Welcome to Whitetail Woods Regional Park! This is the newest park in Dakota County and opened just under two years ago. It is pretty close to our house, but we had never gone there until last week.
The park is situated on 456 acres with about ten miles of hiking trails. The trails go through prairies, wooded areas, and through swamp land.
This park can be used year round as it has cross country ski trails and sledding hills in the winter. One popular feature is the camper cabins. These are three tiny cabins right near the entrance people can rent for a nominal fee. They are currently booked through March 2016! Since they were all occupied, we did not take any photos.
You may recall, my mom can get lost easily and is terrible at reading maps. We were quite pleased at the trail markers and maps all over the trail system. It was nearly impossible to get lost or confused! Hard to believe, but we did not get lost once on our 90 minute walk!
There were quite a few wild flowers along the way. I stopped along the way to sniff some of them.
One thing Mom made a mental note about is to not go hiking at this park when it has rained a lot. Bailie and I were pretty dirty on our under carriages but my furs hold the most dirt!
When we go walking in places where we know we aren’t going to be running into anyone, we use our long leashes so we can race around and explore since we can’t be trusted off leash. As you can see here, Bailie and I like to be out front blazing the trail!
A portion of one trail we took went through a swamp, but there was this nice wooden walkway through the entire area. Unfortunately, down in the low areas there were a lot of horse flies which is why I would not look at the camera. I was focused on the flies trying to eat me alive!
Mom was pretty happy we have a nice cargo liner in the back of our SUV so our muddy little selves didn’t get the car itself all dirty! We have our seat belts on and are ready to hit the road towards home for some breakfast!
We had a fun time at Whitetail Woods Regional Park. If you are in the Twin Cities, we recommend it for some fun walks! It is very clean, well marked, and there are restrooms available. We did walk around the lake, but did not find any place where we could get in and swim which was a bummer as it was really warm out, but it probably kept us cleaner in the end!
Sounds like a really nice place for a hike! Glad y’all enjoyed yourselves!
It was perfect early in the morning before it got too hot!
This place sounds lovely. We’re glad you had a nice time hiking there.
sumskersandearlskers13.blogspot.com
It’s always fun to go exploring new places!
“Dakota County???” I need to move there!! BOL! You are lucky that so many of your parks permit dogs, most don’t here in Michigan. Isn’t that awful??? That sure looks like another winner! Barks and licks and love, Dakota
LOL! Never thought about it, but it is your county! Here in MN I don’t know of any parks that aren’t dog friendly or at least partially dog friendly. It is nice.
That looks like a wonderful park, the only thing it sounds like would make it better would be if you could get to the water and swim. I really wish we had more places like that around here. We have lots of trails but many aren’t that well marked so I won’t usually venture out alone on them. Plus very few have rest rooms! π
It was odd walking around a lake but not really being next to it or having the opportunity to get into it.
Love to hear about all you adventures.
It seems like we are always into something new.
What a great new park, Emma. Dog oh dog, can you two get dirty or what?!? BOL I bet hiking through all the muddy trails was fun for you and Bailie!
Oz
Bailie and I love to get down and dirty, but Mom isn’t so into it. At my nose work trial it was so embarrassing as Mom carried me a lot so I wouldn’t get dirty! Geez, I’m a 40 lb dog! She just doesn’t like dirt on me.
Looks like a nice park! Barley would rebel if I tried to make her do something before breakfast, though. You girls are such troopers!
It is all in what you are used to. From day one the plan has always been go for a walk or run and then eat, so we don’t know it any other way and it teaches us to “work” for our food.
Looks like a good hike Emma. I think you can measure the success of a hike by the dirt on the dog at the end of it!
Then it was real successful!
What a nice park! I would love to visit it someday, it looks like you had a great time and I am so glad you didn’t get lost (or your mom). At least she has scent hounds with her to find their way back to the car, right? Emma, you look just like Taffy after a walk. Love Dolly
Mom has trouble letting us lead the way when we are lost because she things we are just looking for critters, but Bailie and I are never really lost, just Mom is.
What fun! Glad you took time to smell the roses….um.. wildflowers! XOXO Sparkle the PBGV
Always smell the flowers. I love to be speedy, but I also like to take a break and smell the flowers.
What a great place. I can see you guys going there a lot.
We probably will go there now and then. It is off a dirt road and Mom isn’t big on driving on dirt roads because the car gets so dirty. Mom really isn’t a fan of dirt I guess.
What fun! Looks like a great place to spend the morning!
It was a very nice walk.
Mom was saying we might go for a good hike on Friday (she doesn’t have to work this Friday). Then she read your post where you guys look like you are having so much fund so now she is researching new spots for us and says we are definitely going. Hooray! Have a good day Emma! Your doodle friend Dash
Finding a new spot is always so much fun for everyone! Hope you find a fun spot to go to.
Great shot in the flowers. Always fun to scope out new places.
I was really into the flowers for some reason.
If you guys got that muddy and dirty, I wonder what your mom looked like! BOL! Love the picture of Emma stopping to smell the flowers! π You guys go on some amazing adventures, keep them coming! π
Actually, Mom complains about how we looked, but from her knees down, she was a muddy mess as well. Of course, she conveniently forgot to take a photo of that.
We see a bath in the near future
Lily & Edward
Oh boy, it was real near future! Couldn’t even go in the house until we were clean!
that’s a wonderful place and I bet you dicovered super interesting things with your nose, right? I bet my mom would like it too… you get free black boots there :o)
easy rider
I got a great set of black boots with a matching black belly coat!
It is always fun to explore new trails. We found out about one not too far from us that we are going to explore! I hope it isn’t muddy. βΊ
We love the mud, but Mom is a party pooper even though her legs were dirt covered too.
LOL muddy paws always equals tons of fun! haha!! Looks like a great place!
α¦ husky hugz α¦ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
A dirty dog is usually a happy dog, correct π
That sure looked like fun, especially since there was mud involved!
Bailie and I do enjoy getting dirty!
that does look like a great park – we sure hope you made it yours – and renamed it π
We didn’t rename it as it isn’t our favorite, but it is nice.
What a fun walk guys, and the scenery looks beautiful!!!
Smileys!
Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo
It was definitely fun to go somewhere different with so many different terrain types.
That looks like a very pretty park. We are not fans of those darn horse flies. π
They are nasty and Mom got some real nice bites too!
That looks like a fabulous spot! Love the pic of you in the flowers, Emma! Did you have to have a bath when you got home?!
We were escorted directly from the car to the yard where we got washed off in our pool before we could go inside for breakfast.
That’s pretty cool that it’s such a new park! Love that new ones are popping up.
New places are always a lot of fun.
We have hiked here several times already and love it. Wish it was closer so we could go more often, but it is lovely.
We wish it didn’t have the dirt roads to get to it, but we will go again every now and then.
I’ll have to tell my sister in law about this place, she may want to check it out. Glad to see you girls aren’t afraid of a little mud!!!
Bailie and I enjoy getting all dirtied up. Mom isn’t such a fan.
What a terrific adventure! Love, love, love the photo with the wildflowers. Ah, who minds a little dirt when you can go to such great places? π
Mom likes us to be clean all the time, such a ridiculous idea!
Love hearing about your adventures and seeing you and Baily’s happy faces and dirty feet!
As you know, a dirty GBGV is a happy GBGV π
you gals had some dirty fun what a great day
Dirt always seems to equal lots of fun.
The horse flies are so horrible and they hurt so bad when they bite! I hope they didn’t get too much of you Emma.
I managed to keep them pretty much at bay, but Mom got some nasty bites.