June 18, 2019 Tuesday Day 30
Wow, it is hard for us to get out at a reasonable hour. We got up late, ate and packed and did not get out until about noon. Took pictures of the grandsons intertwined with each other. No place to be at a specific time so no urgency. Everyone is staggering around still feeling the effects of the cross Atlantic trip and time zone change. At least we should not run into rush hour traffic leaving Minneapolis.
It took us about an hour to drive up to Taylors Falls, MN. I was amazed at how quickly we left the city and its suburbs and got into rural country off the interstate following state routes 8 and 95. The latter was a senic and winding drive that at times overlooked the St. Croix River. Many trees, not much agriculture and several small towns along the route. The drive took us to Chisago County which at first glace, and most subsequent glances looked like the word Chicago.
Taylors Falls, named for a Taylor who established a mill in the mid 19th century using the falls in the river for power and was later a big shot in the territorial government, is really just a village. It is a bit over 4 sq miles in size and has less than 1000 permanent inhabitants, who appear to be overwhelmingly white. It is a one stop light town which was populated primarily by Scandinavian immigrants. Its biggest claim to fame is that it was the setting where the main characters in the Swedish novel The Emigrants settled. I was told that there are several thousand summer residents.
But what its lacks in size it makes up in charm and eye catching scenery. The eponymous Falls are long gone, buried under the backed up water when a dam that was constructed in 1906, but it still has: the hills that rise from the St. Croix River, the rapids in the river, the glacier created "Dallas" rock formations along the river and the Interstate Park that straddles the River and is administered by both Wisconsen and Minnesota. It also has a ski area which is spread out over 26 ski hills and doubles as a water park in the summer. A lot of ski acreage, but not much vertical drop.
We drove through town out to our BnB. It was several miles out of town in a very rural area on a small road. When we pulled up about 3:00 pm we were warmly greeted by a middle aged lady who quickly asked us what we were doing there. It turns out that her property had just been listed on AirBnb and she was not expecting her first guest until Friday. She felt that her property was not ready for guests. I thought that we had a reservation through Airbnb, but the host had not actually responded. Given the late hour and absence of any visible options (turns out that while Taylor Falls did not have any hotels, St. Croix Falls across the river had lots of chain hotels, but I did not know that at that time.) we urged her to make whatever fixes she needed and we would be back in a few hours. That worked out and after we unloaded we drove back into town intending to head to the Park. However we saw signs for a river boat ride and followed them to its parking lot, adjacent to the Park's parking lot. We signed up for the 6:00 pm 45 minute boat ride. $28 for two senior tickets and we avoided the parking fee at the Park. We walked over to the Park and proceeded to the Glacial Pothole Trail. This area marks the southern most flow of the glaciers 10,000 years ago. As the ice moved it froze around grains of sand and pebbles. When the ice melted it initially accumulated in giant glacial lakes that were formed in large pockets of land gouged out by the glaciers and held back by the foreword wall of material built up by the glaciers. Eventually the water broke through in torrents and as the glacial lakes drained they cut several spectacular gorges one of which is the Dalles of St. Croix. They also formed eddies in the rocks and the sand and pebbles the water carried gouged out cylindrical shaped potholes. Many are small, but some are very large and deep. The Unexplored Pothole is the Park's widest and the Bottomless is 60 ft. deep, the world's largest explored Pothole. There are more glacier potholes is this Park than anywhere else in the world. We got down to the river's edge and stood on the bluffs, high above the river and then walked along the mile and a quarter River Trail.
We then retraced our steps and when back to the dock for a ride on the river steamer. At 6:00 it was still very light. It was a pretty big boat that was floated up on the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers. There were not many passengers. We were given a guided tour by one of the boat guides (just a teenager with a summer job,) who pointed out the various, unusual rock formations that in some places rise 200 ft. high, river depths that were up to 100 ft, and the site of a log jam in 1886 so big that it had to be dynamited loose. It was a 45 minute ride that was very relaxing.
In the latter part of the 19th century the area was heavily logged (we would subsequently learn that was common throughout the upper Midwest) to fuel building booms in the growing US cities and Europe. However as each forest was depleted the loggers moved on and in the 1890 census Taylor Falls lost half of its population.
There were not many choices for dinner in town, and we went to the Chisago House Restaurant. Located on the main drag in an older impressive building, they had many comfort foods on the menu and a good salad bar. It was not Saturday so we could not have the prime rib buffet, but the food was pretty good and the service was very good. I enjoyed the pie dessert.
After dinner we drove over the St. Croix River into St. Croix Falls in Wisconsen to a food market to get some breakfast eats and snacks. To my surprise there was a newly installed, the newly painted lines limiting parking to electric vehicles was still drying on the pavement, level 2 electric charging station in the parking lot. Installed by the local electric utility it was free to use. I had not seen any electric cars in this area. It was a quick shopping trip so we only got a few miles, enough to almost get us back to our Airbnb.
The Airbnb host provided an extension cord from the garage so I could charge up the car. We had a downstairs unit that was very new, two bedrooms and lots of room. It did not have a full kitchen, but the refrigerator was sufficient to store our breakfast foods. We watched a very late sunset over the woods and farmland.
