71 state parks and recreation areas in Minnesota
Camping, trails, fees and current alerts are on each park’s page.
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All 71 parks
- Afton State ParkBur oak and big bluestem hold the ridgetops, and the ravines below fall 300 feet to the river. Every campsite…
- Banning State ParkWhitewater runs past Blueberry Slide and the ruins of the Banning sandstone quarry, with Wolf Creek Falls a…
- Bear Head Lake State ParkRed and white pine ring a 674-acre lake, with moose, wolves and black bear in the country around it — the…
- Beaver Creek Valley State ParkWater rises cold at the Big Spring and runs the length of the valley, holding brown and brook trout the whole…
- Big Bog State Recreation AreaA boardwalk carries you a mile out over sphagnum and black spruce into the largest peatland in the lower 48…
- Big Stone Lake State ParkTwenty-six miles of water along the South Dakota line, and the Minnesota River starts here. Walleye, northern…
- Blue Mounds State ParkA Sioux quartzite cliff stands 100 feet over the tallgrass, and a bison herd works the prairie behind it…
- Buffalo River State ParkOne of the largest unploughed prairies left in the state, 250 species of grass and wildflower deep, with…
- Camden State ParkA wooded valley folded into open farmland, where the Redwood River holds brown trout and a spring-fed pool…
- Carley State ParkBluebells come up in May under white pines that were old when the park was made, and that is reason enough to…
- Cascade River State ParkThe river gives up 900 feet in its last three miles, stepping down ledge after ledge through a mossy basalt…
- Charles A. Lindbergh State ParkA stone water tower and picnic shelter raised by WPA crews still stand above the Mississippi, and the…
- Crow Wing State ParkA townsite emptied when the railway crossed at Brainerd instead; its outline and a length of the ox-cart…
- Cuyuna Country State Recreation AreaIron pits abandoned in the eighties have filled with water clear enough for divers, and the stockpile ridges…
- Father Hennepin State ParkTwo campgrounds and a long sand beach on the quiet southeast corner of Mille Lacs, with accessible piers and…
- Flandrau State ParkA sand-bottomed swimming pond, and stone buildings the WPA raised in the thirties on ground that later held…
- Forestville/Mystery Cave State ParkUnderground it holds 48 degrees all year, and naturalists lead you past stalactites and standing pools…
- Fort Ridgely State ParkEstablished in 1911, the fourth park the state made, on bluffs above the Minnesota where a frontier garrison…
- Fort Snelling State ParkPike Island sits where the Minnesota empties into the Mississippi, and you can walk out to the point inside…
- Franz Jevne State ParkA hundred and eighteen acres on the Rainy, looking over at Ontario, with white pine framing the water and…
- Frontenac State ParkBluff, prairie, floodplain and hardwood meet around Lake Pepin, and 260 bird species have been counted…
- Garden Island State Recreation AreaTwenty-three miles out into Lake of the Woods and reachable only by boat — the northernmost ground in the…
- George H. Crosby Manitou State ParkEvery site here has to be carried in, and the trails that reach them are steep. The Manitou drops through…
- Glacial Lakes State ParkKettle hills left by the ice stand over 56-acre Signalness Lake, where only electric motors are allowed…
- Glendalough State ParkSpecial rules keep the sunfish and crappie big in Annie Battle Lake, and no motor may touch it. The sites…
- Gooseberry Falls State ParkThree falls in a row on the Gooseberry, dropping through basalt to Lake Superior past CCC stonework from the…
- Grand Portage State ParkThe Pigeon falls 120 feet at High Falls, the biggest drop in the state and the reason the nine-mile portage…
- Great River Bluffs State ParkKing's Bluff ends in a wide look over the Mississippi flyway, where eagles, hawks and waterfowl move through…
- Greenleaf Lake State Recreation AreaThree hundred and eighty-five acres taking in parts of two lakes and the wetland between — undeveloped, day…
- Hayes Lake State ParkThe Roseau River's north fork was dammed to make this lake, backed by the Beltrami Island forest and its…
- Interstate State ParkSwirling grit bored potholes into the basalt here, and there is nothing else like them on the river. Climbers…
- Itasca State ParkThe state's first park, kept since 1891, and the place you can step over the Mississippi before it runs 2,552…
- Jay Cooke State ParkA suspension footbridge swings over the St. Louis where the river pours across slabs of tilted slate laid…
- John A. Latsch State ParkOne trail, cut by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, climbs half a mile up a steep ravine and finishes…
- Judge C.R. Magney State ParkHalf the Brule drops 50 feet into a pool at Devil's Kettle; the other half vanishes down a pothole in the…
