BY DAN BUTTERFASS AND MARLENE PETERSEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN BUTTERFASS
WHITEWATER VALLEY A MECCA FOR NATURE LOVERS
BIG, WIDE, AND HAND- SOME, THE WHITEWATER VALLEY IS SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA’S EQUIVALENT OF YELLOWSTONE—
a huge tract of public land where a visitor might walk all day and never see another person.
ST. CHARLES STARTER On the way to Whitwater, travel east on
Highway 14 and start your day in St. Charles with a bite at Del’s Café, a breakfast and brunch staple for 58 years, or the St. Charles Bak- ery, where the same family has been making breads, rolls and heavenly donuts from scratch for two generations. At Cabin Coffee Co., you can treat yourself
to a “Whitewater Rafter,” a blended confection of caramel, vanilla, coffee and cream.
BIRDER’S PARADISE With almost 300 bird species annually visit-
ing the Whitewater Valley, it’s a birder’s paradise. On certain days in early spring, there are
even a few “wildlife jams” with cars parked in clusters along the wetlands on an unpaved stretch of U.S. Highway 74. This is the main ar- tery through the valley’s roughly 30,000 acres of state-owned lands. The largest nest of any bird in North Amer-
ica can be spotted throughout the Upper Mis- sissippi River Valley and its tributaries, with at least six of them in the Whitewater Valley. A must-stop is the Whitewater State Park
Visitor Center, where naturalist Dave Palmquist leads year-round nature programs and outings, from weekend bird-banding demonstrations to snowshoe hikes by moonlight, from hunting the elusive morel mushroom to tapping maple trees for syrup-making in early spring.
STOP IN ELBA, STEP BACK IN TIME The welcome sign into the hamlet of Elba
explains in pictures what and who this place is for: hunters and anglers, hikers, birders and wildlife watchers, nature lovers all. The iconic Mauer Brothers Tavern, owned
by generations of the same family since 1890, was a rest stop for settlers hauling grain to the Mississippi port towns. Stepping into Mauer Brothers is like stepping back into an earlier era. The tavern’s animal mounts are worth the trip alone: bucks with chandelier-like antlers, a di- orama featuring the state record wild turkey, a monstrous brown trout caught by the legendary “Black Bill,” the valley’s original mountain man. Rising sentinel from the hardwoods, the
Elba Fire Tower affords visitors a view of the val- ley that is more than worth every step and rung of the climb up. From this national historic look- out you can, just like the fire-spotters of yester- year, see for miles and miles up and down the valley. The bluffs mantled by hardwood forest are resplendent from the first pastel blush of spring through the peak of autumn color. The riffles and rapids of the Whitewater River shim- mer below. You can see far out onto the fertile plains where the land is a lovely patchwork quilt of contour farming. Reminiscent of parts of Appalachia or the
Ozarks, the hilly landscape of the historic “Bluff- country” region is unexpected if not striking in a land famous for its “10,000 Lakes.”
PORK & PLANTS On the east side of Whitewater Valley, just
north of Altura, a second-generation farm and greenhouse serves green thumbs and flower lovers year round. Pork & Plants is worth the stop, even just to take in the fresh, clean air of the greenhouse, lined with the plants of the season. Depending on the time of year, you’ll
The sign welcoming visitors to Elba previews the wildlife for nature lovers. Almost 300 bird species visit Whitewater Valley annually.
find rows of annuals, perennials, edibles, fall mums, holiday poinsettias and greens. Whether you want to take in the area’s
natural beauty, historical dining, a hike and a climb, or the season’s most bountiful plants, a drive east of Rochester is a charming trip. h
WHITEWATER STATE PARK 19041 Highway 74
Three miles south of Elba, MN • 507-932-3007 Naturalist programs, bird-watching amphitheater, interpretive displays. Hiking, camping, birding, trout fishing
Experience Rochester 2012 57
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