Minneopa Falls State Park

Last Saturday, December 5, the kids and I drove down to Mankato to visit Minneopa State Park.  The park recently received a small bison herd that we wanted to see, as well as take advantage of the warm weather and do some hiking.  The DNR and Minnesota Zoo have plans to add bison to several state parks over the next few years.  Minneopa was the first to receive bison because it match the criteria that the DNR was looking for:  an open prairie near a large population center.

Unlike Blue Mounds State Park (where you can hike the perimeter of the bison enclosure) at Minneopa visitors can drive through the bison range.  It's a several mile drive, round-trip.  Sarah and I had drove through in mid-October without seeing the bison, so this was attempt #1.

 We had driven almost 3/4 of the way through the range and were almost back to the exit without seeing any bison.  At that point we were looking for any evidence of bison that we could find.  Here's what Luke found (from inside the van)...

 Yep...there must be bison somewhere....seconds later, Kieran found these...

So there are bison in that range...not that we saw any.  It was only after leaving the bison range and getting outside the fence that we finally saw the bison...

Bison are at Minneopa, we counted eleven and some of the cows are apparently pregnant...

After the bison sighting it was off for our hike...it would be a little over three miles...and some areas were quite snowy...

While other areas didn't have much or any snow at all...

It's hard walking in big snow boots...so some of the benches along the way were appreciated...

The trail that we were on basically follows the perimeter of the bison range...but we already knew were the bison were...

For large periods of time...it was Lex and I alone...the boys tend to take off on there own...

After the hike...we had to make a quick stop at the falls (a short drive away)...

Very little ice...with such a warm fall and early winter, I guess that wasn't too surprising...