Here’s stop two on the inaugural trip of 2026, Glendalough State Park! It’s a cool area and I can’t wait to share it with you!
Glendalough State Park Information
Glendalough (Glenda-loo) State Park is located in Battle Lake, MN. It’s named after a glacial valley in Ireland, which means Valley of Two Lakes and became a Minnesota state park in 1992. This park also lies in a transition point between prairie and forest, like Maplewood, and is home to one of the largest undeveloped lakeshores in this part of the state. This unique blend of hills, lakes, and wooded countryside makes Glendalough a great place for recreational activities.
Activities
If you’re looking to hike, there nine miles to explore! Start at the picnic area or trail center and head out form there! There are two self guided trails, both being under one mile.
Biking more your speed? There is paved a six mile loop, but it is separate from the park’s roads. There’s a spur that will into town, so you can check out shops and restaurants. If you want to know more about the Glendalough trail, you can check it out here. If mountain biking is more your thing. there’s two miles of trail along Lake Emma.
During the winter months, there are 8 miles of groomed (ski pass required) cross-country skiing trails and snowshoeing throughout the park as long as you stay off the groomed trails.
If you’re looking for wildlife, they have observation blinds, as well as binocular and birding kits for you! Since the terrain here is pretty unique, the birdwatching is excellent. You might even get to see an eagle as there’s an active nest here. Looking for mammals? There’s white-tailed deer, raccoons, rex foxes, beavers, and other smaller mammals.
Want to spend time on the water? You can swim, canoe, kayak, and fish here!
Camping here? Well, you’re in luck. Glendalough has 22 cart-in site, 3 canoe-in sites, group camp site (tents only), camper cabins, and two yurts!
Other offerings
The park also offers a ranger station, naturalist progams, picnic area, picnic shelter, warming house, fishing pier, swimming beach, and canoe access. During the winter, there’s a warming house, sliding hill, and ice fishing. There’s also a gift shop, equipment rentals, firewood sales, and color vision glasses. The lodge and trail center can be reserved as well.
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 Glendalough State Park
Parking
The areas I was in had plenty of parking. At the rental center, there is a large paved lot. Close to the trailhead, there was a decent sized gravel lot.
Bathrooms
There are bathrooms in the dining center, campground, and trail center. The website says that they’re all accessible. I used the bathroom in the dining center. It’s small and technically accessible, but the tight quarters might be tough if you have wheels. Especially if there’s others in the room.
Getting to the trail
The trailhead is off the parking lot in the dining center area. I parked by the rental center and walked down (adding 0.6 miles each way). I wish I would have parked closer though, so learn from my mistakes. You can totally access the dirt road, just turn right at the rental center.
Glendalough State Park Trail Information
The Lake Emma Trail is 2.3 mile loop and has 32 feet of elevation. Because of where I parked, my states were 3 miles with 49 feet of elevation, and took me an hour and a half.
The trail started as paved off the parking lot by the dining center. It was well-maintained and fairly even and flat. Decently shaded too. Now, when you get to the Lake Emma trailhead, there is a turnaround point. so if you don’t want to go further you don’t have to. I did contemplate doing just that, as I wasn’t sure if I should with how I was feeling that morning, but decided against it. Questionable decision really, but I got some cool pictures for a future project. If you’re feeling decent, I’d absolutely say to go for it!
After the paved portion, the trail turns into a dirt nature trail that goes through both a prairie-like area and forest-like area. The Lake Emma Loop is well groomed and maintained. There are roots to navigate, per usual for nature path trails, but they aren’t bad. I did struggle a bit and had to take several breaks, due to shortness of breath. Thankfully, there were several benches along the way and I utilized every last one of them.
The second half of the loop (after the observation deck) is where the change in elevation lived. It took me out, not gonna lie. On top of that, it got hot…fast. Like started in the mid 60’s when I left the cabin and hit 80 by the time I hit this stretch of the trail. I’m sensitive to heat, so that didn’t help. I stayed hydrated though. By the time I finished the trail, I was toast. It would have been a great time to enjoy lunch on the beach. I forgot my lunch so I couldn’t chill on the beach and replenish my blood sugar. Kind of set myself up for failure with that one.
This is a nice trail and if you plan better than I did, you’ll probably have a good time. I would suggest going at off-peak times. I thought I did as it was a Friday morning, but didn’t take end of the school year field trips into account. There were two bus loads of kids enjoying nature, which I love. Please go outside and enjoy all it has to offer. However, my plan for the day included quiet time in nature and there was a little too much yelling, shouting, and lack of trail etiquette for me. 100% a me problem though.
My rating
This trail would fall into the moderate category of my rating scale. It checked the distance, change in elevation, and terrain boxes in the checklist. I struggled a bit more, so for me it was somewhere between moderate and hard, but I had circumstances working against me.
Have you been here? Want to go? Share in the comments!
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Be safe out there! REMEMBER YOUR MAPS AND PASSPORT STAMPS!! Seeyalaterbye <3
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