George Crosby Manitou State Park in the Fall
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
Have you heard of George Crosby Manitou State Park? This park is one of the least-visited state parks, despite it's location on the North Shore of Lake Superior.
Is it "less traveled" due to quality? Absolutely not! There are two main reasons why this park isn't spoken of: location and trail difficulty. It's off the main roads, so the park is a 20-minute drive from Highway 61. The trails themselves are tough - full of rocks and roots, narrow, and not always well-marked. This is by design - the park is intentionally under-developed to create more of a wilderness experience.
This is precisely the reason I chose George Crosby Manitou as one of the stops on our North Shore weekend last fall (read about our full weekend and find our agenda here). Huge bonus - it has a cascade waterfall!
To get to the park, navigate to Vault Toilet, Lake No. 1, MN 55614. Be prepared to drive on gravel roads while you enjoy venturing deeper into the forest. Park in the first parking lot on the left after entering the park.
Our original plan was to do the Humpback Loop, but after reading reviews online and talking with someone who had just completed it in the parking lot, we decided against doing the full loop. The trail is difficult to follow and many hikers have had to loop back around to find the path. I honestly think that would be fun to hike another time, but we were following a time schedule, so we decided to stick with hiking the Middle Trail to the falls before heading over to the Bensen Lake Loop.
AllTrails does not have a map just for the Middle Trail, but you can follow the Humpback Loop counterclockwise and return when you get to the falls or see the route on the George Crosby Manitou State Park Map. We had no service in the park, so know your route ahead of time.
The Middle Trail was rocky and full of roots, which added to the difficulty, but the hike to the falls was totally worth it. I would rate the 2-mile out and back trail as moderate. The colors were mainly green with just a bit of yellow. We saw a few squirrels up close, and only encountered one other small hiking group.
After traversing the rock fields and climbing down to the Manitou River, we were rewarded with a spectacular cascade. We spent time enjoying the falls and the solitude, then returned to the parking lot the way we came.
Our other stop at the park was the Bensen Lake Loop (AllTrails map). We were only going to do this trail if we had extra time, and I'm so glad we did! The lake loop is a short walk further down the gravel road from the main parking lot. It's only 1 flat mile and mostly boardwalk. It was so serene and quiet and we didn't see any other hikers. The vibrant fall colors reflected on the brilliant sky blue of the peaceful lake. It was such a relaxing, beautiful hike.
In the future, I would love to return to this park and complete the Humpback Trail, as well as check out the Misquah Trail, which provides an overlook of Lake Superior as well as the Sawtooth Mountains.
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