Barn Bluff

Coming into Red Wing from the north with the afternoon sun glowing on the sandstone walls of Barn Bluff is a sight worthy of the 45-minute drive south of the Cities. A landmark since people first trod the banks of the Mississippi River, Barn Bluff offers an invigorating ascent and spectacular views of the river valley and town below. The quick ascent via switchbacks to the base of the bluff, followed by a long stair climb to plateau, makes this a serious urban hike. “The most beautiful prospect that the imagination can form.” That’s how eighteenth-century explorer Jonathan Carver described the view from Barn Bluff. Rising 343 feet above the town of Red Wing, Barn Bluff still evokes similar feelings from many for whom it is a prospective climb. Henry David Thoreau probably agreed when he climbed it as a tourist. Stephen H. Long, the topographic engineer on an 1819 mapping expedition, no doubt found the prospect of the view from Barn Bluff alluring as well.