Cannon Falls Camping and Biking

Another camping and biking adventure with Bud.

Cannon Falls is surprisingly close to the Twin Cities. A little over half hour and we were at the Lake Byllesby Campground in Dakota County. The campground is adjacent to the dam that creates the lake. The dam is a hydropower plant on the Cannon River.

The campground is well maintained and has very nice facilities (bathrooms and showers). We tent-camped among several RVs with electric and water hookups so no generators and very nice campers.

It was super windy when we arrived on Tuesday and were trying to set up the tent when, fortunately, the women in the RV next to our site offered to help. We really couldn't get have gotten it setup without them. We later got some fried green tomatoes to eat 😊

The tent and site were set up quickly enough that we decided to go on our first bike ride. There is a trail out of the campground that connects with the official Cannon Valley Trail (CVT). We took the spur trail into Cannon Falls before heading on an out-and-back down the CVT to the halfway point, Welch Village.

Cannon River along the CVT

The CVT is really well maintained. It primarily travels next to the Cannon River where you can occasionally see a canoer or someone fishing. There is a daily $7 fee to use the trail. The CVT website is not user friendly at all, but the trail fee is obviously well used to maintain the trail and bridges.

We saw a few animals including a deer being chased by something very furry, a ground hog, and a good-sized snapping turtle.

On the way back to camp, we road back into Cannon Falls for a late lunch.

There was an incredible sunset Tuesday night. The Canadian forest fire smoke made for very dramatic reds and oranges of the sun and later, the moon.

It had been a long day, so we retired early. Wednesday, after a breakfast of scrambled eggs, we drove to Red Wing to ride the other half of the CVT. This portion was more crowded but really that is relative because it wasn't bad. The entire CVT is fairly flat, but this portion is even flatter than the Cannon Falls side.

An out-an-back trip is great because you really do see different things when going in different directions. Seems odd but for instance, the river is more obvious when going in one direction than the other.

On the ride back to Red Wing, we were able to assist a couple who had an incident. The wife got nervous and crashed her electric bike. I was helping the husband get the chain back on when I noticed the wife was bleeding. She had taken a bad fall. Bud had bandaids and we used my hand sanitizer to get her somewhat cleaned and patched up.

We had lunch in Red Wing before heading back. On the way back to camp, we stopped in Cannon Falls again...this time for ice cream.

We spent some down time at the Lake Byllesby beach. The water was not pleasant looking so did not do any swimming. Wednesday night we lit a campfire and made s'mores.

Trout stream in Miesville Ravine Park

Thursday, we packed up and drove to the Miesville Ravine to do a short hike. It was a nice break from biking. We stopped in Miesville for lunch at King's Place Bar and Grill, a very popular restaurant/bar.

A short video of the adventure is here.