- Kilen Woods State ParkFive hundred and fifty-three quiet acres above the Des Moines River, with Dinosaur Ridge Overlook looking…
- La Salle Lake State Recreation AreaTwo hundred and thirteen feet deep — no inland lake in the state goes deeper — inside ground surveyed as…
- Lac qui Parle State ParkThe Dakota name means the lake that speaks, and every spring and autumn thousands of Canada geese make the…
- Lake Bemidji State ParkQuarter of a mile of boardwalk crosses a tamarack bog where showy lady's slippers, pitcher plants and sundews…
- Lake Bronson State ParkNo observation tower in any Minnesota state park stands taller, and from it the prairie and aspen-oak run to…
- Lake Carlos State ParkA deep, clear lake at the head of the Alexandria chain, with woodland ponds, marsh and glacial hills around…
- Lake Louise State ParkAn old milldam on the Upper Iowa makes the lake, and the paved Shooting Star State Trail runs clean through…
- Lake Maria State ParkMaple, basswood and oak on rough moraine — a surviving piece of the Big Woods that once ran across the south…
- Lake Shetek State ParkShetek is Ojibwe for pelican, and the birds work the biggest lake in this corner of the state all summer. A…
- Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State ParkRide the cage down into the Soudan iron mine, then come back up to six miles of Lake Vermilion shoreline…
- Maplewood State ParkWooded hills stand high over small clear lakes, and the maples turn the whole park gold and red each October…
- McCarthy Beach State ParkHalf a mile of sand on Sturgeon Lake, with shallow water running far enough out that children can wade it…
- Mille Lacs Kathio State ParkNine thousand years of people have passed through or lived on this ground, and it is a National Historic…
- Minneopa State ParkWater falling twice, in Dakota — a footbridge crosses the creek between the two drops. Plains bison range a…
- Minnesota Valley State Recreation AreaThe Minnesota Valley State Trail follows the river minutes from the Twin Cities, paved as far as Chaska and…
- Monson Lake State ParkThree hundred and forty-six acres of hardwood and wetland, quiet enough that the fishing is the loudest…
- Moose Lake State ParkRolling hills, ponds and two fishing lakes, with a pier to work from and bass and northern in quiet Echo…
- Myre-Big Island State ParkOak savanna, restored prairie and marsh wrap Albert Lea Lake, filling with waterfowl twice a year. Cross the…
- Nerstrand Big Woods State ParkOne of the last big stands of the Big Woods, and in spring the floor comes up in hepatica, bloodroot and the…
- Old Mill State ParkThe steam-powered flour mill and the settlers' log cabin still stand, and once a year the mill is fired up to…
- Red River State Recreation AreaBuilt on greenway made after the 1997 flood, this is a town campground in East Grand Forks — 85 of its 113…
- Rice Lake State ParkShallow water and marsh edge make this a staging ground for waterfowl twice a year, watched from sites under…
- Sakatah Lake State ParkThe paved Sakatah Singing Hills trail crosses the park on its 39 miles between Mankato and Faribault…
- Savanna Portage State ParkSix miles of marsh and swamp took the Ojibwe, Dakota and voyageurs five days to cross, and their portage is…
- Scenic State ParkUncut pine still lines the shore of two lakes here, Coon and Sandwick, and a narrow ridge called Chase Point…
- Schoolcraft State ParkTwo hundred and twenty-five acres of uncut pine on the Mississippi, one white pine of them past 300 years…
- Sibley State ParkMount Tom looks out over forest, farm, prairie knoll and lake — few points within 50 miles stand higher…
- Split Rock Creek State ParkNo lake in Pipestone County is bigger, and the Sioux quartzite dam the WPA finished in 1938 is what holds it…
- Split Rock Lighthouse State ParkThe light stands on anorthosite cliff over Lake Superior, put there after a November gale in 1905 took seven…
- St. Croix State ParkThirty-four thousand acres held between two protected rivers — the St. Croix carries National Scenic Riverway…
- Temperance River State ParkSwirling gravel has drilled potholes and a slot gorge through lava a billion years old on the way down to…
- Tettegouche State ParkShovel Point, the 60-foot High Falls of the Baptism, six inland lakes you can only walk to, and a mile of…
- Whitewater State ParkLimestone bluff and deep ravine over spring-fed water that holds brown, brook and rainbow trout in both the…
- Wild River State ParkEighteen miles of the St. Croix, with an easy day's paddle down to the park's southern access and an overlook…
- William O'Brien State ParkRolling wooded hills over the St. Croix, an hour out of the Twin Cities, with northern, walleye, bass and…
- Zippel Bay State ParkTwo miles of white sand facing Lake of the Woods, and sunsets that are the reason people come back. A marina…
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