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)

Beautiful little lake surrounded by trees and nice public sandy beach. The inflatables are…read moreincredible and staff is super friendly!! Highly recommended!

This is one of our favorite parks here in rochester. Very clean and well taken care of. Very close…read moreby to downtown too ( maybe about 5-10 min drive). It has two play grounds, one for little kids and another for bigger toddlers and adolescents. What we also really love is the volleyball sand court! We've had so many good games there. There's also a shelter for groups to eat and sit around. We used it several times with friends for birthday parties and potlucks. Have I mentioned the lake yet? Really nive Lake with a little sand beach. You can swim there too. They do hold several sport events there for swimming during the year. People also bring fishing poles and go fishing there. During the winter, the lake is frozen and people come here to do ice fishing. I just love coming there and reading or chilling around sunset time.

I started my new job at IBM in June many moons ago in Rochester, MN. A few weeks later, there was a…read morehuge outdoor barbeque at IBM Woodside Park for employees. IBM was quite the force back then, occupying a campus of over 3.1 million square feet. It had the reputation of being the largest IBM facility that manufactured and shipped an entire product from start to finish under one roof in the world. Times have certainly changed. IBM sold most of its property to Industrial Reality Group (IRG) and leases a handful of buildings these days. During this pandemic, I have been revisiting places that I once frequented. I remembered the park next door and decided to drop by. Back then, my manager drove me and two other colleagues in his Subaru Forrester to this park. This visit was my first time driving myself. There were plenty of parking spots on a Saturday afternoon. I backed into a spot and walked around. I noticed the IRG sign. The park is now called IRG Park. It's a private park these days. You need an employment badge to visit it. I was essentially trespassing. Considering that I was the only person there, I decided to take my chances. If the evil IRG folks wanted to ban me from visiting this park, I was okay risking it. It felt the same. There were picnic areas where you could barbeque (grill is the more common word used down here) and places to sit. I didn't pay attention to the play area back then. I loved the swings and spent a bit of time swinging on one. The basketball and tennis courts are still there. They looked like they were in good condition. The trees felt familiar. They still make me happy looking at them. I did not get reprimanded for trespassing. It was nice walking around and remembering a daddy longlegs crawling up my pantleg while I was eating a hamburger. I was oddly not mortified. I had never seen one before. "That's a daddy longlegs. It won't hurt you," my manager said. He was a gentle soul, just like the daddy longlegs. My former manager wrote a letter of recommendation for me when I moved back to Winnipeg. I have always been thankful for his kind gesture. He passed away several years later. I was assigned a mentor when I joined IBM and he was mine. I was fortunate to have ended up with a kind man with tons of wisdom and guidance. He was genuinely sad when I got laid off from the company and had to move back to Canada. "It should have been me, and not you, Mary," he said. That entire conversation is still fresh in my head. I had to console him about being laid off. He arranged my farewell lunch. I still have a coffee mug from the team as a parting gift. I worked on the Java team. It was meaningful and fitting. It was nice to think of him fondly as I walked and swung on the swing here. This park will always hold special memories. It was nice being back. (112)

The park itself is great. The people that run it and make the rules...not so much. How can you…read moreclose this park off to the public? What a waste of a great disc golf course. Out of the couple hundred people that are elidgible to use the park...I'm guessing less than 30 people actually use it.

St. Marys Park is roughly a ten-minute walk from St. Marys Hospital, which is a part of the Mayo…read moreClinic. I decided to drop by on a rainy Saturday afternoon, just before the temperature dropped and freezing rain happened. I don't know why there isn't an apostrophe in St. Marys. I find it weird. What's interesting about this park is that it's on a hill. If you like killing yourself doing a brisk walk up an incline, come here. You cannot miss a water tower that is at the top of this hill. It's made of concrete and is cylindrical. It was built in 1924 and has a capacity of 200,000 gallons. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. There were roughly four parking spots at this park when I visited. You get free parking for two hours. I don't know how often this parking period is enforced. There was a slide and play area for kids. I saw a couple of squirrels having a nice time climbing up trees. I have a feeling that a lot of staff and students at the Mayo Clinic take advantage of this park when they need a break. It's probably nice to check out in the summertime, as opposed to my doing it when it's Winter. It was a cool find. I'd like to come back and check it out when it's much warmer. (503)

This is the South End Trailhead of Zumbro South Trail. Zumbro South Trail is one of the many trail…read moresystems along the south fork section of Zumbro Reiver in Rochester MN. The south end trailhead is located at the intersection of Salem Rd SW and Maywood Rd SW and the north end trailhead is located at Mayo Memorial Park in downtown Rochester. Its length is about 6.5 miles each way. It is a popular and easy/fairly flat trail for bikers and hikers a like and provides nice scenery with diverse vegetation/flowers.

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.

Such a lovely beach a few minutes out of Rochester!! Visited this area before but didn't realize…read morethey had a whole beach (only saw the areas where boats would go in) The water was pretty clear considering there was plenty of people there. Also saw some small fish. The sand does have rocks in it, so just be aware. They have showers, restrooms and a place where you can rent gear. The campground seemed clean (just drove by it), and they had a playground for the kiddos. There are trails nearby too but didn't explore them. So happy to revisit this place and will definitely be visiting again!

Watercraft (canoe, paddle board, kayak) rentals are affordably priced and in good condition. The…read moreriver was beautiful to paddle on and the birdwatching is excellent. I only wish they were open later than 6 during the summer!

Multi-use trail (biking, hiking, skating, horseback riding & mountain biking on the side of the…read moreasphalt trail, snowmobiling), stretching 12.5 miles from Pine Island to Rochester. Relatively flat (an abandoned Chicago Great Western Railroad spur) with an unpaved natural trail alongside it. Wonderfully shaded and scenic views! Trailheads in Rochester and Pine Island with plentiful parking. Named after the tiny town of Douglas, it is a great spot to stop and explore the Douglas Saloon & Social Club. This is a free State Trail and worth checking out!