Winchell Trail

A path along the Mississippi River between St. Anthony Falls and its confluence with the Minnesota River may have been originally traced by the Dakota people. The current trail was commissioned by Theodore Wirth for the Minneapolis Parks Department and constructed between 1912 and 1914. It was later improved by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1936 and 1938. Although he had no role in its design or construction, the trail is named for Newton Horace Winchell, the state geologist (1872 to 1901) renowned for estimating when the last glacier retreated from Minnesota. It's easiest to start from the trail's southern terminus at a small parking lot on West River Parkway near E 44th Street. There is a sign just south of the parking lot describing the trail and a plaque commemorating the WPA's work on it. For the next 1.1 mi, until you are opposite E 36th Street, the trail is wide and sometimes paved, but mostly not, and the railings alongside range from newer, to old, to none. At E 36th, several trails radiate in different directions. The one you want goes hard right (east) and steeply down a rocky, dusty slope. It's not a slope you want to do in wet or icy weather. NOTE: There is a use trail about 0.2 miles before this point that will take you down to another use trail along the river without having to deal with this steep slope. This use trail rejoins The Winchell at the bottom of the steep slope. On the flood plain at the bottom of this slope, the Winchell Trail is now all dirt but well used and very obvious. In a short distance, you'll come to Longfellow Beach. A long set of stone stairs lead up from here to the Parkway while The Winchell continues along the river. At 1.6 mi from the trailhead, you clamber over a large metal pipe that is part of the city's storm drain system. At 2.0 mi, you pass under the massive Lake Street Bridge and continue on past the Lloyd Ohme Boat House. The Winchell continues on, now as a doubletrack, from the switchback in the Boat House's access road. At 2.5 miles from the trailhead, you arrive at White Sands Beach, which was created in the early 1900s from material dredged from the river bottom. Soon thereafter, you pass under the Short Line Bridge and continue on a dirt singletrack to trail's end at the West River Parkway near 33rd Avenue S. For a nice loop, return to the parking lot along the Parkway.