While wooded hikes are popular in Minnesota, the woods are not required, as the tallgrass prairie region in the southwestern corner of the state offers unique places to get out and view the diverse landscape.

Getting lost in the woods while on a walk is a common problem in fairy tales, and in renowned horror stories. Even if you leave bread crumbs behind, in the style of Hansel and Gretel, if you venture off the trail, all of the rocks and trees start to look the same, eventually.

Minnesota is renowned for its big woods hiking, even though roughly one-third of Minnesota is tallgrass prairie, not forests, that dominate the landscape. And when hiking there, one quickly realizes that superlative hiking in Minnesota is not dependent on tree trunks surrounding you and a canopy of leaves or needles overhead.

Much of the swath in the middle of the country collectively known as the Great Plains was covered with a sea of tall grass two centuries ago, before the first Europeans arrived. One of the most onerous tasks the first prairie pioneers faced was breaking up those vast oceans of grass (and their underlying root systems) with their plows so they could grow crops for sustenance and to establish the American agrarian economy.

Like the vast forests of virgin timber that once covered all of northern Minnesota, before the loggers arrived, the uncut tallgrass prairie is all gone. Almost.

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More than 2,000 acres of private land within the Superior National Forest will remain undeveloped under a real estate deal announced by the Nature Conservancy.

The 2,110 acres of private land is surrounded by national forest land and includes six wild lakes, 3 miles of trout streams, 972 acres of wetlands and tracts of old-growth white spruce and white cedar.

It’s also near, but not inside, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which means it could have been sold to developers for recreational cabins or other development.

The land, about 15 miles west of Tofte in Cook County, Minnesota is part of the Temperance River watershed that flows into Lake Superior.

Mike Freed, a retired forestry professor who lives in Minnesota, bought the land in 1994 when a land development company listed it for sale as sites for multiple new cabins. Freed agreed to sell it to the Nature Conservancy at a discount below market value to keep it wild.

“This area is very important to the psyche and the emotional needs of a lot of people in Minnesota,’’ Freed said in a statement announcing the sale. “I’ve been privileged to take care of this land and I want to pass it onto someone who can continue to care for it.”

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Legislation to declare several hiking trails in the Northland to be part of the North Country National Scenic Trail has passed a U.S. House committee.

The bill from Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) would incorporate the Superior Hiking Trail, Border Route Trail, and the Kekekabic Trail into the national trail. The move would add 400 miles to the national trail, bringing it to 4,600 miles.

The bill, H.R. 1026, received unanimous approval by the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday and now advances to the full House for consideration. No funding is attached to the bill, and Nolan said it would not require taking any land through eminent domain or condemnation.

“The North Country National Scenic Trail stretches from the plains of North Dakota through Minnesota’s Arrowhead all the way to the forests of Vermont – and, when linked to the Appalachian Trail under our bill – as far north as Maine, and as far south as Georgia,” Nolan said in a news release. “It’s a system that combines environmental protection and stewardship and promotes good paying jobs, tourism and healthy recreation.”

Minnesota’s entire Congressional delegation has signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.

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Several changes are in the works for the 310-mile Superior Hiking Trail this summer. They include rerouting a portion of the trail in one place and installing a bridge in another location. In addition, the Superior Hiking Trail Association recently purchased land near the Encampment River to ensure the continued path of the trail through that property.

On July 21 and 22, a fiberglass bridge will be installed over the Red River near the Minnesota-Wisconsin boundary, completing the final segment of the Superior Hiking Trail in Minnesota. The bridge will span about 30 feet. At the border, the trail will join the existing North Country Trail.

A crew has begun building a reroute of the trail in the Gooseberry Falls State Park area where a private landowner asked that the trail be closed on his property. That rerouting of the trail will be about 3½ miles long.

The Superior Hiking Trail Association has purchased 10.6 acres of land on the west side of the Encampment River from a private party. The trail had crossed that land as part of an easement agreement and will remain in the same place.

Two bridges, over the Encampment River and over the Split Rock River will remain rock-hopping exercises, since the last bridges washed out during high water in 2013. The association is raising funds for the replacements.

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When the Polar Polers, a local ski club, recently began planning to enhance the Tilson Bay recreational area by building a boardwalk across a tamarack bog, they found a surprise when they checked the property records: The state had sold the land in 1935.

But whoever recorded the sale for Koochiching County back then failed to note the new owner in land records. And the buyer, a prominent International Falls businessman, apparently lost track of the purchase amid all his wheeling and dealing.

“It never occurred to anyone that this wasn’t state land,” said Matt Wappler, a forest manager with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Over the years, the state opened the land for hiking and cross-country skiing and built public boat access to Rainy Lake.

Michael Jaksa, a local attorney said the new owner “is a nice person” who “has basically agreed to gift the area south of the highway to the state, which clears up any ski trail issue, and also opens up the probability of the boardwalk.”

