Burnsville: River Trails, Forests and Lakes

Burnsville brings together natural destinations with a range of distinctive features: the Minnesota River, protected areas, forests and wetlands, lakes, prairie and a swimming beach. The trails also differ significantly in length and scenery. If you are looking for a vacation destination where nature outings play a role, these differences can help you define your travel interests more specifically.

Protected Areas on Different Sides of Burnsville

Northeast of Burnsville lies the Black Dog Unit of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. It covers 1,300 acres. In the southwest is part of Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve, a 2,400-acre protected area that spans Dakota and Scott counties. These two figures offer a sense of the locations of different natural areas in Burnsville. If you would like to include protected areas in your trip, you can take their locations in the northeast and southwest into account when choosing your outings.

Loop Trails and a River Route

The Black Dog Trail is a 3.75-mile section of the Minnesota River Greenway. It follows the Minnesota River through the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. This route therefore connects the river landscape with the protected area. Its length provides a concrete point of reference for planning your day and sets it apart from the shorter loops around lakes, a pond and wetlands.

A 1.1-mile loop trail with a boardwalk runs along Earley Lake. At Lac Lavon, a 0.9-mile loop trail passes through wooded areas and along two lakes. The two trails therefore differ both in length and scenery. If you would like to combine lakes and wooded areas on a walk, you’ll find these features at Lac Lavon; at Earley Lake, the boardwalk is part of the described loop trail.

At Sunset Pond, a 1.65-mile loop trail circles a pond and passes through a prairie restoration area. The Kraemer Nature Trail is shorter, at 0.5 miles, and runs through prairie and wetlands. A self-guided interpretive tour is also part of the trail there. The different settings are therefore key to choosing between them: a pond and restoration area at Sunset Pond, and prairie and wetlands on the Kraemer Nature Trail.

Alimagnet Park offers 2.9 miles of difficult loop trails through mature forests. If you are choosing a route together, the lengths and landscapes can provide a starting point for comparison; at Alimagnet Park, the stated difficulty is another factor to consider. Of the loop trails mentioned here, the Kraemer Nature Trail is the shortest at 0.5 miles, while the Alimagnet loops have the longest stated distance.

Park and Swimming Beach

Crystal Beach is a 24-acre park with an unsupervised swimming beach. This adds a park with swimming to the selection of trails through forests, prairie and wetlands, as well as the river route. Keep in mind when planning your trip that the swimming beach is unsupervised. This offers a different focus for an outing than the loop trails of varying lengths.

If you are considering a vacation rental in Burnsville, you can choose a location based on which nature experiences matter to your trip: a river route and protected areas, loop trails with varied scenery, or a park with a swimming beach. The location details for the northeast and southwest also provide a sense of direction within Burnsville. This allows you to base your choice of location on the outings you would like to include in your stay, without treating the individual trails or natural destinations as one uniform offering.

More destination pages: Inver Grove Heights, Rosemount, Hastings, Apple Valley, Eagan, Lakeville.

For the overview of the wider area: Dakota County: Nature, Family Attractions and a Suitable Vacation Base.