Barn Bluff, Red Wing

So Luke, Lex and I took off yesterday to do some hiking at a state park.  Our plan was to go to New Ulm or Granite Falls for the parks there, but it changed suddenly and we headed towards the Mississippi.  On the way I decided we should hike up Barn Bluff...

Pops and I had hiked up Barn Bluff almost 10 years ago and I was looking forward to hiking the 'north' trail again...it's a trail on the river side of the bluff, big drop offs...unfortunately, the trail was apparently closed in 2013 because at least 3 people have fallen to their death since 2011.  I wasn't going to go around the barricade...Lukie would have been willing, but no...

We stopped first at a local park overlooking Barn Bluff...it's like one of the hundreds of bluffs along the Mississippi from Hastings to Winona.  It's about 350 feet above the city of Red Wing.  As Glacial Lake Agassiz was catastrophically discharging through Glacial River Warren, this bluff (and most of the others) would have been an island...

And Lukie likes selfies...

Geologically, southeastern Minnesota is pretty cool as this sign describes the Red Wing area...

From there it was time to head to the bluff...

Lukie said "you mean we're going to get to stand on a rock that high?"  Not you buddy...Barn bluff has been popular for a long time...

Since the 'dangerous' trail is closed, all the remaining trails are real easy walking, you just have know you will be walking up and eventually down for a while...we headed for for the north overlook, that lets you see the river and city...

The trails are wide and mostly a limestone gravel...it's really not hard walking once you're on the top...

From the north overlook, we headed towards the south overlook...

This point used to be used every spring for people to watch for the first steamship coming up the river...

Even though the trails are wide and relatively flat on top, there are lots of signs saying 'danger of falling' to keep you on the trail...

Before we left, I took them on an out and back trail, after a little grumbling of having to walk another mile, both kids enjoyed what we got to watch (and the rest that came with it)...lots of people come to Barn Bluff to rock climb...we counted at least 30 people either climbing or getting ready to climb...

Before leaving Barn Bluff and heading to the state park, I had to get a little geology lesson going...Barn Bluff is the site of the easiest fault in the state of Minnesota to be seen...it's called the Red Wing Fault...

Basically, the buff colored sandstone on the left, dropped almost 150 feet downward to come in contact with the glauconitic (basically meaning green) sandstone on the right during some sort of an earthquake a long time ago in the past...it's stable now and has been for a long, long time...

Kieran was learning about faults last fall and we stopped to see the Douglas Fault in Superior, Wisconsin...he would've liked this one where you can walk right up to it and put your finger on the fault line...