State parks accessible highlights

Some state parks have features that are particularly interesting and have been designed to be fully accessible to people with physical disabilities. Visit the main pages for these parks to learn more about an outing to experience these accessible highlights:

Forestville/Mystery Cave
Gooseberry Falls
Grand Portage
Soudan Underground Mine

State parks in southeast Minnesota with at least one facility that is likely to be functional for most people with physical disabilities:

Beaver Creek Valley State Park
The park has one electric campsite that is accessible as well as the sanitation building in the campground. The picnic shelter building is accessible via a blacktopped walkway from the parking lot. There is an accessible vault toilet next to this parking lot. (Efforts to make the picnic grounds sanitation building accessible are currently in the planning stage.)

Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park
The park office and picnic shelter building are accessible but do not fully meet ADA standards. The sanitation building in the campground is accessible as are some of the vault toilets located throughout the park (check with park staff for exact locations of these). Mystery Cave is wheelchair accessible but does not fully meet ADA standards. Historic Forestville (operated by the MN Historical Society) also provides ramps which allow access for most of the 1899 living history tour.

Frontenac State Park
The sanitation building in the campground is accessible. The park's picnic shelter (and its restrooms) are accessible via an asphalt trail to the building from the parking lot; however, the trail is not ADA approved because its grade is slightly steeper than ADA standards dictate. The park has an asphalt trail to the main park overlook and the park's new gazebo.

Great River Bluffs State Park (formerly O.L. Kipp)
At present overnight camping is only available from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. The park has 2 campsites that are accessible as well as the sanitation building in the campground. The park office is not accessible. If you need to purchase a permit, please call ahead and verify someone will be able to assist you when you arrive.

Lake Louise State Park
At present overnight camping is only available from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. The park office is accessible and there are 1.5 miles of paved trail which is part of the 32 mile Shooting Star Trail currently under construction. Completion of the Trail from the park to Taopi (12 miles) is expected late summer 2001. When completed the park portion will be 3 miles long.

Myre Big Island State Park
The park has an accessible camper cabin which is available during the summer season. The flush toilets in the campground's sanitation building are accessible, however, the showers are not. The picnic grounds sanitation building is also accessible. There is half a mile of paved trail in the park.

Nerstrand Big Woods State Park
The park's visitor center is accessible and there is a sidewalk through the picnic area.

Rice Lake State Park
At present overnight camping is only available from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. The park has 1 accessible campsite and the campground and picnic area sanitation buildings are both accessible. There is a paved walkway in the picnic area making the picnic shelter and closer view of the lake accessible as well.

Sakatah Lake State Park
The park has an accessible camper cabin available during the summer season and both the campground and picnic area sanitation buildings are accessible. There is an accessible fishing pier on the lake with a gravel trail leading to it (the trail does not meet ADA standards). The office is being updated to provide accessibility and park staff are working on the development of 2 accessible campsites - - no completion date has been set for any of this work. Accessible Fishing Pier.

Whitewater State Park
The park has 49 campsites (47 of which are electric) that are accessible as well as a camper cabin (the cabin is available only during the summer season). The visitor center, group center, and the sanitation buildings in the campgrounds and picnic grounds are all accessible. The park has a two-mile long self-guided hiking trail that has some limitations; there are 2 accessible fishing piers in the park's south picnic area.