We went to Interstate on a beautiful fall day in September.

It’s about an hour and 45 minute drive for us, but once you get over to Highway 95, it’s a lovely drive up to Taylor’s Falls and the park.

We decided to visit the famous potholes first, just in case one of us didn’t have the energy to walk over and look at them after the hike (you can probably guess which one of us that might be).

There were potholes. We took photos.

They have one called the Bottomless Pit because it took so long for park employees to dig all the sand and silt out to get to the bottom 60 feet down (does Wisconsin’s park have a Bottomless Pit Pothole? I bet not!! More rivalry.). As I was holding my phone over the BPP to get a photo, once again I had a niggling fear about dropping the phone. Please tell me I’m not the only one who experiences these irrational fears.

We also took some photos of a few of the fall blooming flowers and then identified them using the app PictureThis. Another win for technology.

After we wandered through the potholes, we meandered back to the beginning of the 3-mile hike, which is on the historic Walter F. Mondale Trail. I guess he grew up near there. It was between 70 and 75 degrees and the blue skies were cloudless, so we couldn’t have asked for nicer weather.

It turns out that the trail runs between the St. Croix River and Highway 95 for the entire time.

Although most of the time you couldn’t actually see the highway, you could still hear the trucks and cars whizzing by, which gave you less of a sense of being away from civilization than you can get at most parks. Still, the trail was of the kind that is my husband’s favorite – a little on the rugged side with some rocks and tree roots to step over. The park people had also put nice wooden stairways in here and there for people like me. Thank you.

Early on, we realized I’d forgotten my hiking poles in the car and briefly contemplated going back for them, but I thought I could probably handle the hike without them. They would certainly have come in handy at several areas, but it turns out my knees were sturdier than I thought.

Also early on, I realized that I was feeling very sluggish, a holdover no doubt from my recent recovery from being ill. Oh well, it’s only 3 miles, I told myself. Deal with it! And so I did, but sometimes it felt like I was walking through molasses. (I’ve switched from state rivalry to trying to get the sympathy vote, as you can tell.)

We stopped and sat over on some rocks overlooking the river to take a little rest and enjoy the view. Kris had his Clif bar while I took a bunch of photos.

We passed a few people on the trail, but it was a lot less crowded than it would have been before Labor Day or on Labor Day weekend. We passed one young father who was hiking with two of his young-ish children. His son was on the phone with, we presumed, the mother who was encouraging them along the way and telling them to take lots of photos for her to see later. Aww… It was a like getting a little wholesome and good slice of someone else’s life.

We got to the halfway mark which was at the other parking lot and sat on a bench for awhile. I definitely needed the rest and also decided to take off my jacket because it was getting hot. Time for my carrot cake Clif bar. I told Kris that I didn’t think we’d need to buy anymore Clif bars for our hikes. I’m up for the challenge of making our own different flavors of granola bars. I received the spousal seal of approval on this money-saving idea.

After about 10 minutes we headed back up the trail. It’s not a huge grade uphill, but it’s definitely more up than down on the way back. Without my jacket, I was more or less a walking piece of mosquito bait. They like me. We chatted briefly about Willie Nelson – it’s funny the things that come up when you’re walking. We were wondering if he’s still alive (yes, I found out later) and how old he is (88, I found out later). I had just seen him on an episode of Monk from years ago. He has looked old for a long time now. Maybe you’ll be saying that about me when I’m 88.

We finished the hike around 12:30, having taken a little over an hour and a half from start to finish. It was a slow pace, but we weren’t in a hurry. Have I mentioned that we both recently retired from our jobs? Kris from his FT job of 34 years and me from my very PT job of the last 5 years. We’re loving retirement so far!

Interstate is a well-situated park and quite lovely to walk through. I look forward to visiting there again.

Knee score: about 6-7 (out of 10). Some rugged ups and downs, the equivalent of 15 flights of stairs.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning, but NOT without using my hiking poles.

Next hike: Wild River State Park