Red Wing, MN

We took a day trip to Red Wing, which is a small river town in SE MN that sits right on the banks of the Mississippi River just north of where the river becomes really wide. At this point, the river is several miles across and is called Lake Pepin. Red Wing is known for its pottery and charming, artsy downtown shops. Ian raced a half marathon there this morning and we spent the rest of the day roaming around since it was so beautiful.


There is a beautiful park with miles of hiking trails along the bluffs. The elevation is only about 400 feet, but since everything else is so flat, it gives the impression of being a mountain. This picture shows part of the trail. It was so shady and green that it made us forget that we were in the midwest.


At one point on the hike we came across these great limestone cliffs. This was once quarried for the stone and left some really interesting rock formations.


Here is a close-up picture of the rock. You can see some nifty red crystals in there. I also found a geode on the side of the trail.


Rock climbers love these limestone cliffs. We ran into our friend, Sylvia, who was perched up there.

From the top of the bluff you can see the Mississippi River. It looks like a bunch of little lakes because of the islands.

Ian found this ammo box stashed on the side of the trail. I begged him not to open it because it might be full of old unstable bullets, but of course he couldn't resist. What we found inside was really interesting.