For lunch I took a walk along the river in Pillsbury / Father Hennepin Bluffs Park. The temperature was in the high 20s, but it definitely feels like winter. Even in the sunny areas, there are icicles built up where there's moving water. It feels like there should be snow on the ground, but we haven't had any precipitation for a couple weeks.
When I walked past Riverplace and St. Anthony Main, both seemed deserted. There were a few people about, but it's nothing like the urban hotspot they were supposed to be when they originally went up. The fact that all the leaves are off the trees makes it feel even more deserted.
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| fence crossing channel |
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| logs crossing channel |
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Where the water flows over the bluff near the U of M's hydrology lab, there's enough mist to ice over the fence that's a little downriver and the logs that are right at the bottom of the (man-made) falls. Looked pretty cool in the sunlight, but I don't think I managed to capture the glinting iciness of it with the camera.
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| icicles on the bluff |
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| steps closed |
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Walking along the river, there was a spot where the springs run out of the bluff that formed some more pretty-looking icicles. And after taking that picture, I headed up the steps at the east end of the park. Once I made it all the way to the top, I discovered that apparently those steps are closed now (probably because they're in such a bad state of repair). It would've been nice to have some notice of that before I'd started climbing the steps, but the barrier isn't that big, so I stepped over it and took the last picture of the day.