11/9/2009: Crosby Lake Regional Park Hike (St. Paul)

Join Larry Martin for a post-Halloween hike through the extensive prairie habitat and flood plain forest of the Crosby Lake Regional Park. In 1858, at the age of 28, a young English immigrant, Thomas Crosby, with his wife Emma, staked out 160 acres in the southwest end of today's Crosby Regional Park. Crosby's frontier farm was the largest and longest running in the West End/Highland Park area. Cattle, dairy cows, horses, pigs and chickens were raised on the farm and potatoes and apples were grown. After Crosby's death in 1886, a succession of families ran the farm until 1962, when the Saint Paul Port Authority purchased the land. The park recently expanded with the addition of 10 acres from the 40 acre former Texaco tank farm brownfields parcel that has been redeveloped as a business park by the Saint Paul Port Authority. The Crosby Farm Nature Area preserves a natural flood plain area of the Mississippi River. During seasonal floods of the river, fish and other aquatic animals gain access to the Upper Crosby Lake, Lower Crosby Lake, and all the ponds scattered throughout the Nature Area's forest. Nearby, Interstate 35E has been expanded and resurfaced, with the addition of a 10 foot bikeway/hiker lane that connects several regional trails, including the Big Rivers Regional Trail in Dakota County; the Samuel H. Morgan Trail which extends from Highway 5 to Battle Creek Park; Lilydale-Harriet Island Trail; Hidden Falls-Crosby Farm Park; Mississippi Gorge Trail and the I-35E trail to downtown St. Paul. The group will hike on the unpaved trail up and down the bluffs around Crosby Lake. Because of the rough and varied terrain on the trail, sturdy hiking shoes and a flashlight may be of assistance.

If driving: Crosby Regional Park is just east, across the Mississippi River, from historic Fort Snelling and the Airport. From the Fort Snelling area, go east over the Highway 5/West Seventh St/Fort Road bridge over the Mississippi River. Immediately across the bridge, take the Shepard Road/Edgecumb Road exit. Follow the signs to Shepard Road and at the intersection with Shepard Road, turn east (left). The entrance to the Crosby Farm Regional Park is a few hundred feet further, on the south (right) side of Shepard Road. Follow the park road east down the bluff, past the Watergate Marina area, to the first parking lot in the park, by the park picnic shelter. If that first parking lot is full, continue 1/8th of a mile east past the picnic shelter to the next parking lot. We will meet in the parking lot by the picnic shelter.

If coming by public transit: Take Metro Transit route(s): 54; 84. The closest bus service point appears to be along West Seventh Street. Applicable Metro Transit Map / Bus Schedule information

Interested hikers will reassemble after the hike at a nearby restaurant (Champps, 2401 West 7th Street, St. Paul) for dessert or dinner.

Map to hike meeting point (Shepard Rd At Davern St)

Crosby Lake Regional Park information

Map of Crosby Lake Regional Park, West End

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This webpage was last updated on October 27, 2009.