Seeing New Sights: Minnehaha Falls

I count myself very, VERY lucky that I grew up with a parent who worked for the airlines. Because of that, I have been to many wonderful locations all around the world! However, when I think about some of the great sites here in Minnesota, I realize that I haven't seen some of the big ones. Not that I'm complaining because I have seen so many great things in my life!

One of those sites is the Minnehaha Falls. A few weekends ago, I actually had some time off and the weather was beautiful so I wanted to get out and explore something! We were going to go to Interstate State Park, but didn't want to drive that far (I know...it's not THAT far, but we wanted to stay just a bit closer to home). My brother-in-law then told my husband that they had just gone to see the Minnehaha Falls and enjoyed it. So that's where we decided to go!

We got there earlier in the morning and found a parking spot. Neither my husband or I had ever been to the falls, so we didn't know where to park or where the falls were! So we asked someone and told us that it was a couple of miles to our north! Well instead of getting into the car and driving to a closer parking spot, we decided to walk. It was nice to see all the fall colors and to enjoy the beautiful weather, but our legs were sore by the end of the trip!



Along our way, we were able to see one of the first few locks in the lock and dam system on the Mississippi. This one is Lock and Dam No. 1, or the Ford Dam (there's some pretty interesting information on Wikipedia if you're interested).



We also passed by the entrance to the Minnesota Veterans Home. They have a beautiful entrance with a bridge over the Mississippi River!

We finally got to the entrance to the falls!



You then take a staircase down to the river which zigzags down to the bottom of the falls. This picture



is the first sight of the falls we got. You then get to a little bridge which gives you another great sight of the falls like this one:



We then walked up the other side of the falls which brings you to another portion of the park that has a restaurant (we didn't try it this time, but it sounds great!) and a wide open public space (where lots of kids were playing in the leaves!). We decided to check that out some other time and walked over to a bridge at the very top of the falls. It lead to even more interesting view of the falls like this



We were running out of time on the meter so we headed back to our car. On the way, we found the John H. Stevens house. It was closed when we were there, so we didn't get a chance to explore it.



I hope to go back during the winter. I've seen some amazing pictures of the falls during the winter and would love to get some shots of the falls partly frozen (if possible!). So bring on the cold/snow! Also, make sure to check out my Minnehaha Falls set on my Flickr page for a few more shots I took while at the falls.