Plenty of recreational opportunities in area

Gale Woods Farm

One of the west metro’s finest educational opportunities is nestled right alongside the finest in hiking trails, biking paths, and fishing in Hennepin County.

Gale Woods Farm, located on Whaletail Lake in Minnetrista, offers something for everyone. The 410-acre park highlights a working farm at its centerpiece, used in an educational format, to demonstrate the practices and culture of contemporary small-scale production farming.

Vegetables, eggs, chicken, fruit, beef, lamb, maple syrup, and honey are all produced at the farm and are available for purchase. While the barn, itself, is only open to the public during scheduled programs, the chickens, sheep, and cattle can often be seen in the barnyard or the pasture.

Park visitors can also enjoy three miles of hiking/biking trails that go through the pastures, hayfields, and woods. Seasonally, the park also offers picnicking, fishing, canoe rental, and snowshoeing and cross country skiing in the winter months. Gale Woods was a donation to the Three Rivers Park District by Richard and Isobel Gale, who established their farm in 1923. Richard Gale was a Minnesota legislator and a United States congressman in the 1940s. The Gale family donated the farm to the park system with the hope of providing farm and nature-based learning for the public’s enjoyment.

Gale Woods Farm is located at 7210 Hennepin County Road 110 West, across the road from Westonka Recreational Association Park. For more information on Gale Woods, call (952) 472-8203 or (763) 694-2001, or visit www.galewoodsfarm.org online.

Another gem of a park can be found in the southeast part of Minnetrista on Hennepin County Road 44.

Lake Minnetonka Regional Park is a 292-acre park that features a large playground area, picnic areas, a visitor center, and a boat landing into Lake Minnetonka’s Upper Lake. The park is well-known for its beach and sand-bottom swimming pond, filled with chlorinated lake water.

For more information on Lake Minnetonka Regional Park, which is also part of the Three Rivers Park District, call (952) 474-4822, or visit www.threeriversparkdistrict.org.

Located across the road from Gale Woods Farm, one can find a 20-acre park complex known as the Westonka Recreational Association Park. The park features picnic areas, a baseball field, and four softball fields.

Both St. Bonifacius and Minnetrista offer several neighborhood parks, which have a variety of features including tennis courts, playground equipment, and adjoining trails for biking and hiking.

In St. Bonifacius, a historical landmark is noted at the park near where the St. Boni Saints play baseball every summer, which features a missile made at the NIKE Air Force Base, and a plaque reading “In memory of those who served St. Boni NIKE base 1959-1972, Erected by St. Boni Commercial Club.”

Other recreational opportunities are plentiful in the area. In the far northwest corner of Minnetrista, near Ox Yoke Lake, one finds the Luce Line State Trail, which extends west to Cosmos and beyond, and travels east toward the Twin Cities to Plymouth. The Luce Line Trail is a state-established trail maintained by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

It stretches 63 miles from the western metro suburb of Plymouth to the small town of Cosmos in west-central Minnesota.

The trail runs on a former railroad line and is available for biking, hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, snowmobiling, and skiing.

From Plymouth west about 30 miles to Winsted, the surface is limestone. There is also a parallel treadway for horseback riding. Snowmobiles are allowed on the trail west of Stubb’s Bay Road.

From Winsted west to Cosmos, the trail has a natural surface. For more information on the Luce Line State Trail, visit www.luceline.com.

If fishing or water-related fun are more up your alley, the area offers several key fishing lakes, in addition to Lake Minnetonka.

Whaletail Lake, located near Gale Woods Farm in Minnetrista, is a 558-acre lake that highlights crappie and bluegill fishing, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The DNR maintains a nice public access with plenty of parking on the south shore of the northwest basin of the lake. The maximum depth of the lake is approximately 25 feet, with water clarity being just under two feet.

Little Long Lake, also located in Minnetrista off Game Farm Road, has a public access located on the northeast shore of the lake. The lake is primarily a bluegill lake, and has also had rainbow trout stocked in the lake in recent years. The maximum depth of the 108-acre lake is 76 feet, with water clarity in some spots reaching as deep as 15 feet.

Three Rivers Park District was established in 1957 by the Minnesota state legislature, nearly 60 years after the initial concept had been introduced to the Twin Cities. In 1901, William Folwell, president of the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners, proposed the idea of parks in the outlying areas of Hennepin County. Theodore Wirth championed this plan for an expanded park system during his tenure as superintendent of Minneapolis Parks from 1906 to 1935.

In 1941, Lawrence Haeg of Hopkins, came to the Minnesota state legislature as a strong proponent of parks and twice introduced legislation to create a park system for Hennepin County. Although these efforts failed, his endeavors provided the base that would ultimately result in passage of the enabling legislation in 1957 that created the Suburban Hennepin Regional Park District (then known as Hennepin County Park Reserve District). The gift of 210 acres of parkland from Morris T. Baker that same year was the tangible factor that propelled the park system into reality. What follows is a brief chronology of the park district’s growth since that time:

1957-1977 . . . A time of intense acquisition as Three Rivers Park District purchased almost 21,000 acres of property, much of it the farmland that stretched across suburban cities that developed rapidly during the 1980s and 90s. Today, Three Rivers Park District owns and manages almost 26,000 acres of park reserves, regional parks, and regional trail corridors.

1967-1970 . . . Wetland, prairie, woodland, and wildlife restoration efforts begin in an attempt to reestablish the land to its original natural state prior to 1800s settlement. Later, as a legacy to future generations, the Three Rivers Park District Board adopted a policy revision requiring that a minimum of 80 percent of each park reserve be restored or retained in a natural state, with no more than 20 percent of the park developed for active use. Today, these park reserves are among the largest areas of wildlife habitat in the seven-county metro area.

1971-1989 . . . An era signified by the design and construction of buildings and other park facilities. Large picnic areas, swimming beaches, boat launches, visitor centers, creative play areas, and campgrounds are built. Miles of paved trails are added for biking and hiking, and the development of cross-country ski trails results in a boom to this new winter sport. The 1970s also signify a shift to multi-use recreation areas featuring amenities such as entry control booths, roads and parking lots, restrooms, reservation picnic areas, concession buildings, beaches, and play areas. Today, more than two million visitors each year visit Three Rivers Park District.

1990-present . . . The park district becomes a leader in delivery of outdoor recreation and education services and facilities. New facilities open for mountain biking, snowboarding, and evening cross-country skiing along lighted trails; many other park facilities are renovated to increase safety, accessibility and recreational use. With the support and cooperation of many local and state agencies, Three Rivers Park District opens the 27-mile Southwest Regional LRT Trail and rehabilitates the 82-year old Coon Rapids Dam.

This period also reflects the fulfillment of a dream with the opening of Lake Minnetonka Regional Park. Today, Three Rivers Park District continues to look to the future with its development of the Baker Near Wilderness Settlement, the Wendelin Grimm Historic Farm site, and additional regional trail corridors connecting local and regional park lands.

Reprinted from the Three Rivers Park District web site, www.threeriversparks.org.

Westonka Recreational Park