Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Make a Day of It!

Living near the Twin Cities metro area gives us loads of options for amazing parks. There are year round adventure opportunities hosted in many of the parks. In addition to great classes that you can take through out the year, you can also just meet up with some friends and enjoy a day outside.


Hyland Park is informally known as chutes and ladders. Start your day here, and then when it gets hot, pack up and head over to the public beach $5 a carload.

We like to get to the park early to mid morning so that there are still open picnic tables in the shade. I pack a picnic lunch for each kid, that has plenty so they have a snack in the car on the way home.



Often the good playgrounds are near beaches so be sure to pack suits, towels, and sunscreen even if you don't intend on swimming. The pond at Elm Creek is chlorinated and there are lifeguards on duty expect to pay about $10 a person. Season passes are available.


Big Lake Beach is right of Highway 10 and has a nearby playground as well as shaded picnic area and boat launch. Expect to pay $5 a carload $10 if you have a trailer.


Lake Orono in Elk River has a newly refurbished play area. There is a beach but the water quality isn't always great so we usually stop here when it's too cool to swim.


Central Park in Maple Grove is state of the art, but usually pretty busy. If it's hot, you'll be glad you have the kids swim gear so they can play on the splash pad.


The Big Woods in Lake Rebecca Park Reserve is pretty, but my kids didn't last long on the play equipment. Luckily we had swim gear. A quick walk down the path is a quiet beach with huge umbrellas to shade us from the afternoon sun.

Some of the other parks that we haven't visited yet that are on our playground/beach list for this summer are: Weaver Lake Beach and Park and French Regional Park that is undergoing extensive renovations and scheduled to re-open July 2018


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