Haven’t done any videos of the greater Duluth area in awhile, but there’s a lot more to the city than ships! Could use a short break from ships (and near disasters) so what better way to do that than take a hike?
Chester Park is definitely a hidden gem of Duluth. A least as far as tourists are concerned, very few people have ever heard of it despite the fact that it’s massive and right in the middle of everything. Starting far up the hill near Arrowhead Road it continues through the entire city, broken up by a few streest, and Lowell Elementary School, past the University of Minnesota Duluth and almost completely surrounding the College of St Scholastica, it continues on through a neighborhood then ends near the base of the hill just a couple blocks from the taller buildings of downtown. Not that you can tell any of these things while in the park itself, aside from a couple bridges and cross streets it really feels like you could be in the middle of nowhere, the deep ravine and woods blocking out almost all sights and sounds of the city beyond. The park is several miles long and can take many hours to explore, following Chester Creek. The small section shown in this video starts at Skyline Parkway going down the hill to about 6th St. Additional waterfalls lie below this but it started storming so I had to cut things a little bit short. It features nearly a dozen waterfalls, some fairly large in size, plus deep canyons and ravines. In the center of the park near Skyline Parkway is a small family friendly ski slope and chairlift, soccer fields and cross country ski trails. It used to have an Olympic ski jump training hill, which was removed in 2014 when it was removed due to safety issues. A small lake anchors the northern section near Arrowhead Road. It’s a popular hiking area for Duluth residents but is almost entirely unknown to visitors of the city, who usually choose to go up to the more remote areas up the North Shore for their hiking. Chester Creek is one of 28 creeks and rivers that flow through Duluth, starting north of the city and ending up in Lake Superior right below the freeway tunnels. The last section of the creek is hidden in an underground culvert below the lakeside neighborhoods and businesses, built before the park was created in the late 1800s.
Little different video but I hope everyone enjoys all the same!