There are two sides to enter Reservoir Woods, I was on the dog park side and drifted to the paths of the Reservoir. Some steep hills and winding trails with mostly easy paths. There are a few interpretation signs including wildlife sightings of Deer and Coyote. You probably won't see much more than a few squirrels but best to keep you Pug pup on a leash. read more

Reservoir Woods - A few signs. - Parks Near Me - Roseville, Minnesota

You go to the top of the hill and drive into a bit of a narrow parking lot. From there it's only about a hundred steps to some very thick, impressive wooded areas. I would have explored more if I wasn't in a rush, but boy was it nice. read more

Reservoir Woods - Parks Near Me - Roseville, Minnesota

My favorite place to hike. No big parking areas, and some fairly varying terrain, so you can actually commune with nature rather than people's screaming kids. read more

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One of my favorite trails in the twin cities mainly because it is closer to home and not a lot of foot traffic. It's pretty quiet for the most part and lots of animal sightseeing (geese, deers). Parking lot is small but not usually filled. read more

My brother, our friends and I used to come here in high school, long before they paved the place over. It had a lost, haunted, abandoned feel to it then. We had to hike through a graveyard and find a hole in the fence. We used to have campfires, even in winter. Once, we raided my friends' parents' liquor cabinet and filled a few two liter bottles with a mixture of red wine, cheap brandy, and kahlua. Don't laugh! At age 16 it seemed like quite a score! After we were done vomiting around the campfire, my brother wanted to see how sharp his brand new pocket knife was. He ran it along his thumb to test it out and--surprise! He immediately began to bleed all over everybody. I think he said, "oh, f--k, is that MY blood?" Though drunk and disoriented, we never lost our way back there, not even on starless nights without the benefit of flashlights or clear cognition. We got my bro to the ER, and I don't remember if they gave him a new thumb or just stitched him up. What a scene! We always had an ear out for the cops, close as we were at times to busy Roselawn Ave., but they never came, and even if they had, they would never have found us. They didn't know those trails like we did. It was our secret place, and we were its kings. I loved the Reservoir. I knew every inch of it and enjoyed it in every season. I collected medicinal herbs there that helped cure people. I buried a dead pet there. It was like having a forbidden, abandoned state park right in the burbs. But unlike state parks, which are highly regulated, manicured places, the Reservoir was like a refuge for the select few people who knew how to appreciate its depth and diversity. There was prairie, old-growth pines, ponds, owls and pileated woodpeckers, a small herd of deer. Not to mention the actual reservoir itself, a creepy, unnatural hill with ancient brick buildings on the corners like the entrance to Druid burial vaults. We used to ascend its bare plateau and sit silently and smoke cigarettes as we gazed at the view of distant, downtown Minneapolis while we thought about the past and the future. We did a lot of other things at this place that I will not mention, except that none of them were harmful to the land or other people, and they were equally the doings of carefree, misspent youth, and also formative experiences that helped us grow up. I always felt a sense of belonging here, a peacefulness. I still do, even though it's paved over with trails. I married my brother and his wife here in a tiny, shotgun ceremony. A stranger's excitable dog came bounding up to us at the conclusion of the ceremony, and we all petted it and laughed. It was during the last snowfall of the season, in April, 2011. That was the last time I was there. read more

Reservoir Woods - I married my brother and his wife here on the deck at Reservoir Woods during the last snowfall of the season in April, 2011. - Parks Near Me - Roseville, Minnesota

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I eagerly wanted to go for a walk/snowshoe adventure while in minnesota, because i love these two activities in the snow. my brother and sister-in-law live in roseville and they talked about going for an adventure "in a park close by." little did i know what i was getting myself into. reservoir woods was a very nice park nestled in the middle of the cities suburbia and it offered that seclusion for the upset person or the serenity for the nature lover. the snow was built and the trees were bare. the children were sledding, and the buildings abandoned. it offered great photo opportunities, and even better exercise activities. about 3 hours after i set out, i had walked several miles. i came away with a fresh mind, a loose body, and a fulfilled soul. stop reading. go walking. head to reservoir woods. read more

