8/5/08 Wednesday St. Croix River Scenic Byway

Beautiful doesn’t really describe the St. Croix River Scenic Byway that we followed today above St. Paul MN. The river is the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin and is perhaps the prettiest scenery to date. Much has been pretty, but this is very special perhaps because it is so different from back home. At any rate, just a lazy drive through little towns that show off a long heritage of Swedish decent which pleases me since my great-grandparents came from Sweden to the Minneapolis area and then homesteaded in Kendrick-Jullietta, Idaho areas. Since I don’t know the details of where in this area they settled, I am going to adopt Scandia as part of my heritage. The little museum of buildings from the 1850 that were built by the Swedish immigrants to this town were fascinating – and little. Keeping a little house warm would be much easier than a big one. I bought a coloring book showing a grandmother making a traditional Swedish quilt for her grandchild and it brought me to tears. I plan to use colored pencils to color it and then share it with the grandkids. I bought another one that showed the buildings of the Swedish immigrant town to show the kids also.

On up the road was Taylor’s Falls just north of the Interstate State Park. Both sides of the St. Croix were spectaular so the states came together and make state parks on both sides of the river. A paddlewheel giving tours was leaving soon so we took a boat ride and Matty went along too. Just a leisurely 80-minute ride down the river with narration about the area. St. Croix got its name by an outcropping of rocks along the river that look like a cross. St. Croix means “Holy Cross” in French and it was French man who named the river.

The Wild River State Park was up the road and right on the river. Set aside by the original wild rivers act of Congress back in the 50s, this river is reported to by on of the 10 cleanest rivers in the US. It is a funny rootbeer color which the DNR says is due to the tannins released by the tamarack trees that line the upper banks of the river. It is a long river stretching from below Duluth to the Mississippi River near St. Paul. Most of the river is inaccessible by road so it is a huge backcountry playground.