Summer Recreation
Biking
Play
Garden
Hiking
Workout
Explore Miles of Trails, Beautiful Gardens, and Recreation Opportunities
The crowning jewel of Northland Arboretum is our 12 miles of nature trails and beautiful gardens, which wind through six unique biomes—grasslands, restored prairie, a jack pine forest, wetlands, a shrub bog, and a jack pine savannah. Complete with bridges, streams, shaded walkways, and botanical gardens, our trails are perfect for birders, plant enthusiasts, and those looking for a relaxing place to walk.
Summer Trail Guide
Our summer trails are open sunrise to 10PM, seven days a week. Whether you’re looking for a leisurely stroll through the woods, or you’re more interested in identifying and categorizing the many flowers that line our walking paths, you’ll find something to love on our summer trails.
Check out our summer trail and hiking maps for information on the botanical gardens, waterways, gazebos, and bridges that dot our warm weather walking and hiking paths.
More Than Just a Great Place to Walk
In addition to our nature walks, our parks and trails feature stunning vistas, a playscape for children, and volunteer botanical gardens—including the Garden Gazebo, rain garden, and aqua falls. Featuring a diverse range of activities and wildlife, Northland Arboretum is perfect for relaxing getaways, birding expeditions, and more.
Fitness at the Arboretum
The community-supported fitness park was created with the health and well-being of our visitors in mind. Featuring 11 fitness stations—including stretching and compression equipment—adults and children of all ages can enjoy healthy exercise in one of the most beautiful spaces in the Brainerd Lakes area. The park is handicap accessible, so members and visitors of all abilities can enjoy it.
(Fitness equipment is from https://www.norwell.dk/en/)
Get Your Blood Pumping in Our Bike Park
Full bike park grand opening is July 12th.
Whether you’re a beginner, an experienced rider, or just looking for family-friendly fun, our park will have something for everyone:
Skill-Building Features: With lines for beginners, intermediate and experts our bike park is designed to help riders improve and prepare for the technical trails in the Brainerd Lakes Area.
Tot Track: A safe, fun area for people of all ages to get their wheels turning.
Adaptive Cycling Trail: 1.8 miles of accessible trails winding through a beautiful, newly renovated pollinator habitat.
Eco-Friendly Design: Our bike park surface is a recycled crushed granite. Many of the materials we use for features will come from trees that fell during windstorms at the Arb.
Pollinator Habitat: The bike park will be a thriving environment that supports pollinators and biodiversity.
Northland is proud to partner with JACS E-bikes to offer E-bike rentals in our bike park. Rentals are available at our Visitor Center and can be picked up during regular operating hours.
E-Bike Rates:
One hour: $20
Four hours: $70
Full day: $110
Rentals* can be used at our bike park, on the Paul Bunyan Trail, or anywhere in the Brainerd Lakes Area. The Paul Bunyan Trail is 120-mile paved rail-trail, and we are conveniently located at one f the trail heads. Find more info on the trail here.
*Riders must be 18 to rent a bike, children 15-17 can ride with supervision from an adult.
Make Lasting Summer Memories with Our Outdoor Playscape
At Northland Arboretum, we understand that kids need space to run and play—especially these days. In an age of rigidly structured screen time, studies have shown that unstructured outdoor play helps kids build confidence and has been linked to improved physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
Our Prairie Gazebo, located just off the Ojibwe trail, is the perfect place for kids to make some noise and enjoy the beautiful summer air. Afterwards, they can head across the road to our nature playscape—complete with a mud kitchen, fort building area, and water sluice—to keep the fun going all day long. The nature playscape was designed from the ground up to be both fun and accessible to kids of all ages and abilities.
Enrich Yourself with Our Botanical Gardens
No visit to the Arboretum is complete without a trip to one of our many botanical gardens. We maintain seven botanical gardens that are spread out across our trail system, including the Rain, Butterfly, Pollinator, Giving, Scout, Gazebo, and Memorial gardens. Some of our gardens—such as the rain and scout gardens—are intended to help educate guests on a variety of horticultural concepts, while others—like the butterfly and pollinator gardens—act as critical habitats for certain important native insect species.
Most of our gardens are maintained by volunteers. If you’re interested in volunteering at Northland, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Contact Us
At Northland Arboretum, we’re constantly working to improve our services and keep nature accessible to as many people as possible. If you have questions or concerns or just want to leave feedback on your experience with us, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Simply submit the contact form below and we’ll get back to you within seven business days.