We hiked Nerstrand Big Woods State Park on July 15, 2023, which happened to coincide with the day we got to pick up our second whippet, Mason. The breeder lives in the neighborhood of the park so we stopped by after our hike.
Back to the park…it’s beautiful and has a great waterfall that is on the hike. Because it was mid-July and we are still in a drought the water flow was pretty minimal, but still active enough for some families, kids, and dogs to enjoy. The trails were all wide, gravel, and well maintained so except for the slippery rocks around the waterfall, I’d call this hike an easy one. The Hiking Club trail was 2.2 miles and the password (that you need to get credit for the miles for your DNR prizes) was about at the mid-point of the hike. The woods and flowers were beautiful, even if we never saw the endangered Minnesota Dwarf Trout Lily that the park is famous for being the home of.
We are not fans of early morning hikes, so we didn’t get there until around noon. While I have read that parking can be an issue, we didn’t have a problem finding a place to park. I also believe that almost all MN State Parks allow leashed dogs, as did Nerstrand, and Duncan had a blast sniffing new smells the entire hike. When you are hiking in the summer remember to bring your water and a collapsable drinking dish for your four legged friends.
As with all MN State Parks, you need a state park sticker to park your vehicle within the boundaries of the park. If you do not already have one you can get it here.
The Hiking Club trails are generally well-marked in the parks, as is this one (the picture on the left). I use an app called Avenza Maps (middle picture) to track all the trails in each park. Maps for this app are all “referenced” so that your phone gps can mark the trails as you walk them and also keep track of mileage. There are plenty of maps for purchase through Avenza, but so far all the state park maps I’ve downloaded have been free. The picture on the far right is of the DNR book with one page for each state park. It has space for the date, the rubber stamp (kept right outside each park office), and we added the sticker we bought from Shutterfly and the hiking club password and hike length.
Remember, our parks are here for us all. Have fun, be safe, and be courteous to other hikers as well as the nature you are hiking through.
