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March, 2025

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Cliff Jumping Spots?

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SkiingNinja
Posts: 1972 - Karma: 912
Hey guys,
I'm in switzerland at the moment and just did some cliff diving into rock pools.  It is super fun.  Anyone know of any good spots to jump around wisconsin/minnesota?  The one I did was 30 feet and felt pretty easy but I don't mean to go crazy yet.  I live in Madison and go to school in Minneapolis so any areas fairly close to those would be especially great. 
Thanks guys!
15 years ago
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mr.airplane
Posts: 214 - Karma: 260
any clue of the bust factor at yellowstone lake? does anyone even care?
14 years ago
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the_gnar_gnar
Posts: 113 - Karma: 50
I was there last summer and there was nobody around, its sorta remote. I dont even know if its against the rules

14 years ago
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mr.airplane
Posts: 214 - Karma: 260
alright cool thanks
14 years ago
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muD
Posts: 5 - Karma: 10
I joined this forum just for this thread. Haha, yes. I just moved from Duluth where I spent last summer cliff jumping at lester park and up north. Lester has a 42 foot train bridge (45 if you include the railing) and there is a super deep pool up the stream with a tree on the top of a cliff that gets you over 50 feet (we never measured it though). But now I'm stuck in West Saint Paul for the summer. From this thread I have located:


--Lake of Isles - From the picture it looks to be only 20feet high and someone said that the cops pay close attention to it now? (15 miles away from me)


--Lake Byllesby (Cannon Falls) - I backpack on cannon river alot but have never seen any cliffs over deep water?? Anyone have more info on this spot? (32 miles away from me)


--Racine Rock Quarry - This looks high from the YouTube videos and may be worth stuffing friends into the car and driving the 220 miles.


--Red Granite Quarry - This place looks fun but are 35 foot cliffs worth the 500 mile round trip?


--Others?
14 years ago
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muD
Posts: 5 - Karma: 10
Oh, and whenever I drive over the Highway 52 bridge I can't help but stare at all of the bridges crossing the same river (is it the Mississippi? LOL! the Minnesota? I failed geography class...). They look so tempting. Would this be a death sentence? Here is a picture of the Robert Street bridge:

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n200/lspade/RobertStBridge.jpg

The river looks sooo big and scary but these bridges are like 60-100 feet high! Life jacket maybe? Haha. I am fulling willing to do some research/recon missions to the bridges to assess spots for exiting the river but damn I don't know if undercurrents are of any concern here?

14 years ago
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muD
Posts: 5 - Karma: 10
I answered my own question. The Wabasha Bridge (lower than the Robert Bridge) crosses the Mississippi in the Twin Cities and looked like a great jumping spot:

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n200/lspade/wabashabridge.jpg

But upon googling "Wabasha Jump" and "Swimming in the Mississippi" I realized that this would indeed be a death sentence. If it wasn't for the undercurrents of the river I would be all over this bridge but I enjoy breathing so you guys can all pretend that I never asked about jumping off this bridge.
14 years ago
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mr.airplane
Posts: 214 - Karma: 260

a couple shots from red granite after the nordic jam
14 years ago
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charr524
Posts: 25 - Karma: 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4djmvvf1Uo

Short edit from last summer at redgranite
14 years ago
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Heart
Posts: 6156 - Karma: 3,464
good to know, i saw it from below on a riverboat tour and thought it looked great for jumping, guess not =/
14 years ago
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jabroni.
Posts: 662 - Karma: 235
i am very impressed.
14 years ago
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noodle
Posts: 648 - Karma: 239
http://www.vimeo.com/14080188

Some spots up in the UP of Michigan. This is a video we filmed last summer, edited by kelly shaheen.
14 years ago
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CastIron
Posts: 5 - Karma: 10
A few things worth mentioning (sorry for the long post):

Life Jackets -

A life jacket is a bad idea.  For some of these higher jumps, around 70ft, the impact velocity is around 45mph.  If you've ever been dumped behind a boat going that speed, which is a good bit faster than typical skiing/wakeboarding/tubing speed, and hit the water feet first, you'll know that the life vest can get pushed up on your torso and make it very hard to breathe or even swim with any real progress.

Currents -

If you jump from the center of a span and not near a support piling/pier, the currents are usually not a problem.  If the water is moving fast and the flow is consistent, then it's still easy to swim straight up and then laterally to shore.  I've done the Cass Street Bridge over the Mississippi in Lacrosse WI, which was about 75ft in autumn when the water was low.  It's narrow and deep (25+ft) there and the water moves quickly, but even at night the current wasn't a problem.  Granted, this was a couple of college swimmers, but it was truly a walk in the park to swim back. 

