City: Minneapolis, MN

Category: Parks & Recreation

Telephone: (612) 230-6400

Address: 1339 Theodore Wirth Pkwy.

Description: Theodore Wirth Park, or just Wirth Park, as it’s usually called, is a huge chunk of land extending from Minneapolis at Glenwood Avenue to Lowry Avenue and from Vincent Avenue into Golden Valley. This beautiful 500-acre park surrounds Wirth Lake, which has a swimming beach as well as a boat launch. There’s also an archery range, a playground, tennis courts, the Theodore Wirth Golf Course, and the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden.This is a particularly popular park in winter. Behind Theodore Wirth Park’s great sledding hill (on the golf course’s 10th fairway) is the lighted snow-tubing hill, which isn’t too steep and has a tow rope. Cold, hungry snow tubers will appreciate the nearby Swiss Chalet, which has a fireplace and serves fast-food fare such as burgers and fries. Both a skate-skiing course and an intermediate traditional trail start from the chalet. From the top of the skiing hill, downtown Minneapolis’s skyscrapers glittering in the afternoon sun may startle you with their closeness. This is known as one of the prettiest places in the Cities for nighttime skiing.Named for schoolteacher Eloise Butler, who is buried in the bird sanctuary, the 15-acre Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary is a favorite spot for urbanites to escape the realities of city life and walk among the brilliant, carefully tended wildflower plots.