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| The Chase Point Trail runs on a pine-studded esker between two crystal blue lakes. Minnesota DNR photo. |
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| Tell and Chase Point Trails map. Click for larger version. |
The 2.9-mile route combines two trails – Tell Lake and Chase Point – that are popular at the state park. This route essentially is a lollipop in which you’ll do the loop (or Tell Lake Trail) first and then the stem (which is Chase Point Trail).
To reach the trailhead, from Grand Rapids take U.S. Hwy 169 east. Just past Taconite, turn left/north onto County Road 7, also known as Scenic Highway. In about 30 miles, go right/north into Scenic State Park on County Road 75. A parking lot is on the road’s right side in 0.4 miles. Park there.
From the lot, take the trail going northwest with Coon Lake on the right/northeast and the park entry road on the left/southwest. This is the loop’s northern side. It heads through an old-growth maple forest on hills overlooking Coon Lake. Each autumn its leaves sparkle orange and red.
At 0.3 miles, the trail reaches the information center. Head west across the park entry road and pick-up the trail at the interpretive sign near the RV dump station.
A boardwalk crosses a marshy area at about 0.4 miles. You’re now on the loop’s west side.
Autumn leaves
Autumn leaves finally arrive at 0.6 miles when the trail enters the woods. The trail turns grassy and wide as heading through a woods of quaking aspen, large-toothed aspen, and balsam poplar.
Quaking aspen is Minnesota’s most common tree. When the state’s great pineries were clear cut more than a century ago, quaking aspen, as a pioneer species, quickly filled the niche.
This is not to say the tree isn’t beautiful. It’s flat leaves flutter at just the hint of a breeze, and with the tree’s height reaching between 60 to 100 feet high, the whole tree canopy can look like a moving sea. This is particularly spectacular in autumn when the aspen’s leaves turn a brilliant gold.
Much less widespread across Minnesota but common throughout the northern part of the state is the large-toothed aspen. It looks similar to the quaking aspen, but the leaf has a blunt, sawtooth-like edge rather than a smooth one. The tree also is a bit shorter, reaching a height of 50-95 feet with a narrow crown. Its bronze autumn leaves flutter in the wind as well, adding a special hue to quaking aspen’s waves.
The balsam poplar also is largely confined to the northern part of the state yet even there stick to edges of streams and wetlands. It’s a bit shorter than the quaking and large-toothed aspen, reaching a height of 50 to 80 feet. Its leaves are similarly shaped to the aspens, but has finely toothed edges. Its leaves turn yellow each autumn.
Osprey
After the boardwalk, an overlook with a bench sits on the trail’s left side. This is a nice spot to search for osprey, who nest in nearby treetops.
Building their nests out of twigs, osprey prefer the tallest trees near water, where they hunt fish. Majestic looking, an osprey can stretch 25 inches long with a wingspan of up to 6 feet. Rough bumps on the bottom of their feet allow them to grasp slippery fish while a reversible end toe ensures they keep a firm grip on their kill as flying back to the nest. Their wings bend backward so that after a dive they can quickly pull up from the water.
At 0.9 miles, a snowmobile trail crosses the route. Continue straight/east.
After coming up the loop’s east side, the trail crosses the park entrance road. The trail then forks; bear right/northeast to along the shore of Coon Lake.
Crystal blue Coon Lake is 340 acres in size. Bluegill, largemouth bass, northern pike and walleye all inhabit its waters, making for great fishing.
Esker
After leaving behind Coon Lake, at 1.4 miles, the trail passes a black and spruce bog lined by red and white pines atop a ridge known as an esker. As approaching Sandwick Lake, the trail forks again. Go left/north.
This stem portion of the trail runs along a narrow but high, mile-long esker that separates Sandwick (on the right/east) and Coon (on the left/west) lakes. There are hardly any autumn colors ahead, but the esker between two blue lakes is just too beautiful to skip – the lakes are about about 25-30 feet below each side of the trail as sunlight flits through the sweet-scented pines – and since you’re this close, why not?
The esker formed at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. As the glaciers melted, cracks formed in them, allowing water to drip through and hollow out massive tunnels. The water rushing into these large tunnels carried rocks and sediment. When the glacier fully melted and retreated, the sediment piled at the base of these tunnels was left behind, forming an esker. Plants took root on the long, often serpentine ridges, stabilizing them.
Coon and Sandwick lakes consist of meltwater from ancient glaciers that filled depressions between the esker, probably scooped out by the advancing ice or depressed by the weight of the ice sheet.
Sandwick Lake
At 1.8 miles is a memorial to the park’s first superintendent, Hugo V. Kaiser. An island in Sandwick Lake directly to the memorial’s east is named after him. You’re now halfway up the esker.
Sandwick Lake is slightly smaller than Coon Lake at 254 acres. The two lakes actually are connected by a thin waterway and sometimes are considered one waterbody.
The trail reaches Chase Point at 2.1 miles. Wooden steps head to a deck next to the water, where you’ll be treated to a panoramic view of Coon Lake ands its pine forest shoreline.
Next, head back south along the esker. At 2.7 miles, when the trail forks, go right/west. In 0.2 miles, you’ll arrive back at the parking lot.
Leashed dogs are allowed on the trail. You’ll want to carry insect repellent for the boggy part of the hike.
