AFTON STATE PARK 

Most trail runners in the Twin Cities area know that Afton State Park has the best hiking within driving distance of the metro area. There are around 20 miles of trails running up and down the bluffs that overlook the St. Croix River, including a loop through a hilltop prairie, and alongside trout streams and through narrow valleys. 

Afton is the perfect place for either a day hike with some decent elevation, or an easy walk along the river.

BORDER ROUTE TRAIL 

In the 1970s, the Minnesota Rovers Outing Club worked with the DNR and the Forest Service to plan and cut this hiking trail along the Canadian border through canoe country. The 65-mile track is one of the most rugged and remote of Minnesota’s hiking trails. 

You’ll want to brush up on your orienteering skilled before you head out, and you’ll also need a U.S. Forest Service permit, since the trail goes through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Border Route Trail connects at one end to the Kekekabic Trail, and at the other to the Superior Hiking Trail. 

CAMDEN STATE PARK

Just a few miles outside Marshall — the state’s far southwest corner, where much of the wild lands were tilled for crops — you’ll find some fantastic hiking at Camden State Park. The park is centered on the Redwood River and has a healthy mix of woods and prairies with some 15 miles of hiking trails, including a stunning view from the top of the park’s moraines (hills left by the glaciers). You can also explore the park’s “Coteau des Prairies”, or highland prairies, as French explorers once called them. 

GLACIAL LAKES STATE PARK

To get an idea of what swaths of Minnesota once looked like, you can’t do better than Glacial Lakes State Park, whose rolling glacial hill are covered in rare wildflowers like prairie clover, pasque flowers and coneflowers. Only one-tenth of 1 percent of Minnesota’s native prairies are left. Hiking at Glacial Lakes is one of the best ways to see what remains, with more than 16 miles of trails under the wide-open sky.  

GRAND PORTAGE TRAIL 

At the far northern tip of Minnesota is, arguably, the oldest trail in the state: the Grand Portage Trail, which has been used for some 2,000 years as the best route to the Pigeon River around the impassible Pigeon Falls. Also called “Gichi-onigaming” in Ojibwe (the Great Carrying Place), this 8.5-mile trail rises some 1,300 feet, but is the lowest point in the area to cross the Sawtooth Mountains. 

Today, the trail runs through the Grand Portage Indian Reservation. There is a campsite on the Pigeon River at the former site of Fort Charlotte, for which you need a free back country permit from the National Park Service.

KAB-ASH TRAIL  

While much of Voyageurs National Park is best accessed by canoe, the 25-mile Kab-Ash Trail is an exception. It’s a wild trail that will take you deep into the north woods, going from the Ash River in the east to Lake Kabetogama. There are also two primitive campsites along the trail. 

Tom Gable, a researcher who hiked more than 200 miles on the trail over three years, wrote that, “You almost certainly will not see another soul when on the trail and the miles of thick forests surrounding the trail stifle the sounds of the modern world.”

KEKEKABIC TRAIL 

If you get to the end of the Border Route Trail and want to keep going to Ely, you’ll have to get on the Kekekabic Trail (also known as “The Kek”). This is one of the oldest trails in the state, dating back to the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corp cut this 39-mile tail to give them access to a fire tower. You’ll also need a U.S. Forest Service permit for this trail. 

MAPLEWOOD STATE PARK  

If you’re in Minnesota’s lake country, the best hiking you’ll find is at Maplewood State Park near Pelican Rapids. The park has some 25 miles of trails that wind through a mix of hardwood forest, prairies, maple basswood forests and lake shores throughout the park’s 9,250-acres. There are lots of hilltop overlooks, and lush foliage in the fall.

MATTHEW LOUREY STATE TRAIL

If you’re looking for a hike with less climbing than the 37,800 feet of elevation the Superior Hiking Trail has, the Matthew Lourey State Trail might your trail. This 80-mile gravel and natural path winds through three state forests and one state park along the St. Croix River. 

The trail is named for Matthew Lourey, who grew up in the area and was killed when his helicopter was shot down over Iraq in 2005. Lourey and his family were fans of the trail. 

MINNESOTA DRIFTLESS HIKING TRAIL 

The Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail is a work in progress, but when it’s complete, it will add a major through-hike right through the one-of-a-kind Driftless Area. The trail will start at the Mississippi River and climb up and down the hills of this unglaciated corner of the state, which is filled with hardwood forest, cabbage rocks, underground caves and winding rivers that flow into the Mississippi.

MISSISSIPPI GORGE REGIONAL PARK

Few people realize that a national park site (Mississippi National River & Recreation Area) runs right through the middle of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Even fewer know that there’s some spectacular hiking through the Mississippi Gorge Regional Park. 

It’s not all contiguous, but if you don’t mind piecing it together with a little pavement, starting at the Franklin Bridge going south, you can find trails along both sides of the river. Starting at the Winchell trail, you can go all the way to Crosby Farm Park on the St. Paul side, and to Pike Island/Wita Tanka in Minneapolis. Each hike is about 9 miles one-way.

NORTH COUNTRY NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL

The North Country National Scenic Trail is a through-hiking trail that stretches 4,800 miles from North Dakota to Vermont.  The Minnesota section comprises some 850 miles and is reported to be about 70 percent complete. 

The trail was rerouted in 2019 to include the Kekekabic, the Border Route Trail, and the Superior Hiking Trail, but there are other sections to explore across the northern part of the state.

SEVEN MILE CREEK 

Most of the Minnesota River winds through farm country, so there are very few trails along its banks. Seven Mile Creek is an exception. The park is located six miles south of St. Peter on Highway 169 and has around eight miles of trails with a good climb up the 500-foot bluffs. The park is home to lots of birds in the summer, and other wildlife throughout the year. 

SUPERIOR HIKING TRAIL

While not quite as old at the Border Route Trail or the Kek, the Superior Hiking Trail is the crown jewel of Minnesota’s hiking trails. The 310-mile trail runs from the border of Wisconsin to the border of Canada along the Sawtooth Mountains. Along the way, there are breathtaking view of Lake Superior on one side and Superior National Forest on the other.  

And you don’t have to hike the whole thing: Several segments are great day hikes since the trail passes through such state parks as George H. Crosby Manitou, Temperance River, and Judge Magney.

THEODORE WIRTH PARK

If you live in the metro area and don’t even want to drive as far as Afton, the best trail system in the Twin Cities is at Theodore Wirth Park, which was carved out in 1889 and is located around the Loppet’s stunning Trailhead facility. The 12 miles of trails here feel surprisingly remote given that they’re in the middle of a major urban center with significant hills — at least enough to hold the 2024 Stifel Loppet Cup races for cross country skiing’s World Cup. 

From Wirth you can also connect to the Luce Line Bike Trail, the Chain of Lakes, and the Grand Rounds.