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lovely little gem. I wonder if M knows about this place. I have to ask her some day. She is from Roseville, see, but this is the kind of park that you could live nearby and not even notice, tucked back behind dale as it is, with the main attractions of Rosedale a forgotten shadow... don't worry about this park being overrun by the masses. parks are meant to be used, and get better with time. read more

I had never heard of this park until yesterday, Oct. 11th, 2010. I read a review of it on Yelp's main page and it sounded like a nice place to go off-trail "adventuring". My main focus while adventuring is finding mushrooms, preferably of the edible variety, but I like finding woodland creatures, taking pictures of the fall colors, etc. About 50 yards into the park on the main path, I saw a foot trail off to my right, so adventuring I did go. I walked to a border with private property, found a lean-to, got startled by a black and white cat (that I initially believed to be a skunk), and heard an owl hoot. Not bad for an hours work. I found a few varieties of mushrooms, one edible, and took plenty of pictures. I've only scratched the surface of Reservoir Woods, but am anxious to get back in there. read more

Our old pooch has not taken well to apartment living. Couple that with a move in the dead of sub-zero winter, and we found ourselves with one increasingly disgruntled canine. I'd looked at the Ramsey County website to find some off-leash dog parks, as we had a fantastic doggy nirvana back in Michigan that was run by the County parks and rec, and found Reservoir Woods. At the first sign of a warm-up, we brought him out to sniff some marshland and run him silly. Unfortunately, we picked a day and time when the ice had melted and re-frozen, so it was a tiny bit slick. Also unfortunate was our discovery that the vast majority of the so-called off-leash area was actual marshland, with posted signs indicating we should stay out. That seriously put a crimp on my plans to run him ragged. I'm sure we'll be back to check out the rest of the park - we didn't hit up any of the trails while we were there - but I'm still searching for a big patch of grass where our dawg can roam free... read more

Lovely area with paved and unpaved trails. There were hikers, bikers, and dog walkers. Quiet and I felt transported out of the city. A few streets away from the park, there were nine deer! Reservoir Woods is a fantastic way to connect with nature. read more

Came across the website for this park by chance when looking up area hiking opportunities. Spent a couple of hours on a December afternoon hiking both the informal and paved trails. Eerily beautiful place to wander; only saw 4 other people the entire time. Wonderful up and down informal trails that wind for miles through the woods. Will be returning in other seasons to enjoy this wonderful, hidden spot. read more

This is a great spot to walk your dog! Want details? http://alittlebrownblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/reservoir-woods-roseville.html read more

Beautiful area, but even though it's paved, it's not wheelchair accessible - too many hills. Bummer! :(

The nimrod who is currently writing this review got confused and thought that reservoir woods was going to be a let down compared to her beloved battle creek. Wrong. Once I figured out where the trails off the paved walk were I realized that this place is freaking awesome. read more

I'm also afraid to write this review for fear the place will be overtaken by mobs of people. I'm still unable to find a decent map of this park and thanks to a private map done by a bird watching group I just found out this park is twice as big as i thought and I've been running here several times a week for months now. This is trail runners paradise and it's a mile from my house. There are all varieties of terrain, miles of trail, steep technical climbs, prairie flats, single track, wide fast track beautiful scenery and you are in the middle of the city so if you get hurt or lost, you are never that far from civilization. The only problem I can see is that I don't have a decent map of the park at all. The only map I've found shows only the paved trail, which is probably about a third of all the trail available. Just through exploration I've managed to find a lot of good routes, but it's easy to get turned around. i know the city of Roseville wants to keep the park as undeveloped as possible and has only done minimum maintencance to the trails. Still I think it would be great to have an official map and maybe a few minimal signpoints to guide people. Even the deep wilderness trails in Northern Minnesota have this much development and since you can hear police sirens, etc. in the park, it's not like you are going to have your experience ruined by an occasional marker. Next time you are considering a 30-45 minute drive to a state park to trail run, think about Resevoir Woods instead. read more