1
Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area
Managed by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
10,363 acres9.6 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Columbus
Columbus, MN parks, trails & bike paths
About 5.3% of Columbus is conserved land, roughly 1,595 acres. There are about 13 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Carlos Avery WMA (9.6 mi) and Coon Lake Park Columbus MN (0.8 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Columbus, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Columbus outdoors
Conserved land
5.3%
1,595 of 30,319 acres
Trails
13 mi
0.3 mi per sq mi · 2 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
9
375 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
0.9 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 0.9 mi off-road paths
Conserved land is a share of the whole town area. Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number or a place below to zoom in© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
2
Coon Lake Park Columbus MN
Park
107 acres0.8 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Columbus City Park
Park
32 acres0.3 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Park
Nature preserve
563 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
All 9 parks & preserves
Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area10,363 acres · 9.6 mi of trail · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Coon Lake Park Columbus MN107 acres · 0.8 mi of trail
Columbus City Park32 acres · 0.3 mi of trail
Carlos Avery State Wildlife Management Area68 acres · 0.2 mi of trail
Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Park563 acres
Houle WMA105 acres
Houle Wildlife Management Area79 acres · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Lamprey Pass Wildlife Management Area1 acres · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Hidden Park1 acres
Who protects the land
1,595 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes0.0 mi
- Off-road bike paths0.9 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Soccer9
- Baseball8
- Pickleball2
- Tennis2
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Nearby
Columbus and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbus | 5.3% | 12.5 mi | 9 |
| East Bethel | 14.8% | 11.7 mi | 10 |
| Lino Lakes | 1.3% | 18.2 mi | 27 |
| Forest Lake | 6% | 6.6 mi | 18 |
| Linwood | 5.2% | 5.1 mi | 5 |
| Wyoming | 0.9% | 0.9 mi | 7 |
| Ham Lake | 1.4% | 6.0 mi | 10 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Columbus's trails yet. Muddy, icy, a bridge out, where to park: a quick post helps the next person.
Sources: trails, parks, preserves, courts and bike lanes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), map data as of 2026-09-28. Conserved land: USGS Gap Analysis Project, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). Measured against the Census town boundary.
How we measure
"Trails" are OpenStreetMap paths, bridleways, public tracks and unpaved footways, plus footways inside a park or preserve or on a named trail route. Sidewalks are left out. Areas are counted on a 22.3-meter grid, so overlapping parcels count once. "Conserved" includes conservation easements, which protect land from development but are usually private property. Trailheads are the nearest marked trailhead, public parking lot or information board within about 150 meters of a preserve. Dog rules come from OpenStreetMap when someone has tagged them; otherwise we show what's typical for the land manager, or say the rules aren't recorded.