Trails Index

Minnesota Inline Skate Club Trail Reviews

These reviews have been compiled by MISC club members who have skated the trails and written up a description of each trail. If you have a trail within the state of Minnesota that you would like to review, please write it up (using the format of the existing trail reviews as a guide) and mail it to elkman@spamcop.net.

Here's a guide to our rating system:

Four wheels	Excellent -- this trail is very highly recommended. You'll be missing something if you don't skate this trail.
Three wheels	Very good -- one of the more enjoyable trails and definitely worth doing regularly.
Two wheels	Fair -- worth skating once in a while, but not as rewarding as some of the others.
One wheel	Poor -- really not worth skating; needs improvement before it's usable.

If you'd like to see the trails on a map to know where they are, here is a map of most of the skate trails in the Twin Cities area. Note that some of the trails don't fit onto this map, like the outstate trails.

Trail Name	Cities	Length	Surface	Notes
Lake Calhoun	Minneapolis	3.2 miles	Smooth	Crowded on nice days
Lake Harriet	Minneapolis	3 miles	Smooth	Crowded on nice days
Cedar Lake Trail	Minneapolis	3.3 miles	Smooth	Occasional pebbles on trail.
Midtown Greenway	Minneapolis	5.9 miles	Smooth	Occasional sand/pebbles on trail.
West River Parkway	Minneapolis	6 miles	Average	Smooth north of Stone Arch Bridge.
North Mississippi	Minneapolis	1-2 miles plus connections	Excellent	Good connections to other trails.
Big Rivers (Mendota)	Mendota / Lilydale	3.5 miles	Smooth	Trail east of Lilydale (not actually part of the Big Rivers trail) has several rough spots.
North Hennepin/Coon Rapids Dam	Brooklyn Park	7.5 miles	Smooth	Wooden bridge crossing at Highway 169 can be difficult. Repaved in June 2004.
Gateway	St. Paul / Oakdale	16 miles	Smooth	Watch out for some wooden bridges on the western half.
Southwest LRT Trail	Hopkins	5 miles	Smooth	Some busy road crossings; not very scenic
Hutchinson Spur Trail	St. Louis Park	4.2 miles	Smooth	Connects the Cedar Lake and LRT trails
Lake of the Isles	Minneapolis	3 miles	Very good	Repaved in October 2005
Baker Park	Independence	6.25 miles	Excellent	Recently rebuilt and now more skateable.
Elm Creek Park Reserve	Maple Grove	18 miles	Excellent (north) Fair (south)	Nice scenery, but south loop needs repaving
Minnehaha Creek/Lake Nokomis	Minneapolis	7.5 miles	Good	Diverse scenery
Hyland Lake Park Reserve	Bloomington	5.6 miles	Excellent	Great surface but rather hilly.
Purgatory Creek	Eden Prairie	3.7 miles	Excellent	A much-needed trail in the southwest metro area.
Snail Lake	Shoreview	3 or 4 miles	Excellent	Excellent surface and super scenery.
Como Lake	St. Paul	2.5 miles	Poor	Mostly appeals to recreational skaters.
Battle Creek	St. Paul	4 miles	Excellent to fair	Good scenery but traffic and debris
Bruce Vento	St. Paul	6.2 miles	Excellent	Good surface and connections to other trails.
Samuel Morgan	St. Paul	5.5 miles	Very good	Nice views of Mississippi River and Dayton's Bluff.
Lake Phalen	St. Paul	3.1 miles	Very good	Rivals Minneapolis lake trails, but a bit more hilly.
South St. Paul Regional Trail	South St. Paul	4 miles	Excellent	Nice views of the Mississippi River.
Sunrise Prairie	Hugo to North Branch	23 miles	Very good	Good for long distance but snowmobile damage mars it.
Root River	Lanesboro	60 miles	Very good	A fantastic weekend away.
Cannon Valley	Cannon Falls to Red Wing	20 miles	Outstanding	You should definitely skate this trail.
Douglas State Trail	Pine Island to Rochester	12.5 miles	Very poor	Really not skateable until it's repaved.
Wobegon	St. Joseph to Sauk Centre	55.4 miles	Excellent	A fine trail in Central Minnesota with great scenery.
Mesabi Trail	Virginia	6 miles	Very good	Very scenic, but very hilly.
Paul Bunyan Trail	Brainerd to Hackensack	50 miles	Very good	Scenic trail in resort country

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