Nice addition to the area. It's not in too bad of shape after the mining operation left. The water…read moreis clear and full of fish. Plenty of mature greenery and rolling hills. The beach needs some improvements before I'd recommend it for a family. The water depth drops off quickly, the beach itself is steep and ungraded, and there are no picnic tables/grills or anything like that. Overall, as long as you are OK with and expecting a rustic undeveloped experience, you will like this place! It really is beautiful!

Outside the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center, you will find over 500 acres of prairie, forest, and…read morewetlands. Inside, offers hands-on learning. You can learn about owls, hawks, snakes, turtles, and more. You can find each of these live animals inside. Most have a write-up near their exhibits to teach you more about them. If you are lucky you can visit the center when the snake is taken out of its cage and have the opportunity to hold it or see it up close. There are plenty of interactive displays inside and several places where little ones can play. Whether outdoors or indoors this is the perfect way to spend a day.

The Hormel Nature Center brings back warm fuzzy memories from my childhood when my Dad used to work…read morehere. They have educational events, tours, nature walks, a visitor center, etc. And of course you can always explore on your own as well. The park features native prairie, hardwood forest, wetlands and streams. I rememer climbing the big rock out in the front of the visitor center and feeling like it was SO TALL (when you're 5, everything's giant). Not sure if everyone would or could enjoy it as much as I do, but it's still a great little retreat.

What a fun park! You must drive through and see the Bison. They were so cute and so close while we…read moreare there. Then we went over to look at the waterfalls and those are easy to navigate to for any level. There are more adventurous hikes for those who want to explore, so something for everyone. I'll definitely be back!

Beautiful well kept "preserved " park. No bison were around to see though, all our cars driving up…read moreand down , they're smart to stay in the woods! Kind of a joke really. No matter trails great, parking ample.

This is a great place to go to for multiple occasions, wether you need a place to go for a get…read moretogether of any kind, or need a quiet place to relax or refocus! East park makes a beautiful place for pictures as well!

I'm feeling homesick for Oregon today, so I decided to go park hoping today. This is such a nice…read morepark. Clean and well maintained. There are actually many playground sets within this park to choose from. Lots of picnic shelters and benches to enjoy a lunch at. Nice walking paths wandering through the whole park and Pleanty of resting benches to sit at if you get tired. If you enjoy Frisbee golf, they have a nice set here to play with too. Check out the water fountain by the flower gardens or bring some bread to feed the ducks or geese. If your kids have never seen a deer up close, well...this park also has a deer enclosure for the kids to enjoy. Pleanty of things to do here on a nice spring day.

Parking, cleanliness, presentation was 5 stars. However, the condition of some of the animals had…read moreme a little concerned. The bear we saw was pacing and panting back and forth. I'm not a zookeeper by any means, but considering the heat and kids screaming, maybe stress and hot! The same was for the mountain lion. He actually was pawing at his enclosure door to get out of the sun, but seemed unable to do so. Other animals were even seen pawing at empty bowls, which again, assuming this to be for water. I grew up on a farm, not a zookeeper, but the animals looked very uncomfortable.

This was unexpected. Like, really unexpected. We drove here after camping at a state park nearby,…read moreand the roads made us think we were headed towards someone's backyard and we might be the only ones there. We could not have been more wrong! Buses full of field trip kids! So many granny nannies! Plenty of older kids, including a few groups of teenagers! This is a legit nature center, quality playground, and perfectly nice little zoo. I don't know what it's like to live down here, but apparently the locals love this place. That said, it wasn't too crowded at all, and the bathrooms were clean. Parking was easy. We stayed for about an hour, but plenty of people looked like they had packed lunches and intended to stay all day.

