The Easy Trail That Might As Well Be The River Capital Of Minnesota

Fort Snelling State Park is the premier state park unit in the Twin Cities Metro, and it sits at the confluence of two of the state's longest rivers - the Mississippi and the Minnesota. Long before this land was settled by European-Americans, the Dakota people and their predecessors referred to this spot as Bdote - the place where two waters come together. The confluence is sacred in Dakota creation history and was long a place where the people of this region would hold council and meet with other peoples. Today, visitors can walk an easy footpath around Pike Island - Wita Tanka - which lies at the very point of Bdote, in Fort Snelling State Park. This Minnesota river trail will lead visitors along the state's two most historically significant rivers, at a historically significant place, through a landscape that, even in the heart of the Metro, typifies the natural beauty that can be found in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Fort Snelling State Park is located on the border of Minneapolis and St. Paul, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.

It's also adjacent to ​​Old Mendota, which is home to some of the state's oldest existing residences and also a place of importance to the Dakota.

Pike Island/Wita Tanka lies at the very point of confluence in the river.

You can access it via a walk bridge from the Minneapolis side of the park.

An easy 3.9-mile trail traces the circumference of the island, along both rivers.

The ​​Pike Island Loop is level, with little in the way of elevation gain.

But it takes you through the forested bottomlands of this riverine ecosystem.

You'll have occasion to walk along the shores of both rivers, the Mississippi and the Minnesota, while admiring the storied and historic waterways.

This unique environment is a habitat that a wide variety of wildlife - from eagles and egrets, bullfrongs and beavers, to snapping turtles, deer, owls, and river otters - calls home.

This place has a long natural and native history. However, by 1820, the United States had built a military outpost at Bdote that eventually came to be known as Fort Snelling.

In fact, the ​​Round Tower at Fort Snelling is the oldest extant building in Minnesota. It's located within the Minnesota Historical Society site surrounded by the park - Historic Fort Snelling at Bdote.

Over the last two centuries, the intertwined histories of the peoples who have occupied this place, and the rivers that form it, have made it, perhaps, the most historically significant slice of landscape in Minnesota.

Given its location at this site of crucial historical significance and along the shorelines of the state's two greatest waterways, this Minnesota river trail highlights one of the state's most important river environments. You can read more about the trail, see pictures, and read reviews on AllTrails Plus.

Have you hiked the Pike Island Loop at Fort Snelling State Park/Bdote? Let us know in the comments.