I thought I’d take a break from posting about our Amsterdam/Norway trip and share some gorgeous fall photos with you guys today instead.

Last weekend my sister, niece and I visited Forestville State Park way down in the southeast part of the state, almost to the Iowa border.

Fall colors were pretty much at their peak, and it was going to be a lovely, sunny day with a high near 60°.  Perfect for a little hiking.

This state park contains the restored 19th century village of Forestville.  The Minnesota Historical Society operates it as a historic site.

During the summer the buildings are open with staff dressed as historic figures, but this summer they had a limited schedule due to some bridge construction taking place.  We were still able to wander around and see things from the outside though, such as this 1897 wagon/carriage barn.

Normally this next building is the visitor center, but it wasn’t open while we were there.

The Foster and Meighen families opened the first general store here in 1853 and the town grew from there to include a blacksmith shop, a cabinet shop, saw mills, farms, stores, grist mills, and multiple hotels.  However, when the railroad decided to bypass Forestville in 1868 the town began its decline.  By 1902 the town’s post office closed and Forestville officially ceased to exist.

The Meighen family’s home was attached to the brick general store.

This next building wasn’t shown on the visitor guide, but it presented such a pretty picture that I had to include it here.

After checking out the historic town, we decided to hike up to the overlook.

There was one downside to hiking in this park.  It contains an equestrian campground, so most of the trails are shared between horses and people.

Unfortunately, that meant that we spent a good deal of time on the trail looking down to avoid things like this …

My niece was driving that day and she threatened to not let us back in her car if we stepped in it.

But that didn’t stop us from enjoying the gorgeous scenery.

The fall colors were spectacular.

And the hike up to the overlook was totally worth it.

It’s hard to make it out, but you can just barely see the bridge that was at the starting point of our hike in this next photo …

It looks pretty daunting, and although the hike was uphill all the way to the overlook, it was otherwise an easy hike on a gravel trail.  We didn’t have to do any rock scrambling, and aside from avoiding those road apples, we didn’t have to watch our footing for any other obstacles.

We took a minute to enjoy the view at the top and snap a quick selfie before heading back to the car.

I totally recommend a visit to Forestville State Park if you’re local.  It is about a two hour drive from the Twin Cities, but certainly worth it.  I think it would be even more fun to go when you can see inside the historic buildings, so maybe we’ll have to plan another trip to Forestville next year!