Ten Must-See Outdoor Activities in Minnesota

“Selected from a relatively small pool of places I’ve been to.”

Around two years ago, I moved to Minnesota for four reasons: one, my sibling Nick was moving there for university and I wanted to move with them. Two, my (at the time) partner, Cheyenne, got a fancy adult job working for Target, and I wanted to follow her. Three, I had just graduated college and felt largely directionless and needed something to do. Four, I’ve always wanted to live in Minnesota because of its proximity to nature and the Big Lake At the Top. And it is a good lake. One worth moving for. You might even call this a great lake. I might even call it a great lake, once in a while. There are some great lake jokes about it. I think I know five of them.

And although I am now leaving Minnesota, it is for one singular reason: Sweden. But even though my time in Minnesota is at a close (for now, anyway…), that hasn’t stopped me from experiencing some of the wonders that Minnesota had to offer, and fulfilling all four of my reasons for moving there. Yes, I will be waxing poetic about my time there later (namely for reason number three). But for now, my goal over the next dozen paragraphs or so is to convince you that, yes, my fourth reason for moving to the state was well-founded. There are great natural sites in Minnesota, and I have visited several of them, and I think that you should, too.

Without further ado, in no particular order, here are ten (!!!) of my favorite natural places I have been to in Minnesota, especially the ones that I think are worth visiting again. And no, I’m not going to be twenty-seven seagulls in a Hawaiian shirt this time. That joke’s been played out by now.

Minnehaha Falls

Growing up in Illinois, there’s not a long around, nature-wise. You’ve got Lake Michigan and the dunes, if you don’t mind driving two hours, or you’ve got corn. I spent a lot of time at Starved Rock State Park because it’s only park with hills and bluffs for, like, a hundred and fifty miles in any direction. So imagine my surprise when my friend Katie (not to be confused with my other friend Katie, or my third friend Katie, or Nick’s partner Katie, or our mutual friend Katie) took me on a tour of Minnehaha Falls and it’s a big waterfall and river trail right smack dab in the middle of the Twin Cities. Like, there are houses and restaurants just barely past the top of the waterfall. It’s crazy.

And Minnehaha Falls and the regional park it sits in are beautiful, too, and much larger than I anticipated; my friend and I got not quite lost, but not quite found, either, especially after a veritable deluge started to rain down on us and we had to take shelter in a shallow limestone cave to prevent being entirely drenched. We were entirely drenched anyway.

But suffice it to say, I wish I had known that Minnehaha Falls was as impressive a place as it is sooner; it was one of the very last things I did in Minnesota before leaving. If you’re a fan of hiking and nature and you’re in the Twin Cities for a while, be sure to drop by Minnehaha Falls. Preferably when it isn’t raining.

Another St. Paul Suggestion: The Minnesota DNR’s State Fair Building

Ok, maybe this one feels a bit like cheating, but I LOVE the Minnesota State Fair. I love it so, so much. I love the booths, the vendors, the art shows, the quilts, the sweet corn, they have the best malts I’ve ever had, the butter sculpting, the chickens, the skyway, the sauerkraut, literal gallon buckets of cookies, I love it, it’s all so much fun. But I especially love the Minnesota DNR building. It is probably my favorite part of the state fair, and that’s saying a lot. They have a fire tower you can climb to get a better view of the fair, they have this big pond with tons of fish from all over the state, you can even get a hiking trail for your MN Hiking Club Passport if you want, which of course was the first thing I did when I was there. If I wasn’t going to be in another country, I would be at the Minnesota State Fair this year.

Interstate State Park

I’ve written about Frontenac state park once before, with its vast vistas of winding water, sitting atop the bluffs over the Mississippi river. Interstate State Park, although on the smaller, more northern St. Croix river, is no less impressive in its views. In fact, some parts of Interstate may offer an even more dramatic spectacle, with the sharp, jagged rocks that outline the river’s flow. And it has, of course, the potholes, which are worth the price of admission in and of themselves. Bizarre holes, carved directly into the earth by power of water and time, some of them are as big across as six feet and three times as deep. Do not climb in them; you will get stuck.

Interstate State Park sticks out in my mind as one of those places that’s got an underrated beauty to it (and that’s going to be a recurring theme in this post, I suspect). It isn’t a well-traveled park, and it isn’t a very large park (unless you count the Wisconsin side as well, which does boost its size a fair bit), but it’s emblematic of the rugged waterways of the North Country. It’s impossible not to come to this place and just stare, especially if you can get there on a slightly-overcast day when the lighting is perfect for photos.

