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650–1,350 ft · MN🚗 Directions
Southeast Minnesota blufflands along the Mississippi. Unglaciated driftless terrain with oak-hickory ravines and hardwood coulees. Root River, Whitewater, and Zumbro valleys are prime morel hunting. Later season than IA and IL driftless.
Updated Oct 11, 5:08 AM MT
SE MN Driftless is rated Good on soil temps and a met moisture trigger, but it's running on thin margins: 0.01" in the last 7 days and only 0.21" over 14, with VWC at 0.18 today against a 0.21 weekly average. That drying trend is the limiting factor. Soil at 66°F has held above threshold all 7 days for the established fruiters, so Hen of the Woods, Lion's Mane, Honey Mushroom, Hedgehog, Yellow Foot, Red-Belted Conk, Angel Wings, and the jelly fungi (Tooth Jelly, Jelly Antler) are your high-confidence targets, along with Amanita muscaria and Yellow Fly Agaric if you're just observing. Most everything else is flagged moderate: mycelium is active but primordia haven't set, and the terrestrial and grassland species (parasols, puffballs, inky caps, waxcaps, stinkhorns) are the furthest behind with only 1 of 7 days above threshold. Death Cap is also showing moderate, so be aware of it in oak and mixed hardwood stands while hunting the lookalike-prone species. Watch for a rain event of a half inch or more: it would reset moisture and could push the 4/7-day group (Chicken of the Woods, Black Trumpet, oysters, Turkey Tail) toward fruiting, while continued dry weather will start desiccating exposed flushes and stall anything not yet pinned. Hot tip: Hunt north-facing slopes, ravine bottoms, and big hardwood bases where moisture lingers. Hen of the Woods and Hedgehogs in those pockets are your best bet before the dry spell erodes them.
Generated by Claude (Anthropic) from the structured weather, soil, and phenology data on this page. The LLM can misread edge cases — treat this as a starting hypothesis, not a guarantee. Always verify conditions on the ground before committing to a long drive.
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⚠ Road Access Notice
Always verify road access is public before following GPS directions to mountain areas. Many forest roads are seasonal, gated, or require 4WD. Dispersed camping follows USFS/BLM rules (typically 14-day limit). Check ranger district offices for current road and campground conditions.
Precip 7d
0.01"
PRISM 4km · thru 10-09
Precip 14d
Observed precipitation from PRISM 4km gridded analysis, sampled at the region centroid through 2026-10-09. Used when no SNOTEL/SCAN station is mapped to this region.0.21"
PRISM 4km · thru 10-09
Soil Temp
66°F
SWE
Snow Water Equivalent — how much water is in the snowpack vs. normal. Declining SWE means snowmelt is adding moisture to the soil.0%
Drought
None
Snowmelt
complete
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
All conditions met (soil 66°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21)
soil warming up (66°F today, only 4/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
soil warming up (66°F today, only 1/7 days above threshold — mycelium activating, primordia not yet established), today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.21
Primordia readiness: Cold = mycelium dormant. Activating = soil warming, primordia building. Primed = 5+ sustained warm days at species threshold; fruiting imminent if moisture cooperates. Based on Schmidt 1983 / Mihail 2007.