Pattison State Park

 2020 was not a year for travel. So far 2021 hasn't been much better. But we have discovered that we love winter hiking! There is nothing quite like sunlight and shadows of tree trunks on white snow. A couple years ago I got it into my head to take pictures of the waterfalls at Pattison State Park (about 50 minutes up the road from here). We had been there the previous spring and I loved it, but the snow was old and yucky. I wanted to go back with fresh snow. So on a sunshiny day after a particularly big snow storm, we hopped in the car and headed north. Only they don't maintain the walks in winter at Pattison. The snow was thigh deep.  Did get a nice picture of the footbridge from the road.

That was when I started investigating snow shoes. Steve gave me, not one, but two pair for Christmas this year so we could hike together.

This past week has been twenty to thirty degrees below zero. That's Fahrenheit. Thirty five below for my Centigrade friends. Today is twenty plus ABOVE! Positively balmy in comparison. The sun is shining; the snow, if not fresh, is still at least pretty clean. We headed north with our snowshoes in the car. When we got there we found that although the trails are not maintained, they are well used and trampled. (Evidently in December 2019, we came too soon after the storm and no one had broken a trail.) We didn't use our snowshoes although we wished for the cleats on the bottom at times.

We stopped at Little Manitou Falls first. I would love a picture of this with sunshine on it, but it faces north, so it is always in shadow. Any time of day, any time of year. This is probably the best I can get.

At this time of year, I could get up close and personal. Beneath that spill of ice, I could hear the rumble of water. Or maybe it was the vibration of the ice. There were no footprints across the pool in front of the falls, so I didn't try that either.

Big Manitou Falls is higher, but harder to get close to as if falls into an inaccessible gorge. Here we could see mist escaping in a few places that were not completely frozen over. Again, it faces north.

A trail goes around the lake between the two falls. We were by no means the only ones out to enjoy it on such a gorgeous day. You can see how well traveled the trail is. Also the steps turned into ramps. On the west side of the lake (return trip) there were several places where the hill was steep enough to have stairs, but they were so packed with snow that they formed 45 degree ramps. Next trip to REI we will definitely buy those spikes to put on the soles of our boots.

At the top of the lake, the trail continues along the river, but the raised slabs of ice looked treacherous.

Why did we never do this before? we are asking ourselves. Last fall the local paper had an article recommending places to walk and enjoy the leaves--places, for the most part, we had never known were there. We enjoyed exploring them, and when the snow fell, saw no reason to stop. Thank you Burnett County Sentinel!

We had almost finished the two mile circuit of the lake when we saw this sign.

Uh, oh. We had no desire to turn back and retrace our steps. In fact, with the ground frozen, there was no problem getting through. This, we presume, is the washed out bridge.

Winter hiking in the Northwoods: highly recommended. On sunny days above zero.