Jay Cooke State Park
Saint Louis River, panoramic from the famous swinging bridge in Jay Cooke State Park.
Trip Dates: May 10th, 2021 - May 14th, 2021
It was time for a spring trip! Took advantage of the warming temperatures and lack of mosquitos and enjoyed a week of hammock camping at Jay Cooke. I’ve only traveled to this park on day trips before, so I had a lot of trails to explore during the week!
Banning State Park - May 10th, 2021
I got an early start on Monday morning, so I stopped at Banning State Park on my way up to Carlton, MN. This is an easy detour off of I-35, and definitely was worth the hike! I visited “Hell’s Gate” a series of rapids on the Kettle River that earned the name from the “river hogs” that rode the logs down the river.
“Hell’s Gate” on the Kettle River, viewed from the Hell’s Gate Trail.
Banning State Park Webpage (MN DNR)
Banning State Park Maps (MN DNR)
Banning is set alongside the Kettle River, and is the site of a former sandstone quarry. There’s many ruins still visible in the park. Wolf Creek Falls is definitely worth the hike to visit.
Wolf Creek Falls
Jay Cooke State Park - May 10th - May 14th
Jay Cooke State Park Webpage (MN DNR)
Jay Cooke State Park Maps (MN DNR)
After checking in with the park office, I was able to set up my camp in site #33, which backs up onto a rock wall and doesn’t really have any close neighbors.
My hammock suspension system is pretty janky here, using a set of extension straps. My primary suspension straps are only 1” wide, and I wanted to use wider straps to prevent damage to the trees given that I would be staying for a few days. I’m going to be looking into getting some wider primary straps in the near future to avoid having to use the extension straps if I don’t need to. For the most part it worked okay, although I did have some stretching issues overnight and ended up a little closer to the ground than I would like. Overnight temperatures ranged from 29F to 40F. I stayed plenty warm with a mummy bag and underquilt.
Jay Cooke State Park, site #33.
Jay Cooke - Trails Explored
I tried to explore as many trails in and around Jay Cooke as possible, there’s tons of trails both inside and immediately adjacent to the park, and I’m a little disappointed I wasn’t able to explore them all, guess that gives me an excuse to come back later.
I really wanted to check out the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) from Jay Cooke to the southern terminus, at the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. Inside the park, the SHT aligns with a few other trails, but was really easy to follow, and very well blazed (blue blazes). Where the alignment is shared, the trails are very wide and grassy for the most part, apparently most are open to cross-country skiing in the winter. Once the SHT splits off, it quickly becomes the familiar narrow footpath, ascending and descending ridges, and crossing a couple of streams on the way to Jay Cooke’s southeastern boundary. There’s one white blaze (spur trail), which is well worth the short jaunt to check out the overlook to the north. This would be an awesome stop in the fall. There’s also a pretty good view of the BNSF railway bridge to the south of the trail.
After the trail leaves the park, there’s a short road walk to the Wild Valley Road trailhead, then the trail descends and ascends a few more times, finally arriving at the southern terminus. The North Country Trail (NCT) continues east from here. Round trip from the SHT sign in the parking lot by the River Inn to the southern terminus and back came to 25km (15.5mi).
Southern Terminus of the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) at the Wisconsin/Minnesota border.
The next day I hiked back along the portion of the Saint Louis River upstream of the swinging bridge, and downstream of the Thomson Dam. The Carlton Trail that runs along the southern river bank provides some awesome river access points, and also climbs to a pretty cool overlook upstream. This trail can be pretty rocky, and there were a number of dry stream beds and loose rocks. I returned back to the River Inn by both the Munger and Forebay trails, which are paved and would be great for biking! There’s an old railroad bridge on the Munger over the river, and has a pretty good view of the gorge just below the dam. The loop that I made was 8.7km (5.4mi).
Saint Louis River, near the end of the Carlton Trail.
On my last full day in the park, I decided to visit the eastern trails. There’s an overlook at the the end of the High Trail, which offers a good view of the river valley. I ended up retracing part of my SHT route, following the blue blazes until the Lost Lake trail, which I followed to the east. There’s a couple of backcountry backpacking sites out this way, definitely going to check these out in the future! The Lost Lake trail then feeds the Upper Lake trail, which splits and follows two different routes on either side of a ridge. I took the southern side of the loop and was rewarded with an awesome overlook of Lost Lake and the valley. There are a number of climbs and descents on this loop. The Spruce Trail is the next segment, another loop. Again, I took the southern segment and met up with the High Trail, which terminates at the river bank and a little overlook of the river valley. On the return trip, I took the northern segments of the Spruce Trail and Upper Lake Trail (there is a Lower Lake Trail, but it was closed due to flood damage). The northern segment of the Upper Lake Trail had a few views to the north, but it was fairly wooded. Steep ascents and descents were all over this day hike. Total distance for this hike was 25.5km (15.8mi). Definitely worth the hike, the views of Lost Lake and the river were spectacular!
Lost Lake, as seen from the southern segment of the Upper Lake Trail.
Total walking/hiking distance on this trip (including travel around the park and campground) clocked it at just under 96km (59.6mi). Jay Cooke is definitely worth the visit, and I still have more to explore in the future! There’s a number of trails in the northeast segment of the park that I didn’t set foot on.
Hike on!
-Scout
