Autumn Foliage on Winchell Trail, Minneapolis
Autumn foliage frames a section of the Winchell Trail along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
Winchell Trail winds along the Mississippi River gorge in Minneapolis, tucked below West River Parkway between the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge and Franklin Avenue. The path is named for Newton Horace Winchell, the state geologist who studied the gorge's limestone bluffs in the late 1800s. Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board maintains the trail as part of Mississippi Gorge Regional Park, a segment of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area established by Congress in 1988. Maple, oak, and box elder trees along the bluffs turn color each October, drawing hikers to this stretch of unpaved footpath above the riverbank.
Photo taken in October 2023.
