Gary-Summer: June 23, 2026 -Return to Minneapolis

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

June 23, 2026 -Return to Minneapolis

Title: June 23, 2026 -Return to Minneapolis

Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's

Hike Info:

Type: Walking : Car

Trail head: S Minnehaha Drive

Trail: Walking paths around Minnehaha Park

Destination: Minnehaha Falls

Actual Destination:

Distance: 0.82 miles ¹

Elevation Rise: 167'

Descent: 167‘

Maximum Elevation: 813'

Minimum Elevation: 735'

¹Plotted from Google Earth

Rest Stop sign

Description:

I woke up about 5:30-how will I adjust back to California time? Or will I be waking up at 3:30? No lightning to report.

Rachel gets up and then Sherri’s alarm goes off about 7:15. We went down for breakfast and then finished getting packed. There is more to do with Sherri’s hair before we lose Rachel;’s services. Or should I say before Sherri does? When Rachel gets done, Sherri is content with her hair.That is a pretty good job by Rachel.

We will lose Rachel today as she flies home. It also looks like it will rain this afternoon. So we will see how today goes.

With that, we leave about 10. We stopped at Circle K for gas-because of Rachel’s running, she gets $0.15 off per gallon. Also she gets a free drink and a bottle of water. Was it worth running 13.1 miles? Then we are off to Minneapolis. We do make one pit stop along the way, about ⅔ of the way to Minneapolis.

There are some falls within Minneapolis. But the first order of business is to find a parking place. Rachel secures one close by where the falls are. After paying the parking fee, we started our walk. About 150’ brings us to a bridge crossing Minnehaha Creek

Minnehaha Falls

. The bridge is right behind the top of the falls, so we only see over the lip from this view. But once we cross the bridge, we can see Minnehaha Falls is the falls which we have been wanting to do for the last couple of days.

But to get the view we think is there we need to go down to the base of the falls. This requires descending down 50-60 feet of stairs. At least there is a railing to stabilize those of us who are not as agile as they once were. But the view is worth it. This is the sight we were wanting to see at the falls we witnessed along the North Shore. The water spouting over the limestone ledge on top, dropping down 55 feet into a pool. Just magnificent. But this beauty also draws a crowd, not as big as Yosemite’s, still there was enough. As I commented to Rachel, we have beauty, but not solitude.

Minnehaha Creek

We do walk a little ways further down the Minnehaha Creek . There is a bridge further along where we recross the Creek. From there we ascend the stairs back up to the lip of the ravine. Some people passed us with Maine T-shirts. We asked them about it and they said that the Special Olympics were in town and their nephew was competing in Track.

At the top of the climb is a fountain with part of the Longfellow poem of Song of Hiawatha engraved in a circle around it. Why? I am wondering. Apparently there is a line which ties Minnehaha with Hiawatha. I will have to research this out a bit more. We found a statue with both figures in it. It was originally commissioned for the 1893 World’s Fair.

Minnihaha Falls

It is getting close to the time for Rachel to get to the airport. We saw that there was a cafe in the park. We looked on the menu and it was all fish food. While Rachel does eat fish, she was not desiring anything on the menu while Sherri and I are more picky.

So off we went to deliver Rachel to the airport. The rental car had a nice connection with Rachel’s phone. But now that she is leaving, we try getting my phone to give me navigation. We eventually make it work and off we go. We delivered Rachel to Terminal 2-there are a lot of cars there, but eventually Rachel is able to get her stuff. We say our goodbye’s and she goes off into the terminal.

We need to return the car to Enterprise. First, we go to Costco to fill up with gas. Much cheaper than when we left Fresno. As we leave Costco, we lose the map on the car’s screen. I still can follow instructions because the car projects them on the windshield. We go a little ways and find a stopping place and we get the navigation to show again.

Minnihaha and Hiawatha

Our next stop is at Home2Suite. We get there right at 3 and are able to check-in. We only have time to bring our luggage upstairs to the room before needing to leave to take the car back. I get turned around a bit-Minneapolis has two sets of numbered streets which are almost identical. I get confused easily by it. Once I decided to follow Google’s navigation, we got to Enterprise pretty quickly. About 3:45. The return time was 3, but we fell within their grace time.

One of the things which made going to Enterprise so challenging is that the skies opened up. Now we need to get back about ten blocks to our hotel in the pouring rain. Is this a problem? The only problem is getting to a Skyway entrance. We just need to go through a driving rain for half a block, go around a Chris Ruth and go through a lobby. I actually do not get too wet. Sherri has her rain coast on and is able to protect her hair. All is good.

From there, we roam the Skyway maze to get back to out hotel. I had gotten a map of the Skyway last week and I followed it with Sherri in tow. I do a pretty good job of knowing where I am, but I do realize that I had drifted a bit away from a line to our hotel. But wait, there is a Chipotle and we have not had lunch and it is approaching dinner time. We stopped in and got a meal. Sherri has a chicken bowl and I have a chicken burrito. During our meal, we find that Rachel has finally taken off for Chicago after a 30 minute delay.

After easting, we continue our walk through the second story of buildings till we reach the block which Home2Suite is on. I cannot figure out how to get to our place as it does not appear to connect the hotel to the Skyway. We exited out and walk a few feet back to the hotel entrance and dryness.

It is time for the old people just to relax a bit. Sherri does discover this place does provide a small laundramat on the floor above us. She does the laundry which we were going to do Sunday. Now I can take a shower and put on clean clothes. Life is good!

Around 10:15 I head to bed. No rush on getting up tomorrow.