Plus, the nearby town of Taylors Falls is a really cute little tourist stop, too, and they’ve got this excellent drive-in burger joint with delicious root beer. Legitimately some of the best root beer I’ve ever had. There was also a harlequin duck underneath the bridge in town one time, according to a family I met at the bog, so that’s neat!

Another Driftless Suggestion: The International Owl Center and Mississippi River Roads

Technically speaking, Interstate State Park is not in the Driftless region, so this category is a bit of a misnomer, but the idea of rocky bluffs/big winding rivers/valley gorges still stands. If you’re from the flat Midwest, like me, and wrongly assumed that all the Midwest was flat, then you’d do well to check out the Driftless region of Minnesota/Wisconsin/Iowa/Illinois, which is almost like a mini Appalachia. The International Owl Center is there, which I have, of course, written about before. You don’t even have to go anywhere specific to see the sites here (although you could go to, say, Frontenac or Afton State Parks), you could just drive through the towns in this hilly, lush region. Red Wing, Wabasha, Winona… The geography and geology of the region is endlessly fascinating to me, and if you’re tired of flat, don’t sleep on it.

Chain Of Lakes and the Grand Rounds

If you’ve got a summer weekend to spend in Minneapolis, you can’t do a whole lot better than going to the Chain of Lakes region of the city, or biking the Grand Rounds of Minneapolis. In what is truly a masterstroke of urban planning, Minneapolis (and St. Paul, too!) has reserved some of the most public lands for recreational use out of any city in the country. And within the boundaries of Minneapolis proper, the crowning jewel of this is, of course, the Chain of Lakes. A series of lakes stretching miles through the city, these parks offer opportunities to bike, swim, boat, relax, read, drink, eat, shop, party (if you’re near Uptown), and more. I know I sound like I’m trying to sell you something (because I kind of am, I guess?), but I’m a park nerd, and I just really, really love how the chain of lakes fits into Minneapolis as a whole.

And the Grand Rounds, too! It’s a biking/hiking trail that encircles the entire city of Minneapolis, with options to even connect to the St. Paul biking trail and see their sights, too. If you include the parks and trails of both Minneapolis and St. Paul, you’ve got spots ranging from bird sanctuaries and quite retreats all the way to the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, the only natural waterfall on the Mississippi river, both downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and probably that stupid cherry sculpture, too. Now, I don’t bike much, so I can’t speak from more experience than seeing the signs for the rounds all over the place, and also spending several weekends down at the chain of lakes, but they are excellent city parks, and worth visiting even if you’re typically more drawn to more rugged areas.

Another Minneapolis Suggestion: Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve

I may be a bit biased in my estimations, since I spent 85% of my time on the Minneapolis side of things and I worked for them, but I think the best parks within the suburban Twin Cities are the ones that belong to the Three Rivers Park District. And there are lots of good ones to choose from; Elm Creek, Carver Park, Hyland Lake, and more. But since I’m trying to give this list a broader scope than just the Twin Cities itself, I’d like to recommend another underappreciated gem; Murphy-Hanrehan park.

I only discovered this park by accident, since it’s so far south of the cities and normally far out of my way. I had a half-day at work and wanted to get some hiking in afterward, so I stuffed my backpack full of rocks and headed over to Murphy-Hanrehan to get in a few miles before sunset. Dear reader, this park kicked my ass. It’s a loopy, winding maze of trails that intersect at odd angles, covering hills with what seemed like, at times, as much as a twenty percent incline. This park is rugged and it is beautiful. Each hill hides a little valley with a pond in it, I saw wood ducks and wild turkeys, there were deer running around, and it was totally empty of people the entire time. If you want to get some uphill training done at a Three Rivers park, sure, maybe Hyland has a bigger hill, but Murphy-Hanrehan has hillssss, plural, and they are all very, very pretty.

Sax-Zim Bog

What can I say about the Sax-Zim Bog that I haven’t already said? That it’s a birder’s paradise? That it’s miles and miles of strange, otherworldly bog water? That’s near several very cute and also very odd towns? That I saw an owl there one time? That you can go during any season of the year and probably see one owl, if you’re lucky? That it’s a legitimate international draw for the northern half of Minnesota, bringing in birding groups from all over this hemisphere? No, wait, I think I’ve said that one already.

