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Print Friendly MapThe Elm Creek Park Reserve is an outdoor lovers’ dream. At 4,900 acres, it’s the largest park in Hennepin County. The park provides enough amenities to keep people coming all year round. Cyclists especially will enjoy the 18 miles of well-paved twists, turns, climbs and dips. (Separately, there are an additional 13 miles of mountain biking trails).
About the Route
The trails circle round the park in a loop, offering an interesting way to experience the diversity of landscapes, flora and fauna that the reserve has to offer. Within the loop, riders will wind through open prairie, quiet wooded corridors, lakes, waterways and wetlands. For those seeking a challenge, the southern loop provides a particularly demanding ride; it’s a coaster of miles of punishing climbs and exhilarating downhill runs. The northern section tends to be both flatter and quieter; you might see the occasional bicyclist. Take advantage of this to glide along the asphalt while enjoying unspoiled panoramas. The trail is shared so cyclists should be aware of walkers and runners.
Connections
At the southern end of the park, trail users can connect to the Rush Creek Regional Trail.
The Elm Creek Park Reserve Trails run through their namesake Elm Creek.
Parking is available at:
Elm Creek has always been a fun place for us to ride and it’s close to where we are. The trails are maintained nicely a lot of variance in wooded to prairie, rides by the water, there are small hills and curves. We don’t see deer a lot but they are out there. We’ve seen them a few times if we want to put on 20 miles that’s just about a loop around. There are many off ramps that will put you into Champlin and Anoka neighborhood trails as well. On the north end there’s a BMX track that seems pretty lengthy. We did a piece of it with our E bikes but it’s not really designed for that and especially not for 70-year-old people on E bikes, but it was an adventure if you add in the playground and the swimming area and the frisbee golf you can easily spend a day out there
Hiked the entire south side and north on the right side of the park. Many different birds calling and singing. Oddly still no peeps from frogs or roads. Found some junk off the horse trail, crew needs to clean it up
Best place to ride in the twin cities
I chose to ride Elm Creek expecting a great ride. It was so beautiful. I TrueType enjoyed the nicely maintained paved paths thru woodlands, meadows, lakes, and low land areas. Would I go again? In a heart beat. Tom
Slight rolling hills. Great meadow and tree lined trails. Not a lot of people. If you take the loop around it is about 14 miles. The pathway is super smooth. Highly recommend!
Great views of meadows and water. Lots of delightful benches. A great swimming pool/lake to take a dip and buy some ice cream in the summer. Coming from the south I took the Medicine Lake Regional to get here and the the Rice Lake local trails out. These trails added some nice distance (though not as perfectly smooth) to the 20 without ever biking on a street.
Very well paved with some rolling hills as other reviewers have mentioned. The trail is gorgeous as it passes over fields and under trees. Easy to moderate difficulty.
A well maintained and popular loop trail. Hills are there but manageable. About 2/3 in woods 1/3 in wooded prairie. Trail has lots of turns and bends so passing and side by side riding can be a challenge. Map is useful since there are several offshoot trails leading to parking areas and spots.
Well maintained trails winter and summer. Hilly, but manageable. Great scenery and wildlife. Something for everyone!
Great paved trails with rolling hills that present a good workout but are very doable. We spent a day here with our kids and they loved biking the trials.
Very nice surface. The trail twists and turns, dips and rises though a variety of habitat. You can ride for an hour without crossing a road. Wonderful experience.
:) smooth asphalt, long distance , flat surface
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