The best running trails around Golden Valley

One of seven Lagoons along Bassett Creek. The paved bike path brings you right along the banks of the lagoons, so you get a great view of the water.

Part of Theodore Wirth Park, The Trailhead is a hub for outdoor recreation in the community. Here, you'll find ski passes and all the essentials for your adventures in the park. There are lockers, a drinking fountain, restrooms, concessions, and equipment rentals.

The Luce Line Trail stretches 76.7 miles across Carver, Hennepin, McLeod, and Meeker counties, connecting rural Minnesota with urban Minneapolis. This rail trail has different surfaces along the way, including asphalt, crushed stone, and grass, and is open to biking, walking, running, horseback riding, snowmobiling, and cross-country skiing. The trail passes through wetlands, wooded areas, lakes, and prairie remnants, with highlights like Otter Lake and Medicine Lake. The trail connects with other regional paths and provides scenic views, including the Minneapolis skyline. The Luce Line follows a former rail corridor with a rich history dating back to the early 1900s.

Please note that those two squiggly knots within Wirth Park are single track mountain bike trails and not suitable for road bikes (as I learned earlier this week as I found myself tangled in a large swarm of kids taking part in a mountain biking class on the trail and hurriedly trying to backtrack out of there). Luce Line Trail can be used to bypass those parts to the west if you weren't intending to mountain bike!

This is a paved, two-lane corridor reserved for bikes. The Greenway runs for 5.5 miles and is a converted rail trail that runs largely separate from other streets, allowing you to bike uninterrupted. Here you get nice views of Lake of the Isles.

Cedar Lake is a lake with a long history. Over two centuries, Cedar Lake has undergone significant transformations in shape, size, and land use; it has evolved from industrial wasteland to modern parks. Despite being part of the city's park system, Cedar Lake is less frequented than its counterparts. Tucked between neighborhoods, it is bordered by the Grand Rounds on its south and west shores. The southeast shore features a thin strip of park land. Former railroad right-of-way along the lake now serves as world-class bike and nature trails, with ongoing repurposing into a light rail transit corridor.

Theodore Wirth Park spans over 740 acres in Golden Valley, bordering Minneapolis to the east. Within the vast park are over 80 acres of waterways, as well as 280 acres dedicated to golf courses. Wirth Park boasts 1.35 miles of trails open to pedestrians and cyclists winding through diverse landscapes of woodlands, prairies, creeks, and the Bassett Creek valley.

Twin Lake is a 21-acre lake in Golden Valley near Theodore Wirth Park. People swim, boat, fish, and watch nature there. A channel connects the lake to a wetland and Sweeney Lake. Twin Lake is deeper than expected for its size, with a deepest point of 56 feet. Plants grow mostly on the north end. An invasive plant called curlyleaf pondweed lives there too. The water quality is good because there is not much paved land nearby to make dirty runoff water flow into the lake when it rains.