The Sax-Zim bog is maybe a stretch on a list of nature “must-sees” in Minnesota, because there isn’t, truth be told, that much to see. There are trees, and maybe some birds if you’re lucky. But by dog, the birds are much to see. If you have any inkling of being a more serious birder, you owe it to yourself to go to this bog in the middle of nowhere, Minnesota. Just make sure that you know exactly where the edge of the road is at all times or you will get stuck in a ditch. Trust me.

Another North Country Suggestion: Ely, Minnesota

I’ll be honest, Ely is one of those places that made me want to move to Minnesota in the first place. It’s this cute little town right at the edge of the Boundary Waters, way up in the northern part of the state. And although I’ve never been canoeing on the Boundary Waters (I know, a sin, since I spent a whole two summers in Minnesota and never once went to the Boundary Waters), there are plenty of other things to see in Ely. Besides its cute town vibes, there’s Bear Head Lake State Park conveniently located nearby, which has a wonderful taste of the boundary waters without, you know, having to paddle to get there. Ely is also within spitting distance of the North American Bear Center and the International Wolf Center, both of which, incredibly, have the website addresses of www.bear.org and www.wolf.org, respectively. I think that is very funny. Technically, owl.org is unclaimed, so really there’s nothing stopping me…

Tettegouche State Park

It’s really, really hard to go wrong with anywhere on the North Shore of Lake Superior. It is, like I said, an exceptionally great lake. There are probably eight or nine dedicated state parks and recreation areas along the North Shore, and they’re all beautiful. And that doesn’t even count all the other things to stop and see along the highway that runs up the far end of the state. From Duluth to the cute towns up and down the coast to the countless beautiful parks, the North Shore is truly one of the prettiest places I have ever been. I don’t even have to couch that in “for the Midwest” or “for Minnesota” or anything; on a good day (there it is), I really do think the North Shore can compete with the big hitters of the country. It is one of the other reasons that I wanted to move to Minnesota.

And while there are plenty of good options I could have gone with (Gooseberry, Split Rock, George Lopez, etc.), I think that Tettegouche State Park is the best example of them all. Stretching both along the coast of the lake and into the interior of the north country itself, Tettegouche offers stunning vistas both inland and offland. If you are only going to go one park on the North Shore of Minnesota, it’s hard to recommend anything other than Tettegouche. Although luckily for you, if you’re up there anyway, you might as well stop at all the others, too! They’re basically right next to each other!

Another North Shore Suggestion: Grand Portage National Monument

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not just a park nerd; I’m also a history nerd. So visiting the Grand Portage National Monument, a veritable epicenter for anyone interested in the voyageurs and the North American fur trade, is a must. Of all the things I’ve seen on the North Shore, Grand Portage stick out as the most unique. It’s a recreation of a 19th century fur trading post, and teaches about the convergence of French, British, American, Ojibwe, and other cultures at the height of the fur trade era. These days, it’s hard to imagine just how important the fur trade was to the history of the upper midwest, but know this; one of the first verifiable multi-millionaires in America, even including the Founding Fathers, was John Jacob Astor, who made all his money from the fur trade (and also getting the Chinese addicted to Opium, so, like modern rich people, not exactly the greatest guy). But Grand Portage National Monument is a look into a time long since passed, and a worthy stop on any North Shore tour. Plus, it’s right near the Canadian border, so you could even say you went all the way to Canada!

Well, those have been ten (plus a few extra) natural sites in Minnesota that I have visited that I also think are worth visiting by the general populace. That is… a fairly specific list of things to post on the internet, but what is the point of this blog if not to get weirdly specific about things that, ultimately, do not matter in the slightest? That’s basically what I made my living off of for the last year anyway, being a historical interpreter and all. The government paid me to dress up as a cowboy and learn about Pierre Bottineau for forty hours a week. Might as well bring it into my everyday life, too!

But let me know if you’ve visited any of these sites, or if you plan on going to visit them in the future! I don’t get a kickback from this or anything, so you have no incentive to tell me anything about your travels except from the joy of shared experience, but I’d appreciate hearing about it anyway! Leave a comment! Or something! It’s usually just my mom, and sometimes my grandfather, so you’re in good company. Most of the time.

What, did I say Greece pictures this week? Sorry, I meant Greece pictures next week. Clearly. This is definitely what I said. Don’t go check it, just trust me. I have been busy and also unaccountably lazy in these weird days between the end of my professional life in Minnesota and the beginning of my educational life in Sweden. Things are in a holding pattern for me, in a way, but that certainly hasn’t stopped me from going out and having a good time, though. More fun photobomb-y things to come soon!