Hi friends! I’m going to share my recent day trip, Lake Maria State Park!
Lake Maria State Park Information
Lake Maria State Park is located in Monticello, MN and is on the northern edge of the Big Woods. (If that sounds familiar, we’ve talked about it before at Nerstrand). However, I don’t think I went into detail about what exactly that means, so here we go.
The Big Woods was a forest that covered over 3,000 acres of south-central Minnesota. It was made up of maple, basswood, white and red elm, red oak, tamarack, and red cedar trees. The terrain is rocky and heavily wooded, which is how the Big Woods got it’s name. Fun fact from the DNR, back in the day, “the trees were so thick that sunlight couldn’t penetrate to the forest floor in some spots. French explorers called the forest “Bois Grand” or “Bois Fort.” Later, others altered the name to the “Big Woods.”
Activities
If you’re looking to hike, there are 14 miles of trails to explore! One of which being self-guided with a boardwalk. Biking more your speed? There’s both paved and unpaved bike trails near the park. Want to ride your horses? The park has six miles to ride. During the winter months, you can snowshoe anywhere in the park as long as you stay off the groomed ski trails! Speaking of skiing, you can cross-country ski on 6.2 miles of groomed trails, ranging from beginning to intermediate level. You can also cross-country skate on 2 miles of groomed trails.
If you’re looking for wildlife, you’re in luck. Since the park is a mixture of marshes, potholes, and lakes it’s a wonderful habitat for wildlife. There’s about 205 different species of birds living here or passing through on migration. So if bald eagles, Cooper’s hawks, Franklin’s gulls, osprey, common egret, loons, trumpeter swans, great blue herons, marsh hawks, gold finches, screech owls, great-horned owls, snowy owls, and barred owls are on your list, you may just check them off here! Mammals that live here include shrews, bats, moles, rabbits, woodchucks, red and grey squirrels, pocket gophers, beaver, mice, fisher, muskrats, mink, striped skunk, red fox, and white-tailed deer. There’s a threatened species of turtle, Blandings turtle, living here too. They have bright yellow spots on their shell, making it different than most.
Camping here? Lake Maria has 17 backpacking sites, 2 group camp sites, and 3 camper cabins. The cabins are walk-in only and are 0.5-1 mile from the parking lot.
Other offerings at Lake Maria State Park
Lake Maria also offers a ranger station, interpretive exhibits, naturalist programs, gift shop, and equipment rentals. You can also buy firewood and use the free wi-fi at the ranger station.
Within 8 miles of the park, there are ice sales, groceries and restaurants if you need them!
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 Lake Maria State Park
Parking
There’s a large gravel lot near the trailhead with ample spots available.
Bathrooms
Vault toilets are located throughout the park and flush toilets are available at the trail center. There is one at the entrance of the parking lot near the trailhead.
Getting to the trail
The trailhead for the Zumbrunnen Interpretive Trail is located right off the parking lot, next to the boat launch for Little Mary Lake.
Trail Information
The Zumbrunnen Interpretive Trail is an out and back trail, 0.5 mile in length and has 29 feet of elevation. The board walk portion of the trail was closed due to damage, so my hiking buddy and I did 0.35 miles with 7 feet of elevation. It took us less than 15 minutes.
The trail was all dirt nature trail with a bit of and incline right at the trailhead. In the beginning, it was a fairly standard width, but got quite narrow after the large, steep step. There were also plenty of rocks and roots to navigate around. The area right before the closed boardwalk was quite overgrown as well. It wouldn’t be suited for anyone with mobility issues or devices. I tripped, but that’s likely because I wasn’t paying enough attention to the big rock in my path.
While I didn’t get to see much of the trail, I would like to do it again if/when the boardwalk opens up. I like them. I would remember the bug spray since it is a buggy trail.
My rating
Based on the part I could do, this trail would fall into the moderate category of my rating scale. It’s has inclines, large steps, and plenty of trip hazards.
Have you been here? Want to go? Comment below! I’d love to hear from you!
Also, there isn’t a stamp here, at least not when I visited. I sent an email so I could get it. I’m not sure if it’s at a different park or in the ranger station, but the station was closed when I got there.
Be safe out there! REMEMBER YOUR MAPS AND PASSPORT STAMPS!! Seeyalaterbye <3
Also, if you feel called to help a sista out with her travels, check this out!
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