Hi friends! Welcome to the second trip of 2026! First up is a Flandrau!
We’re going on a trip in a new rocket ship! Yep, I got a new car!
Flandrau State Park Information
Flandrau State Park is located in New Ulm, MN on the edge of the Minnesota River Country. It’s mostly floodplain forest, but there’s also wooded riverine areas, oak forest, and grasslands along the bluffs.
Originally called Cottonwood River State Park, the name was changed in 1945 to honor Charles E. Flandrau–a member of Minnesota’s first supreme court, drafter of the state’s constitution, and a played a prominent role in the US Dakota War of 1862.
The park has an interesting history. Back in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, when it was still called Cottonwood River State Park, it was the site of a WPA camp and parts of it are used as the group center, dining hall, and bathrooms. Pretty cool. Also, in the 1940’s, the camp was used as a POW camp for Germans in WW2.
Around the same time, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a dam on the river, but due to damage, everything was removed in 1995.
Activities
If you’re looking to hike, there’s 8 miles to explore. Wanting to bike? Unfortunately, there are no bike trails here and they aren’t allowed on the hiking trails. Looking to spend time on the water? There’s a sand-bottom swimming pond and fishing on the Cottonwood River.
During the winter months, there are 6 miles of cross-country skiing trails, ski pass required. Snowshoeing is also available, with 2 miles of packed trails.
If you’re looking for wildlife, you’ll have the chance to see white-tailed deer, raccoons, and birds natural to the wooded river bottom area.
Camping here? The park has 72 sites over two campgrounds, with 2 of them being pull through, 34 being electric, and 3 are walk-in. There’s also a group center, camper cabins, and the CCC cabin.
Other offerings
The park also offers a ranger station, interpretive exhibit, historic site, equipment rentals, picnic area, picnic shelter, volleyball, cornhole, beach house, and firewood sales.
All of this info came from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources website, so credit where credit is due. Click here to view the original source.
Accessibility of Flandrau State Park
Parking
There is lots of parking in the pond/picnic area where I started my hike.
Bathrooms
Vault toilets are available throughout the park. Flush toilets are located in the campground, beach house, and group center.
Getting to the trail
The trail is located off the parking lot, behind the volleyball net. AllTrails says you need to go through this overgrown, grassy area first, but that isn’t true. I’d advise against it.
Flandrau State Park Trail Information
The Cottonwood River Trail is a 1.9 mile loop with 141 feet of elevation (give or take). It took me an 1 hour 8 minutes to complete it.
Like I said above, the trail starts in a grassy area and turns to a dirt trail once it gets into the woods. I would say it’s well maintained, however, the grassy and prairie areas are a little long. If you go in the morning, like me, or after a rain, wear waterproof shoes. I usually hike in my everyday running/walking shoes and my feet were soaked. Glad I had my ceramic heater, so I had dry shoes later in the day.
Early on, there is an steep incline and the bane of my existence, stairs. I almost noped right out of there, but decided to try. Thankfully, there was a nice bench right at the top because I needed it. The shortness of breath was real. Since what goes up, must come down, the decline shortly after this was steep too. Things evened out and the trail was fairly wide in most areas. However, there were also areas with more difficult terrain. More inclines, foot bridges over soupy areas, and roots to navigate.
I saw a good amount of wildlife out here. In areas, the flora was almost as tall as me, which is cool until you can’t see what’s running near you. It was deer. I spooked them and they spooked me. Near the end of the trail, I saw another deer standing in the trail staring at me. Once I saw it, it ran away. Pretty sure the deer was like “What are you doing here…” as there wasn’t another human out and about yet. There were rabbits and birds too. I even heard a loon.
Not going to lie, I was glad to be done with this one. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful trail and I enjoyed looking at all of the old growth, but it was difficult and started raining. I did ask nicely if it could hold off until I got in the car and it did until I got into the tent. A big thank you to the rain gods for that one.
My rating
This trail would fall into the hard category of my rating scale. The stairs with no rail were enough for me to call it, but the inclines spread throughout and needing to balance on the foot bridges finished it.
I would recommend bringing sticks. I did, but couldn’t use them since I was carrying my large water cup. Unfortunately, I can’t clip it anywhere, so I only had my hands. I did struggle getting down the stairs as I almost kept hitting invisible walls. Pretty sure it was anxiety about falling down them since there was nothing to catch myself on beside the ground or the rope before the drop into the Cottonwood River, so I sat down and scooted. It was likely hilarious to watch, but the alternative was to stand there and get rained on.
My Camping Experience at Flandrau State Park
Semi-Modern Campground–Site 25
I was in site 25 here. It is large, well shaded, near the drinking water, and right next to the bathroom. As you can see in the photo, the area behind my tent is wooded, giving it decent privacy from that side.
Facilities at the Campground
There are modern flush toilets and showers with accessible options, as well as drinking water at site 27. The bathrooms and showers were kept fairly clean and it’s well lit at night. There’s a well maintained and level sidewalk wrapping around the building, so as long as you can maneuver the gravel road, you should be good here!
Accessible bathroom with shower. However, at the time of my visit, the shower in here was closed.
The regular showers did work, but I wouldn’t consider them accessible since there were no grab bars or chair. The showerheads were also mounted on the wall.
Have you been to Flandrau State Park? Want to go? Comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
Did you find Currently Unnamed Cardybear? Put found in the comments!
Be safe out there! REMEMBER YOUR MAPS AND PASSPORT STAMPS!! Seeyalaterbye <3
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