09/04/2026
The St. Croix
The St. Croix is the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin for about 130 miles, and it is one of the cleanest large rivers in the Midwest.
That is not an accident. In 1968 Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and the St. Croix was one of the eight original rivers protected under it. Development along the banks has been restricted ever since. No sprawl on the shoreline, no industry, no wall of houses. The result is a river corridor that looks essentially the way it did a century ago.
The upper river above Taylors Falls is quiet water through forest, with sandbars, islands and stretches where you can paddle for hours and see nobody. Canoe and kayak traffic runs heavy in July and thins out fast in September.
The Dalles at Interstate State Park is the geologic highlight. The river cuts through billion-year-old basalt from the Midcontinent Rift, forming a narrow gorge with vertical rock walls rising over a hundred feet. Glacial meltwater carved potholes into that rock, and one of them, the Bottomless Pit, runs over sixty feet deep. Rock climbers work those walls. The Taylors Falls scenic boats run through the gorge.
Below the Dalles the river widens and slows. Stillwater sits on that stretch, and the lift bridge there ran from 1931 until it was converted to a bike and pedestrian crossing after the new bridge opened in 2017. The Loop Trail crosses both bridges now.
Below Stillwater the river becomes Lake St. Croix, wide and deep enough for sailboats and cruisers.
It joins the Mississippi at Prescott, where you can see the two waters meeting at different colors.
Afton, Marine on St. Croix, Osceola, Hudson.
October on that river is worth the drive.
