(upbeat music) - Welcome to Blue Mountain State Park here near Luverne, Minnesota.

In the winter you may not think of visiting state parks this time of the year.

But there's actually a lot you can do.

From hiking and snowshoeing, checking out the bison herd while you're here, maybe bird watching, things like that.

And in recent years there's been a lot funding devoted to getting more people into the outdoors all year around, including helping those with mobility issues.

(gentle music) The goal of walking through a state park is to really immerse you nature.

That means it's not always easy to get around.

So you'll see little things like this bridge, for example, to help you navigate some of the terrain.

But there's a company in Marshall, Minnesota that produces a product that is now featured in a number of state parks around the state to help people get around these beautiful areas.

(gentle music) Action Trackchair makes an all-terrain electric-powered chair, and helps those with a need explore areas that aren't suitable for regular wheelchairs.

Now Chris, I know you don't get a lot of people using these chairs in the winter, but it's Minnesota.

So we're gonna take it out in the snow and see how it does.

- Yeah.

(wind ripping) - Check out the park a little bit, we'll see how this thing operates.

- Sounds great.

(gentle music) - You can see right now you're on three.

So you can toggle that up and down with the blue buttons.

One is gonna be your slow speed... Up to five.

There's a horn.

That doesn't really give a lot of attention, but you can do that.

This is gonna run just like the video game at home as far as steering you.

You can see right and left here.

(gentle music) And forward.

- I'm not sure people have Ataris anymore.

- Yeah, sorry.

Nintendo, what do we got?

I don't know, Switches.

Anyway, there is a headlight.

This time of day you're not gonna need it.

If you're out late at night, it does give you some light right over here.

That toggle switch over there on your left is going to adjust your chair tip.

- Okay.

- Yep, there you go.

- Weee!

- Yep.

I'll let you maneuver around the truck and around the van, and we'll head over to the little slope and so you can get some practice on going up and down a slope.

- Okay.

- And as you feel comfortable, you can adjust your speed up to five.

(gentle music) - This is really the beauty of the chairs is they're meant to be able to take people into... Yeah I mean, you're not gonna go rock climbing in this thing but you're gonna be able to go over some different terrain.

So we're gonna try taking to a few inches of snow here.

He said six-to-eight inches of snow it's supposed to go through.

- Correct, yep.

- So here we go.

(gentle music) - This is all about increasing access for people to get outdoors in places they couldn't before.

- Nah, this is great.

(gentle music) I feel like this would just be a fun way to get around the park anyway.

(gentle music) All right, so I passed the obstacle course.

But you got a path.

Do you wanna hop on and take us down this path right here?

- Sure, we can do that.

- Show us a little bit more of the park.

- [Chris] Yep, you bet.

(gentle music) The park was established in 1937.

It was actually first called Mountain Spring Recreation Area.

It was the landscape you see right behind me.

Was just a few acres on either side of Mountain Creek.

Is a WPA project to bring water recreation to a place that didn't have any.

They built a dam that constructed about a 20 acre impoundment.

Made a lake in this area.

And then upstream a little ways there's a dam that's still currently standing that made a second lake.

In 1960, a small acreage of prairie came up for sale.

And the city of Luverne approached St. Paul and asked them to purchase it and establish a bison herd.

And at that time they also changed it to Blue Mountain State Park.

(gentle music) The area is an uprising of Sioux quartzite.

That on the horizon looks blue at a distance.

So it was a prominent landscape mark as people were crossing the prairie.

You could see this mound of quartzite from a long distance away that blue on the horizon.

(gentle music) - [Bret] So you guys have had these chairs for a couple of years now?

- [Chris] Yeah, let's see.

We got this chair in '23.

Part of the get outdoor more funding initiative that Minnesota had to increase outdoor access.

Been pretty popular.

(gentle music) This trail we're headed down right now is the Mountain Creek Trail.

A little bit is part of our hiking club trail system.

And so a trail user can actually pick up the hiking club trail and get the password and participate in the hiking club program using the Trackchairs.

(gentle music) We've got 14 miles of trails and we actually checked every trail, and have a map that shows which trails are safe to operate on.

There's a few that absolutely aren't safe to operate on.

So we'll show you which trails you cannot use it on and point you in the right direction that way.

(gentle music) There's no cost to reserve them, you do need your state park vehicle permit.

But beyond that, there's no cost.

You can reserve it ahead of time, and we strongly recommend that you do.

(gentle music) So you can see prairie, you know, it's 1% of our landscape that used to cover all of Minnesota, or a good chunk of Minnesota is left.

So this tall grass prairie here.

Beyond that, rock climbing.

There's a Sioux quartzite... Is a bedrock here.

Up where we are on the north end of the park, there's about a 30-foot cliff.

But as you work your way south, the cliff line is almost 90 feet high.

Some of the best rock climbing in southern Minnesota.

Excellent hiking, there's 14 miles of trails.

There's a bicycle trail that you can ride through the park and then connect to a trail that leads you into the town of Luverne nearby.

There's birding opportunities.

We actually have bald eagles that roost here almost year-around.

Mountain Creek typically doesn't freeze entirely.

And so they tend to roost.

You know compared to a lot of Minnesota, our winters are pretty mellow.

And so there's, I think, some pretty good winter recreation here.

There's climbers that climb here all winter long.

We do have snowshoe opportunities.

There's the snowmobile trail that runs through the park.

(gentle music) We got a bison herd, so you get to... A chance to see bison.

We actually have our tour.

So you can get on a truck and take bison tours out on the prairie landscape.

(gentle music) - [Bret] So how many bison do you have out here?

- [Chris] We got 67 this winter.

We try to winter right around 65.

Our bison are as close to being free of cattle genetics in the country.

Our current bull, breeding bull right now has Yellowstone genetics.

You know those are really rare genetics around the country.

So we're excited to have those.

Our herd is really strong with those genetics right now.

And we're working on introducing Theodore Roosevelt genetics on to this herd.

Bison, especially our patchwork grazers, has approached.

Cattle will graze a piece of ground immediately and graze it off entirely.

Where bison will move on the land.

So they'll eat a little bit and then they'll move on, and they won't graze a whole piece off.

As they graze they really stir that land up.

And so they're really good for a prairie landscape.

(gentle music) But we do have winter camping.

We don't plow all campsites.

We don't get overly busy in the winter.

But if the interstate is running, we do get some campers.

(gentle music) There's parks holding their candlelit events right now.

And if you see a park that's having one, find out if that park has a tractor available.

Because you could be using it for that.

We haven't had a lot of use of it in the winter.

We got a great opportunity this winter.

You know, they'll get too deep and they won't operate in that deeper snow.

But we got just the right level of snow right now.

So if people see this and they get an opportunity, please come out and use it.

It's just a nice place to be.

(gentle music) - And this is our barn.