Although this place is amazing, very beautiful, but this place is so shady and so insecure for…read morepeople last night when we went there with the family the moment we parted, there was a huge bunch of people who came in different cars mostly African-American. People are not US based Somalians or somewhere from that side of the country Because I could not hear them talk properly. They were dealing with illegal drugs and the park was so dirty and nasty that you could see used condoms all over the place. If you're going with the family I strongly recommend you avoid this side of the park because it's not very safe. We feel really insecure and left that place although the park is very pretty we could have stayed longer, but we didn't feel safe with the amount of people coming in there with the law-enforcement can make rounds in this area. They can have a good check on what's going on in there

Here's a weird fact. When I lived in Rochester, I never dropped by Silver Lake Park. I always drove…read morearound it to get to and from my home to the downtown area and beyond. The only explanation that I can muster is that I had a park within walking distance from my home. I visited that park often that I didn't think of visiting others. After having a decent lunch on Saturday afternoon, I decided to drop by the park to finally check it out. There are a number of parking spots. I backed my car into an available spot and walked around. Rochester is unique in that it's the only city in Minnesota that has manmade lakes. I believe that the number of lakes in Rochester is in the double digits these days, but the lakes were designed for cooling. Specifically, Silver Lake cools the Rochester Public Utilities power plant. The park surrounds Silver Lake. You can get quite the workout walking around it. I walked maybe a quarter of it. I had spotted a swing that had enough space to comfortably seat two adults. There were indeed two people on it, so I decided to walk somewhere else. When I noticed that they were walking towards me, I headed over to the swing. I like a good swing. This one faces the lake and it was enjoyable taking in downtown Rochester and the view while swinging on it. There are geese in the area. They are known as Canadian honkers. They have longer necks than your traditional Canada goose, which I didn't know about until I learned that Canadian Honker, the restaurant in town, was named after it. Cool! If you do see these birds, you can feed them. There isn't a bylaw that says that you'll get fined for feeding them. During the Fourth of July, fireworks happen in this area. It's definitely a smaller version of the Victoria Day fireworks at Ashbridges Bay in the Beaches in Toronto, but it's pretty decent. I never watched it from the park, but admired the display from afar. This park has a memorial dedicated to fallen firefighters. I also like that each tree has a sign that identifies what you are looking at. It's a cool place to walk around, and learn and discover on your own. It was great getting to know this park instead of driving around its perimeter! I look forward to returning and checking out the rest of it. (140)

Tikki bar was awesome. We got our dollar up there for our 38th anniversary. Would take the drive…read morein again from Elmhurst, Il.

always good .....always fun... If the weather coOperates sitting out by the lake is great. OR go…read morefor a good breakfast..

This park has a nice open feel to it. It also has a nice…read morewooden playground structure full of all kinds of fun things for the kids to explore and play on. I would of played on it, but the rules stated...playground is only for kids up to a certain age. They keep this playground neat and clean. Its a tobacco and dog free playground. I'm guessing if your dog smokes, skip this place..

The location is great and the staff is friendly, but the mosquitos are the worst we've experienced…read moreat a state park. Half of the campers we saw had bug netting or a fan which would've made our experience much more enjoyable. We usually hike at parks, but couldn't bear the idea of more mosquito bites. We camped in B and appreciated the trees between the campsites for a bit of privacy. If you have an awning, use it if you're going to sit by the camper - the tree over us dropped 10-20 acorns just on the awning while we were there for a weekend. If you need a dump station, this location does not have one. There is a free spot a few miles up the road in Owatonna (pic for reference)

Very flat easy trail hiking. I bumped up the rating a bit because of lovely hike along the lake…read more The trail goes right past all the camp sites but, fortunately, no one was camping when we walked by so it was quiet and peaceful. We did the main trail but added a snow mobile trail section to make it a bit longer. That section took us out of the woods and into a grassy field. Lots of wild flowers and butterflies. We did not see many birds but the lake views and reeds were lovely.

We continued our quest to visit all of the Minnesota state parks. Lake Louise was a recent visit…read more The main trail was wide and well marked. It followed the water until we took an extra snow mobile trail that brought us out into the prairie. The prairie had lot of birds, butterflies, and grasshoppers. Most of the trail was smooth walking with a few areas of rocks and prairie uneven land. Overall it was a nice area. We saw a few people along the way but mostly it was quiet and l peaceful. Nice stop.

What a nice gem in LeRoy, MN. I went during the cold weather so it was a quiet peaceful trail…read more There are some tables under the tall trees and a swimming area available. I saw a few woodpeckers and plenty of squirrels gathering food for the winter. Great place for all ages.