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Hugging the ridgelines above Lake Superior along northeastern Minnesota’s North Shore, the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) is the hottest long-distance footpath in the cool Northwoods. The SHT links two state forests, eight state parks and a national forest, plus it offers some 296 miles of continuous trail from Jay Cooke State Park near Duluth, Minn., to the Canadian border.

Ever changing, the SHT meanders through deciduous and boreal forests; past babbling brooks, swift rivers and waterfalls; and atop the windswept rocky escarpments of the appropriately named Sawtooth Mountains. No matter where you are on this hilly and sometimes-rugged trail, you’re never far from the sprawling, spectacular expanse of Gitche-Gumee (Lake Superior), the world’s largest freshwater lake in surface area.

Backpacker magazine ranks the SHT as “one of the most scenic trails in the nation.” National Geographic claims it is the “best long hike in the country between the Continental Divide and the Appalachian Trail.” Superlatives, indeed, but these are not exaggerations. Even hard-core wanderers are blown away by the dramatic scenery to be found there.

Built, maintained and managed by the all-volunteer Superior Hiking Trail Association, the SHT offers a genuine opportunity to get away from the crowds. With 53 trailheads along nearly 300 miles of trail — all of which is restricted to foot travel only — your options are plentiful, from a simple overnighter to an epic three-week thru-hike. Elevations range from Lake Superior at 602 feet above sea level to various ridge tops at more than 1,800 feet.

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The Twin Cities terrain is shaped primarily by glaciers, both directly and indirectly. The area’s hills are largely glacial moraines — piles of sediment hundreds of feet high, bulldozed by advancing glaciers in the last ice age roughly 10,000 years ago.

Glaciers also explain why the Minnesota River’s valley is so much bigger and deeper than the Mississippi River’s, even though today the Mississippi is the much larger river.

One glacier melted into Lake Agassiz, “one of the largest, if not the largest, lakes in world history” in what is now the Red River Valley along the border with North Dakota. When that lake burst over the continental divide at Traverse Gap, a gushing torrent of water called Glacial River Warren carved a deep valley across the state from about 11,700 years ago to 9,400 years ago.

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Join the celebration on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014 as Frazee, Minnesota becomes an official Trail Town on the North Country National Scenic Trail. Joining communities as far-spread and diverse as Canastota, N.Y., Dayton, Ohio, and Solon Springs, Wis., Frazee has earned official status as a gateway to America’s longest National Scenic Trail.

The public is invited to the dedication beginning at 10:30 a.m. at the corner of Lake Street and Main Street by the Hostel Hornet. A hike to the Lion’s Park will follow with coffee and donuts.

A Trail Town is a community through which the North Country Trail passes that supports hikers with services, promotes the Trail to its citizens and embraces the Trail as a resource to be protected and celebrated. Trail Town signs already greet travelers at the entry points to Frazee.

The community has served several long distance hikers on the North Country Trail. In 2013, Minnesota hiker Luke “Strider” Jordan spent a night in Frazee while hiking the full 4,600 mile length of the North Country Trail from North Dakota eastward to Vermont.

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Before you know it, the trees in Minnesota will be turning bright shades of yellow, orange and red. Some of the most spectacular views in the state can be found along the Superior Hiking Trail in the Arrowhead region. “It’s a whole different world out here,” said Dan Carr of Two Harbors, who hikes the trail regularly. “You just have to get off Highway 61.”

The Superior Hiking Trail follows the ridge line of Lake Superior’s north shore, through eight state parks along with inland forests and lakes.

There are two distinct bursts of fall color in this region, starting with the maples farther away from Lake Superior, turning red and orange. That’s followed later by the birch and aspens, near the lake, with their brilliant yellows.

“Colors start to change really dramatically mid-September to early October,” said Gayle Henton, a volunteer coordinator with the Superior Hiking Trail Association. “We’re almost there.”

Hikers who take on the trail should realize, it’s not your typical flat Minnesota terrain. You’ll get your heart rate going. “The terrain is constantly changing,” said Henton. “Because the trail follows the ridge line and also crosses many of the north shore streams. You get up, you get down. No matter where you look, you have a great view.”

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It’s all to be found in the seven Renville County, Minnesota parks, where it soon could be a lot easier to find your way.

Mark Erickson, community and environment director for Renville County, said the county park board and a specially appointed trails committee have developed a draft plan for developing a marked trail system in each of the seven parks. He presented the plan to the County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday. The board is expected to adopt the plan at its next meeting.

The plan outlines the routes for trails in the parks. It also describes how the trails will be signed and sets standards for the width of trails and how much vegetation to clear.

There are currently some maintained trails in the parks, but for the most part, hikers are making their own way by following long-established paths. Many of the existing paths are really well-tread deer trails that hikers keep open by their use.

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