I've also done some ocean jumps, including the ~45ft cliff in one of the last episodes of Lost (at the mouth of a cave near Honolulu) and a ~35ft pier jump in southern California.  There were legitimate currents due to the ocean swells, but it was large volumes of water moving, no little eddies, so it wasn't a problem to anyone in the large groups there.

Local River Depth -

I've taken a boat with a depth sounder along the Mississippi from Inver Grove Heights (well south of St Paul) all the way to Boom Island Park near downtown Minneapolis a couple times and looked at depths under the big bridges.  Unlike Lacrosse, the depths around here were more around 10ft; it was two or three years ago so I don't remember exactly, but I do remember thinking that it was too shallow to be safe.  This was mainly based on competitive platform diving experience.  In rivers, where it's nearly impossible to swim down and check out the bottom visually, I like a decent buffer since things get stock on the bottom, things that might not show up with a depth sounder.

Lastly, with rivers, and especially in the spring after a heavy rain season, watch for trees and logs floating in the water.



If anyone wants to go jumping in the next few days, let me know.  I'm up for it.
14 years ago
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muD
Posts: 5 - Karma: 10
Castiron. AWESOME INFO. Thank you. I'm in the cities and am up for jumping if you have some spots in mind. I'm not a college swimmer but I was on the swim team in highschool. Let me know because I'd love to find some people to go jumping with.
14 years ago
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ChocolateMilk.
Posts: 1129 - Karma: 220
Went to Racine(Quarry lake Park) 2 times in the last week probably better to sneak in at night but you can go and watch out for park workers and cops and probably be ok but its like a 500 dollar ticket if you're caught. but you can see the workers coming and if they don't see you jump you can just walk down by the river and say you were just walking along the river.
14 years ago
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ChocolateMilk.
Posts: 1129 - Karma: 220
Sorry for double post.
Workers drive blue trucks from what i know and they usually sit and try to see you jump and if you want to get around the fence where it says workers only (This is where you will get Trespassing and Attempted suicide ticket, but also where the good cliffs are) you walk down to the river and around the fence). Good luck and have fun!
14 years ago
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jabroni.
Posts: 662 - Karma: 235
I was there^
14 years ago
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Gretchen.
Posts: 1163 - Karma: 87
We go to a fun cliff in the U.P. by Ironwood area that I've only ever seen two other people at.  It's a mellow 30 ish feet and there are two waterfalls that make good backdrops.  The spot is very deep (I couldn't get to the bottom) and you don't have to worry about rocks because its a sheer cliff.  The climb up is easy.  If anyone wants directions just message me.
14 years ago
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Travapple.
Posts: 6787 - Karma: 88
this.
14 years ago
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jabroni.
Posts: 662 - Karma: 235
thats sick i wish i was in the up more. what main road is it off of?
14 years ago
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Gretchen.
Posts: 1163 - Karma: 87
CR 505 north of Ironwood.  There is also Open Pit in the U.P. that is popular and has high cliffs
14 years ago
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ChocolateMilk.
Posts: 1129 - Karma: 220
This spot looks pretty cool and says trails are not maintained so low bust factor if any? Anyone know anything more about this place or other places @ Devils lake?

Websight:
http://www.devilslakewisconsin.com/information-center/other-natural-areas/pewits-nest/

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdktZ2g60qE


14 years ago
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Gretchen.
Posts: 1163 - Karma: 87
I've never been to that spot, but Devil's Lake doesn't have much cliff jumping that I know of.  Someone correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I remember the cliffs at DL are away from the water's edge and not over a place you could jump into.  It is an amazing place to camp and rock climb though.
14 years ago
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Travapple.
Posts: 6787 - Karma: 88
nah DL doesnt have any good spots at all
14 years ago
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Bo_Skis_Mn
Posts: 59 - Karma: 11
I've been going to the lake of the isles bridge and cops haven't came, just once during the day and he didn't even get out of the car. He just told us we couldn't jump.
14 years ago
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wisconsinsteeze
Posts: 1170 - Karma: 749
it does have a small cliff/rock about 10 maybe 12ft, but not really worth going there just for that.
14 years ago
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Waldo-
Posts: 1026 - Karma: 184

i just went to cave point the other day. its in door county

heres a vid i found

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbXu9sXvHUs

14 years ago
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jmBEERY
Posts: 392 - Karma: 57
Virginia, MN
some of the best spots ive ever been to.


hope the embed works
14 years ago
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CastIron
Posts: 5 - Karma: 10
How do you get to the Cannon Falls cliffs?  Where do you park?
14 years ago
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RipeTomato
Posts: 231 - Karma: 289

I went to St Cloud Quarry last summer. The highest one was at 23ft and their were a couple of smaller ones that were pretty fun too.

Does anybody have some pics of the ones in Cannon Falls? I live pretty close to there.

