Discover Bottineau

Bottineau offers a variety of ways to spend the day: parks and trails, ice skating opportunities, a nearby ski area and an ice cream parlor with its own name. There is also a local culinary connection. If you’re looking for a vacation rental, you can first consider which of these experiences you want to shape your stay. Each place has a different focus—from outdoor activities to time on the ice.

Parks, Trails and Picnic Areas

Forestry Park on the western edge of Bottineau offers open spaces and wooded areas for recreation, adventure and leisure activities. The park also has hiking trails and a 9-hole disc golf course. This gives you several ways to enjoy the outdoors: you can visit for the scenery or add disc golf to your day’s plans. The trails provide another activity, without requiring you to follow any particular itinerary for the park as a whole.

McBain Park, also known as “Old City Park,” is located along Oak Creek. It has a peaceful picnic area—a different focus from the hiking trails and disc golf course at Forestry Park. Tommy Turtle Park has two large children’s play areas. It also has an RV park with 16 full-hookup sites, as well as restroom and bathhouse facilities. For families, the play area offers a concrete option for planning the day; if you’d rather plan a picnic, the area described for that purpose is along Oak Creek.

Nearby, Turtle Mountain State Recreation Area is located six miles northwest of Bottineau. It has more than twelve miles of motorized trails open to off-highway vehicles (OHVs), hiking, biking, snowshoeing and horseback riding. Compared with the offerings at Forestry Park, the range of activities here is especially broad. The distance and direction are also useful points of reference as you consider which activities to include in your travel plans.

Ice Skating and Winter Activities

Bottineau Community Arena, also known as the “Lumberdome,” is one of the oldest ice arenas in North Dakota. It offers public skating and is open each season from mid-October to mid-March. Two outdoor skating rinks are located next to the arena: one is designated for recreational skating and the other for hockey. This gives you indoor skating and two outdoor surfaces in Bottineau, each with a different intended use. The arena’s seasonal schedule is a helpful reference when planning a stay that includes ice skating.

Bottineau Winter Park is located ten minutes north of Bottineau. It offers eight alpine runs ranging from beginner to expert difficulty. This makes alpine skiing another winter activity to consider alongside ice skating. Winter Park offers a different kind of outing from the skating options at Community Arena; check its seasonal operating schedule before your trip.

Dairy Products and the Dairy Dipper

Pride Dairy makes ice cream, butter, syrups and toppings from local ingredients. Pride Dairy also has an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in Bottineau called the “Dairy Dipper.” Its product range and ice cream parlor add a culinary touch to a stay focused on parks and winter sports. If you’d like to experience Bottineau beyond its outdoor activities, this is a distinct point of interest to include in your travel plans.

Find the Right Vacation Rental for Your Plans

When choosing a vacation rental in Bottineau, it can help to first sort out the activities you want to do each day: would you rather focus on parks and trails, ice skating or a trip to Winter Park? The seasonal time frames also differ: Community Arena’s season runs from mid-October to mid-March, while Winter Park’s seasonal operating schedule should be checked before your trip.

For the broader travel overview: Bottineau County.