Welcome back, friends! I want to share another stop my first camping trip of the season with you! Sibley State Park. This was the last day of the trip and the weather was beautiful! It would have been great if it was like that all weekend, that’s how it goes though.
Park Information
Sibley State Park is located in New London, MN and has a little bit of something for everyone. Here you can hike, camp, swim, boat, paddle, fish (great place for crappies), and both wildlife and bird watch.
If you’re looking to hike, there are 18 miles to explore with 2.7 of those being accessible and 1.5 being self-guided with information about native plants and species. Biking more your thing? 18 miles of paved trails that will connect with the Glacial Lakes State Trail. Riding your horses through the area? The seven miles of equestrian trails start and end at the Horse Trail Center.
If you’re visiting in the winter, there is 8 miles of groomed cross-country skiing, 2.5 miles of groomed cross-country skating, six miles of snowmobiling, and snowshoeing throughout the park. Just be sure to stay off the groomed trails! A warming house and sliding hill are available too.
Want to camp here? There are 99 sites, 74 of them being electric, 8 accessible, 9 horse camp, 3 group camp, and a group center. Four camper cabins are also available for rent.
Sibley State Park also offers a ranger station, visitor center, interpretive exhibit, naturalist programs, historic site, picnic area and shelter; volleyball, horseshoes, paddling, and snowshoe rentals; fishing pier and swimming beach; geocaching; and ice 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 Sibley Lake State Park
Parking
In the area I went, there is a large, paved lot with marked spots. There were plenty of handicapped spots.
Bathrooms
According to the website, flush toilets are located in the Interpretive Center (closed when I was there), Park Office, Cedar Hill picnic grounds, beach store, Lakeview and Oak Ridge campgrounds. Flush toilets at the park office and the Interpretive center are available year-round. Others are available from mid-May to mid-October. I did use the park office toilets. They were clean and accessible.
Getting to the trail
The trail I did was right off the parking lot at the Interpretive Center. The trail and signage were visible from my car.
Trail Information
The Pondview Interpretive Loop is about 0.8 miles in length and has 36 feet of elevation. I did this trail in about 25 minutes. The entire trail was gravel and grass and parts of it were shaded, but mostly it was in the sun. According to the website, the grade (how steep) of the trail ranges from 0%-7%, with places to rest after each steeper section. The trail was fairly free of things to navigate around, so as long as you’re good on gravel and grass, you’ll be good. I enjoyed the informative signs along the way. They were fun to read. I learned stuff.
My rating
This trail would fall into the easy category of my rating scale. It’s short and sweet, relatively flat, and just an all around nice trail. I did get some mild shortness of breath, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Have you been to Sibley State Park? Want to go? Comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
Do you spy Currently Unnamed CardyBear? If you spot him, put FOUND in the comments 😊
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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