14 years ago
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[creative]
Posts: 539 - Karma: 128
iv herd eau claire has rad cliff diving spots
14 years ago
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muD
Posts: 5 - Karma: 10
Click for larger image

SUCCESS!!!! Finally a jump spot that doesn't take 3 hours to drive to. Sorry for the bad picture from google maps but I didn't have a camera when I found this bridge. The foot bridge in the picture can either be climbed to get back on top or you can swim to shore, hop two fences, and bushwack through a few feet of shrubs to get back up. It was July 4th when I stopped to check it out so there were tons of boats going under the bridge at the deepest spot which meant I was unable to jump from the highlighted spot but I did get a few jumps from the railings just under the bridge.

The bridge is in the Bloomington/Minnetonka area. I'm looking for people to jump with, I can drive. We were there in the middle of the day during July 4th for about an hour and didn't get called in or talked to by anyone. However, I think it would be prime to go at sundown just to avoid attention. If anyone is interested let me know. I want to go ASAP.


Click for larger image
14 years ago
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roddy116
Posts: 10653 - Karma: 7,720
just walk along the st. croix and youll find some pretty good stuff.
14 years ago
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Asiansethsation
Posts: 236 - Karma: 244

We found this spot!

14 years ago
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[creative]
Posts: 539 - Karma: 128
lake bylsby in cannon falls turned out to be pretty badass! 35 and a 45 ish there i dont know what the acctualy heights are but i gainered the 35:)
14 years ago
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quixotic
Posts: 6937 - Karma: 2,980
sick video. i love that spot
14 years ago
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Kretzschmar
Posts: 6746 - Karma: 99,041
is this it? if so how do i get here??? haha redgranite is sick and all but i want some good freefalls
12 years ago
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Kretzschmar
Posts: 6746 - Karma: 99,041
sorry for dub post but is this the same spot?


12 years ago
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Swaggermager
Posts: 2576 - Karma: 950
Damn thats a biggin. I've only gone to the ones in St. Cloud because its so close to the cities
12 years ago
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.Rybak.
Posts: 9017 - Karma: 9,869
There's a couple places in duluth. (deeps, ice house) Those are the ones that i know of and then there's the lighthouse in superior (Wisconsin point.) There's a ton of places in the dells that I've heard of but haven't been to yet. Oliver Bridge which is right outside of superior and duluth.
12 years ago
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The_Real_EWilly
Posts: 395 - Karma: 1,321
The dells are fucking awesome there are spots where you can get over 100ft but most of it is anywhere from 5 to fifty feet
12 years ago
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John18_6
Posts: 7313 - Karma: 49,168
I went up to a cliff in the boundary waters of Northern MN, went to a place called "The Pallisades". They were cliffs over 200ft tall, so i hope there's a strong challenge. Also, you have to jump 50ft out to avoid a crop of very sharp rocks, and if you don't hit the water perfectly you will die. (Honestly, don't even think about this cliff, it is suicide)
12 years ago
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tostrom_33
Posts: 1 - Karma: 10
So where in cannon falls?
12 years ago
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ISkiHarder
Posts: 51 - Karma: 152
Sort of late but chek out Pewits Nest its in Baraboo

Click for larger image

its about 50 ft from top and there are a few places to jump from. Its relatively safe if you miss this ledge thing and the water is like 70 ft deep.
11 years ago
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Kretzschmar
Posts: 6746 - Karma: 99,041
bump

it's almost that time of the year again!
11 years ago
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CheesusChrist
Posts: 159 - Karma: 346
QUARRY IN RACINE, WI.

Tall jumps short jumps jumps over trees trespassing signs it's all fun
11 years ago
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Lick
Posts: 1927 - Karma: 518
Lake Wazee in Black River Falls, WI has a ton of cliffs. Up to like a 45-50 footer. They'll kick you out if the official people see you though.
11 years ago
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.Hugo.
Posts: 17360 - Karma: 28,488
Krotchis this it? if so how do i get here??? haha redgranite is sick and all but i want some good freefalls


Krotchsorry for dub post but is this the same spot?


Are those the same cliffs? The look like it, and one calls it 100 and the other 60.... I wonder which one is lying lol
11 years ago
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CheesusChrist
Posts: 159 - Karma: 346
Waldo-Bump. Closest places to milwaukee? Place in order of distance and how big it is. Realy want to get some dives in


https://maps.google.com/maps?q=42.746484,-87.820986

Right near Milwaukee. Kids drown there you you know its baller.
11 years ago
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nils.boberg.3
Posts: 1 - Karma: 10
Here's a great map of all the cliff jumping spots in Minnesota that I know of. https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zCDiYRjOYJ9E.k8Z0SzojFISg
11 years ago
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