October 27, 2016: Crosby Lake Regional Park Hike (St. Paul)

Join the hiking group for a 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 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. Several regional trails connect to it, 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.

Directions: 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.

Back to the Thursday Night Hikes homepage

This webpage was last updated on October 4, 2016.