Spring Lake Park Reserve

The other day we rode a new-to-us bike trail, beginning at the west end of the Spring Lake Park Reserve, near Hastings.  

This beautiful trail meanders along with a prairie on one side (complete with bison), and the Mississippi River on the other. It was hilly, but fun… and is now one of my new favorite trails. 

The prairie wild flowers were in full bloom, bountiful, and showing off. That was a perk, as was having the Mississippi River, on the other side of the trail.

But the biggest bonus, and surprise, was at the trailhead where we planned to eat our picnic lunch. There is a bison paddock there where eight bison were brought here to live in a very large, penned-in area.

On this day, we were fortunate to see all eight of them, plus four calves, up close sitting right in front of us as we ate our lunch. Locals told us it was unusual to see them so close.

The Bison are being reintroduced to this area where they once lived. They seem to draw a lot of interest. We were told when the project started last fall, they acquired eight females, and four of them were pregnant. Several signs offered different interesting facts about bison.

The bison were all lying down when we first saw them. And then they would get up and move around. They were fun to watch. A couple hours later when we got back from our bike ride, all twelve were gone, and nowhere to be seen.

The space where they are corralled is a vast prairie land where they can roam, and are often hidden from view. The beginning mile, or so, of the bike trail is along this paddock.

Seeing the bison, and the river, and the wildflowers, created a great impression for our first ride on this trail. The temperatures had cooled off too, with low dew points. It was awesome.

I took time on our way back to stop and take pictures of the gorgeous flowers. Often there were butterflies or bees on the flowers.

There were so many different species, and colors, shapes and sizes.  I decided to take only a few pictures since I had to keep getting on and off my bike. 😉

This trail is one we will ride again and again, I’m sure. It will be interesting to see how often we see the bison herd, and to see how the landscape changes throughout the seasons.