I’m always down to see something unique and interesting while we are traveling around the world, and Franconia Sculpture Park definitely fits that bill. Part public art installation, part sculpture garden, part outdoor museum, you are sure to find something interesting while wandering through this unique place.
How to Get to Franconia Sculpture Park
Franconia Sculpture Park is located just a few miles from Taylor Falls, MN which sits on the the Minnesota/Wisconsin border just across the river from St. Croix Falls, WI. This area has a lot of fun things to so stay tuned for several posts and a podcast on this area. Located just about an hour from the Twin Cities, this can make an excellent day trip.
Franconia Sculpture Park sits at the juncture of highways 8 and 59, so if you are passing through the area you can’t miss seeing it. However, you would be forgiven for not knowing what it is. At first glance it is hard to really place what is going on here. It might be art, but it might also be a junkyard. Just driving by might confuse you, but if you stop and walk around you will be surprised what you find.
It is free to visit so you can just park your car in the gravel parking lot of off Highway 95 and start walking around. The park is huge and I couldn’t tell that there was any particular order to anything, so I would say just pick a sculpture in the distance and start walking toward it.
What You Will See at Franconia Sculpture Park
As you wander toward a sculpture you will undoubtedly encounter other sculptures that you could not see initially. Some sculptures tower over head and some are virtually flat with the ground. Most of the sculptures have a small plaque that tells at least the name of the piece and who made it, but sometimes these plaques are hard to find.
Some of the sculptures are interactive. We were visiting during the summer of 2020 so many of the interactive features were roped off due to the Covid-19 pandemic. One that was open was a circle sidewalk with and meditative audio track you could play on your phone while walking it.
Every sculpture is a unique piece of art and they change them out from time to time, so I can’t tell you exactly what you will see here when you visit. The park is very big, and I think we probably only visited about a third of it when we were there.
Sum Up
There are lots of different sculpture gardens and art museums in the world, but Franconia Sculpture Park certainly feels unique. I think even if you don’t like art you will probably find something to interest you here. Since it is so big you could take 30 minutes to see the sculptures close to the parking lot, or you could spend half a day wandering through the whole place.
