Adventure by the falls

It was a cold morning and I decided to work off some of the Christmas goodies that I've been consuming. A walk in the cold seemed like a good remedy for whatever was ailing me. About 10:30 I went to find a snowbound bench to compete with Santini's Florida bench. This one at Linwood Park was alluring and although not inviting as a place to sit, it was a good illustration of the state of park benches here on the tundra.

As luck would have it, this afternoon the Prairie Princess was in the mood for a trek over by Minnehaha Falls. Some of her fellow workers from Prairie Restorations were doing some work on the brush below the falls, mostly killing and burning buck thorn. We ventured down the (closed) steps to the lower level of the stream, below the falls. The winter view of the ice-covered falls is always dramatic and pretty in its own frigid way. We were not the only foolhardy ones to dare to get closer to the big icicles. PP for scale.

She suggested that we get a little closer to the falls and see what was behind the ice. As a former dare devil, I was easily convinced, so we climbed the fence and followed the path along the creek and up the side hill behind the falls.  This is PP behind the falls, touching the frozen icicles.  The water is still flowing, but seems to be flowing through a pipe made of ice.

This is the view from under the falls back towards the spot where the first shot was taken.  Then we were standing near the fence in the distance, to the left of the bridge.  The icicles make a nice frame for the photo.

Then we finished the round trip behind the falls. This is PP just before she scrambled down the icy slope to get back to the level of the stream. The jaunt was interesting and just dangerous enough to make the day a nice adventure.

We continued down the creek, looking for the workers who were clearing the buck thorn from the banks. On the way, we stopped to get a wintry photo of Minnehaha Creek. It was a bright day and about 20 degrees, and several people we met remarked that it was "a beautiful day", one going so far as to call it "perfect." I'd say it was as nice a day as you can expect on the 27th of December in this part of the world. PP for scale.

We did eventually find the Prairie Restoration crew - Jesse and several Steve's were chainsawing and burning the buck thorn that they were downing. We watched a while and then left them to their labor.