Lowry Nature Center at Carver Park Reserve: Tamarack Trail (Blog Hike #716)

Trail: Tamarack Trail

Hike Location: Lowry Nature Center (at Carver Park Reserve)

Geographic Location: northwest of Victoria, MN (44.88202, -93.68272)

Length: 1.5 miles

Difficulty: 1/10 (Easy)

Date Hiked: August 2018

Overview: A relatively flat circumnavigation of Crosby Lake.

Park Information: https://www.threeriversparks.org/location/lowry-nature-center

Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=735097
Photo Highlight:

Directions to the trailhead: On the west side of Minneapolis, take I-494 to SR 7 (exit 16B).  Exit and go west on SR 7.  Drive SR 7 west 13.2 miles to Victoria Drive.  Take the third exit from the traffic circle to head south on Victoria Dr.  The signed entrance for Lowry Nature Center is 1.2 miles ahead on the left.  Park in the large paved parking lot near the Nature Center building.

The hike: Located on the western edge of the Twin Cities metro area, 3719 acre Carver Park Reserve is the second largest park in the Three Rivers Park District, which was introduced in detail in the previous hike.  The park is named for its location in eastern Carver County, which in turn is named after the explorer Jonathan Carver who explored this area in 1766 and 1767.  The park reserve features the 57-site Lake Auburn Campground, an archery range, and the Grimm Farm Historic Site, which is often called the birthplace of the Dairy Belt because the Grimm family developed the first winter-hardy alfalfa in North America here in the mid 1800’s.

            In terms of trails, Carver Park Reserve offers 9 miles of horse trails and 10 miles of paved bike trails, but the park reserve’s best hiking trails are found in its 250-acre Lowry Nature Center.  Lowry Nature Center is the oldest nature center in the Twin Cities, and it offers multiple loop trails open only to hikers.  Because much of the Nature Center’s land is periodically inundated, bugs will be terrible here during the summer.  Therefore, I chose to keep my hike short by hiking only the Tamarack Trail described here.  Over the course of the trail description I will suggest several other loops you could add to extend the hike if conditions are more pleasant when you visit.

Exiting the Nature Center

            After exiting the front door of Lowry Nature Center, turn right on the asphalt trail, which quickly ends at a small butterfly garden.  Turn right again on a two-track dirt/gravel trail, and notice the small pier on Crosby Lake downhill to the left.  The Tamarack Trail starts as a mulch trail exiting left just past this pier.

            The northern arm of the Tamarack Trail’s loop heads west through a dense forest that features some large oak trees.  Just past 0.3 miles, the Aspen Trail exits right to start its 1.1 mile loop that includes an overlook of Stone Lake.  The Tamarack Trail continues west and passes two picnic tables that offer nice views of Crosby Lake provided the bugs permit you to linger awhile.

Crosby Lake

            At 0.5 miles, the forest starts to transition to prairie as the trail curves left around the west end of Crosby Lake.  The trail surface also turns to mowed grass here.  Ignore a short-cut trail that exits left, but at 0.7 miles a boardwalk spur exiting right leads a short distance to a platform overlooking a periodically inundated wetland.  The wetland makes for good wildlife viewing if the bugs are tolerable.

            0.8 miles into the hike, an unofficial trail exits right where you need to turn left to stay on the Tamarack Trail.  Some plastic blue diamonds mark this section of trail for cross-country skiers in the winter.  Now the trail heads east through the nicest prairie on this hike, and goldenrod lines either side of the trail.

Hiking through the prairie

            At 1.2 miles, the Lake Trail exits right to begin its 0.8 mile loop around a couple of small lakes.  Crosby Lake’s dedication monument, identified on the park map as Crosby Rock, is located on the left just past this intersection.  More flat walking brings you back to the butterfly garden where the Tamarack Trail closes its loop.  The Nature Center building and the parking lot lie just ahead.  If you want to do more hiking, the Aspen and Lake Trails mentioned above offer more aquatic scenery.  Also, the Oak and Maple Trails located east of the Nature Center building offer loops of 0.6 and 1.4 miles respectively through terrain similar to what you saw on the Tamarack Trail.