Another picture perfect Saturday morning on the Mississippi.

I scouted this area out on my way home from Work on Friday.  A short half mile walk from the parking lot down a well maintain trail – easy peasy.  I found a nice little point where we could set up and take in nature’s color.

Spring Lake Regional Park is located a few miles North and West of Hastings, MN.  There are two parts, an upper and a lower.  The upper part is Schaar’s Bluff; this is a great sunset location.  The lower part of the park was pretty great for sunrise.  Mother Nature cooperated once again and laid out some clouds just above the horizon.

The lower part of Spring Lake Regional Park has an archery trail.  If I were into bow hunting I’d think it was pretty swell.  Next to this archer trail is a half mile hiking trail down to the river where you’ll find a nice point that protrudes out into Spring Lake.

When we arrived this a.m. the gate was closed across the access road.  Bugger. I hadn’t considered that yesterday afternoon in the middle of the day.  We parked alongside the road, shouldered our gear and hoofed it to the trailhead.  It was a beautiful morning, mild weather, with only a few thousand mosquitoes.  They weren’t too vicious, but they were buzzing all around us.  After the fiery ball was well in the air we hiked back to the car.  There was something on the windshield.  A (Warning)/Citation outlining some sort of weird parking violation (no no parking signs anywhere in sight) and written on the other side was a phone number to call for access prior to 6 a.m. (no trail hours signs posted either).  I am supposed to automatically assume the park is closed if the gate is across the road?  I guess so.