Scenes Up North
WORTH THE FIVE-HOUR DRIVE
Just northwest of Crosby is the Cuyuna
Country State Recreation Area. The park is
open to camping, canoeing, biking, scuba
diving and trout fishing.
By Rick Converse
C
4 destinationupnorth.com
entral Minnesota has a wide variety of scenery
and wildlife to be experienced. The five-hour
trip described here will be outside of the
typical high traffic destinations and will take travelers
through 240 miles of beautiful central Minnesota. On
this scenic drive, folks will see rivers, streams, lakes,
farmland and forest. Drivers will encounter rolling hills,
birch tree stands and pine forests so thick they blot
out the sky. The next leg of the trip will run generally parallel
to the west shore of the Mississippi River north
to the city of Little Falls. The traveler will have the
opportunity to view native grassland, farm land
and forest. There are also river views. Attractions of
historical note just south of Little Falls will be the
Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Memorial Museum, the
Charles Lindbergh House Museum and Charles A.
Lindbergh State Park.
The journey begins in the city of Royalton at the
intersection of U.S. Highway 10 and Morrison County
Highway (MCH) 26. Travelers can head west on MCH
26 a couple of miles to MCH 224, turn right and
drive north on MCH 224 to encounter Blanchard
dam, with the adjoining Soo Line trail which crosses
the Mississippi River just south of the dam. North of
Blanchard dam is a Mississippi River reservoir reaching
close to a half-mile across. The river on a clear day is a
beautiful deep blue. Morrison County Highway 224 turns into MCH 52.
Keep following MCH 52 into the city of Little Falls,
which boasts a variety of eating establishments
on both sides of the Mississippi. Other notable
attractions on the west side of the river are the
Minnesota Fishing Museum and Pine Grove Zoo, both
on Minnesota Highway 27. Driving east on Highway
27 across the Mississippi, the Little Falls Dam can be
seen on the right.