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Shooting Star State Trail

The Shooting Star Trail is a 28.75-mile, paved trail through remnants of tall grass prairies with an abundance of native wildflowers. Much of it is built on an abandoned railroad grade.

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Along the Trail

The eastern terminus is in LeRoy, MN, which is on MN Hwy 56 just west of its junction with US 63 right above the Iowa/ Minnesota state line.
The trail soon passes through Lake Louise State Park and continues northwest to the town of Taopi, Adams and Rose Creek. The final leg of the trail travels north out of Rose Creek and picks up Austin’s network of city trails north of I-90.

Between Rose Creek and Austin, the shooting Star State Trail passes through southern Minnesota farm country

Between Rose Creek and Austin, the Shooting Star State Trail passes through southern Minnesota farm country

Hghlights: Remnant tallgrass prairie with wildflowers like prairie smoke, rattlesnake master, wild indigo, aster, goldenrod and blazing star wildflowers. The trail passes by several interpretive and recreational opportunities, including Rustic Retreat Wildlife Management Area, Shooting Star Prairie Scientific and Natural Area, Taopi Prairie Interpretive Area, Mower County Natural and Scenic Area and the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center.

Connections

The last leg of the project calls for the trail to drop south from Austin to the town of Lyle on the Minnesota-Iowa border. While a timeline for this last part has not been established, another extension has the potential to become a reality much sooner.
From near Taopi, a four-mile leg will extend to the Minnesota-Iowa border and connect to the Wapsi-Great Western Line Trail. This 27-mile paved trail travels southeast from the state border into Elma, IA. Together with Austin’s city trails, the resulting network will be 72 miles long.

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