Afton State Park

Hiking Club Trail #22

​HIKE DETAILS
Date: June 12, 2018
Location: Afton, MN
Length: 2.5 Miles
Difficulty: Easy
Cumulative Hiking Club Miles: 63.1 of 197

It was another overcast day but boy was it humid!!!   

We had to drop a dog off at the vet today so we had some time before we had to pick him up so we thought we would get in another trail. To be honest I've been saving this park for 2 reasons - 1: it is a fairly busy park and my dog Penny who is doing all the Hiking Club trails gets nervous when she comes across a lot of other dogs on the trails so I was waiting for a weekday and 2: Because I had heard that the trials here were pretty challenging with a  large amount of hills.

I like weekday hikes because we were just about the only ones out there - I think the whole time I only saw 5 other people and no other dogs (Yes! less stressful). I was also surprised when the Hiking Club trail really wasn't all that challenging or hilly. 

​After watching some birds along the short prairie loop (that is part of the HCT but sits just off of it) we headed to an overlook which had great views of the trees and the St. Croix River, headed down a good amount of stairs and followed some paths along streams and into the woods. The trail also went past some of the ski hills then up a very gradual large hill back up to the parking lot. 

It was humid and sweaty - the dog enjoyed the fact that there was easy access to the creek to cool off. The day was dampened a bit with a call from the vet telling us that Winston our smaller dog has Kidney Disease...