Wow, it is hard for us to get out at a reasonable hour. We got up late, ate and packed and did not get out until about noon. Took pictures of the grandsons intertwined with each other. No place to be at a specific time so no urgency. Everyone is staggering around still feeling the effects of the cross Atlantic trip and time zone change. At least we should not run into rush hour traffic leaving Minneapolis.
It took us about an hour to drive up to Taylors Falls, MN. I was amazed at how quickly we left the city and its suburbs and got into rural country off the interstate following state routes 8 and 95. The latter was a senic and winding drive that at times overlooked the St. Croix River. Many trees, not much agriculture and several small towns along the route. The drive took us to Chisago County which at first glace, and most subsequent glances looked like the word Chicago.
Taylors Falls, named for a Taylor who established a mill in the mid 19th century using the falls in the river for power and was later a big shot in the territorial government, is really just a village. It is a bit over 4 sq miles in size and has less than 1000 permanent inhabitants, who appear to be overwhelmingly white. It is a one stop light town which was populated primarily by Scandinavian immigrants. Its biggest claim to fame is that it was the setting where the main characters in the Swedish novel The Emigrants settled. I was told that there are several thousand summer residents.
But what its lacks in size it makes up in charm and eye catching scenery. The eponymous Falls are long gone, buried under the backed up water when a dam that was constructed in 1906, but it still has: the hills that rise from the St. Croix River, the rapids in the river, the glacier created "Dallas" rock formations along the river and the Interstate Park that straddles the River and is administered by both Wisconsen and Minnesota. It also has a ski area which is spread out over 26 ski hills and doubles as a water park in the summer. A lot of ski acreage, but not much vertical drop.
We drove through town out to our BnB. It was several miles out of town in a very rural area on a small road. When we pulled up about 3:00 pm we were warmly greeted by a middle aged lady who quickly asked us what we were doing there. It turns out that her property had just been listed on AirBnb and she was not expecting her first guest until Friday. She felt that her property was not ready for guests. I thought that we had a reservation through Airbnb, but the host had not actually responded. Given the late hour and absence of any visible options (turns out that while Taylor Falls did not have any hotels, St. Croix Falls across the river had lots of chain hotels, but I did not know that at that time.) we urged her to make whatever fixes she needed and we would be back in a few hours. That worked out and after we unloaded we drove back into town intending to head to the Park. However we saw signs for a river boat ride and followed them to its parking lot, adjacent to the Park's parking lot. We signed up for the 6:00 pm 45 minute boat ride. $28 for two senior tickets and we avoided the parking fee at the Park. We walked over to the Park and proceeded to the Glacial Pothole Trail. This area marks the southern most flow of the glaciers 10,000 years ago. As the ice moved it froze around grains of sand and pebbles. When the ice melted it initially accumulated in giant glacial lakes that were formed in large pockets of land gouged out by the glaciers and held back by the foreword wall of material built up by the glaciers. Eventually the water broke through in torrents and as the glacial lakes drained they cut several spectacular gorges one of which is the Dalles of St. Croix. They also formed eddies in the rocks and the sand and pebbles the water carried gouged out cylindrical shaped potholes. Many are small, but some are very large and deep. The Unexplored Pothole is the Park's widest and the Bottomless is 60 ft. deep, the world's largest explored Pothole. There are more glacier potholes is this Park than anywhere else in the world. We got down to the river's edge and stood on the bluffs, high above the river and then walked along the mile and a quarter River Trail.
We then retraced our steps and when back to the dock for a ride on the river steamer. At 6:00 it was still very light. It was a pretty big boat that was floated up on the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers. There were not many passengers. We were given a guided tour by one of the boat guides (just a teenager with a summer job,) who pointed out the various, unusual rock formations that in some places rise 200 ft. high, river depths that were up to 100 ft, and the site of a log jam in 1886 so big that it had to be dynamited loose. It was a 45 minute ride that was very relaxing.
In the latter part of the 19th century the area was heavily logged (we would subsequently learn that was common throughout the upper Midwest) to fuel building booms in the growing US cities and Europe. However as each forest was depleted the loggers moved on and in the 1890 census Taylor Falls lost half of its population.
There were not many choices for dinner in town, and we went to the Chisago House Restaurant. Located on the main drag in an older impressive building, they had many comfort foods on the menu and a good salad bar. It was not Saturday so we could not have the prime rib buffet, but the food was pretty good and the service was very good. I enjoyed the pie dessert.
After dinner we drove over the St. Croix River into St. Croix Falls in Wisconsen to a food market to get some breakfast eats and snacks. To my surprise there was a newly installed, the newly painted lines limiting parking to electric vehicles was still drying on the pavement, level 2 electric charging station in the parking lot. Installed by the local electric utility it was free to use. I had not seen any electric cars in this area. It was a quick shopping trip so we only got a few miles, enough to almost get us back to our Airbnb.
The Airbnb host provided an extension cord from the garage so I could charge up the car. We had a downstairs unit that was very new, two bedrooms and lots of room. It did not have a full kitchen, but the refrigerator was sufficient to store our breakfast foods. We watched a very late sunset over the woods and farmland.
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