Minneopa State Park Guide – Mankato, Minnesota

Minneopa State Park is located in Mankato, Minnesota and is an easy day trip from the Twin Cities Metro area. It’s best known for its waterfall – Minneopa Falls, and the bison herd that roams in the park.

Details

Location
54497 Gadwall Road
Mankato, MN 56001

The park has two sections – one section for the waterfall, and another area for the bison game drive. The above address leads you to the waterfall. I visited both sections during my trip.

Cost: $7 per car, unless you have a valid Minnesota State Park pass.

Time Commitment: It will depend on what you want to do here. If you just want to see the waterfall, 30 minutes. If you want to do some hiking and drive through the bison game drive, allow a few hours.

Critical information: The bison game drive is closed on Wednesdays. Game drive hours are 9-3:30pm.

Visiting Minneopa State Park

Minneopa Falls Waterfall

To visit Minnepoa Falls waterfall in Minneopa State Park, you’ll have to put the following address in your GPS:
54497 Gadwall Rd
Mankato, MN 56001

This will lead you to the correct section of the park to see the waterfall.

The trail to Minneopa Falls is easy – it’s about 3 blocks long and accessible.
You can view the falls from different viewpoints along the walkway. I visited in early June and there was tons of water flowing over the falls. I thought the waterfall was picturesque, though I’ve seen much better waterfalls in my travels. For a Minnesota waterfall, it’s pretty good.

There is a hiking trail that supposedly goes around the waterfall, but it was closed about halfway through my hike. Apparently, it’s been closed for several years, though many people were ignoring this. You can make your way off-trail to the base of the falls, but it looked really muddy and wet, so I skipped it.

Bison Game Drive area

After seeing Minneopa Falls, next up was the bison game drive. This area is located across the highway from the Minneopa Falls area. It’s a dusty dirt road of about a couple miles and any vehicle can make it. I was pretty disappointed – I didn’t see one buffalo.

The game drive road eventually ends up at an old flour mill, called the Seppmann Mill. This is an old mill that used to grind wheat into flour back in the 1800s. It’s located on top of a hill, overlooking the grasslands where the bison roam (again, didn’t see any). This was my favorite part of the park, as I love old buildings like this.

Hiking

Finally, to top off my visit, I attempted the Hiking Club trail at Minneopa State Park. If you’re not familiar, the Minnesota State Park system has a network of designated “Hiking Club Trails” in each state park. At around the halfway point, there is a sign with a password. After you complete each trail, note the password in your Hiking Club log and show it at a visitor center to redeem rewards.

Now this trail – wow – what a disappointment! This was probably the most boring trail I’ve ever been on.

This “trail” is poorly maintained – in some spots, I wasn’t even sure if I was on a trail as it was covered in weeds and tall grasses. From the map, it appears that part of the trail overlooks the river bluffs, so I was hoping to see some nice scenery. HA!

Joke was on me. There is no nice scenery. It’s just a bunch of trees, tall grasses, and weeds. There is supposed to be an overlook at one point on the trail that should overlook the river bluff but everything is completely overgrown that you can’t see a river at all. There’s a bench placed there and you would just sit on it to stare at a bunch of leaves.

This trail was so boring (and filled with gnats and mosquitoes), that I turned around and went back to my car.

Minneopa State Park – Final Thoughts

Pros:
Decent waterfall that’s close to the Twin Cities area
Bison drive is pretty cool, if you see bison.
The historic Seppmann Mill is an unexpected treat

Cons:
Hiking Club Trail is so boring that I gave up

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