Adventure for All ♿

Minnesota state parks make it easy to find accessible campsites, lodging, and camper cabins when reserving online. Look for the ADA symbol (♿) when making a reservation to find sites designed to accommodate visitors with physical disabilities. Minnesota residents with qualifying physical disabilities may also be eligible for half-priced camping Sunday through Thursday nights, making it even easier to spend more time outdoors. (Discounts apply to campsites only and do not include cabins or group sites.) If your vehicle has been issued Minnesota disability license plates or a hang tag, or if you have a Federal Access Pass, you can also get a reduced-rate year-round permit for $12. Learn more about getting a discounted state park vehicle permit. 

Did you know Minnesota state parks and trails events offer free language interpretation services for visitors who request them, including options like Spanish and American Sign Language? Just make your request at least two weeks before the event to help ensure availability. Getting started is easy—visit the event calendar and use the contact information provided to call or email the event contact directly. 

Want to get hands-on? Many state park visitor centers and exhibits are designed for exploring at your own pace and engaging all your senses. Compare your hand to a wolf paw print, touch textured replicas, listen to owl calls, peek into tanks filled with native fish, or say hello to bronze animal sculptures—like a life-size toad tucked into its burrow. Displays are designed to be easy to experience from a variety of heights and viewing angles, and many exhibit spaces include accessibility stations stocked with sensory packs, fidgets, noise-muffling headphones, braille books, and audio description devices. Whether you like to touch, listen, explore, or simply take your time, there are plenty of ways to dive in.

Come chill with us at Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park! Underground is a consistent 48° degrees year-round— so bring a sweatshirt. The scenic tour is one hour and is accessible for many visitors using wheelchairs or strollers. Another underground option is the fully accessible underground mine tour at Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park where a powered wheelchair is available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you'd rather stay above ground, the prairie and bison tour truck at Blue Mounds State Park is equipped with a lift and can accommodate one wheelchair per tour. 

Looking for a ride that’s a little more accessible? The Sagamore Unit at Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area features 7.5 miles of adaptive mountain biking trails. The trails were built with gentle grades and without ride-stopping obstacles or tipping hazards, making them a great fit for beginners, families, or anyone looking for a more relaxed ride. Prefer pavement? Minnesota’s paved state trails are another great option. Most state trails are wide with gentle slopes, making them a comfortable choice for hand cyclists, wheelchair users, and others looking to roll at their own pace.

Explore Minnesota's state parks like never before with all-terrain track chairs! These electric-powered chairs are built to handle rugged terrain that standard wheelchairs can't navigate, opening up trails and landscapes that might otherwise feel out of reach. The chairs are available to anyone—no documentation is required beyond a simple waiver at checkout. With 24 state parks now offering track chairs, more of Minnesota's natural beauty is accessible than ever before. Find a participating park and reserve a track chair at no cost.

Bonus: meet Maplewood State Park naturalist, Dora! We are so grateful Dora agreed to share her personal story using track chairs in a recent video. "The track chair has been so helpful in my healing journey because it allows me to hear the birds, to see the wildflowers, and to just be surrounded by nature and to take time for myself. So I encourage you, whoever you are, for whatever reason, you need a little boost on the trails, come to one of Minnesota's state parks that has a track chair available and come take it for a spin!" 

A day at the beach should be available to everyone! McCarthy Beach State Park offers an adaptive beach chair and a roll-out mat to make that possible—both available to visitors at no cost. The mat creates a firm path across soft sand for those using wheelchairs, walkers, or anyone who needs a stable walkway to reach the water. The beach chair, complete with floating armrests and wheels, can go directly into the water with you. Whether you use a wheelchair or have other mobility challenges, these tools are designed to get you to the waterfront. More beach chairs and mats are coming to select state parks within the next year! Contact the McCarthy Beach State Park office to check availability and reserve your equipment.

Nature is full of color and now more visitors can experience it in a new way. Lake Bemidji, Lake Carlos,  Maplewood, Lake Bronson state parks and Big Bog State Recreation Area offer glasses designed to help people with red-green color vision deficiencies perceive a wider, more vibrant range of colors outdoors. Borrowing a pair could mean seeing the red of a cardinal or the deep green of a pine forest in a whole new way. These glasses are available on a first-come, first-served basis at no cost. There's no reservation needed. Just stop by the park office to borrow a pair. 

Paddling the lakes in Minnesota’s state parks is easier than ever with accessible watercraft launches. Whether you're a seasoned paddler or trying it for the first time, this equipment is designed to reduce barriers and get you on the water. Launches include transfer devices that allow wheelchair users to move safely from their chair into a boat, paired with ADA-compliant parking and pathways. There are accessible kayak launches ready to use at Itasca and Scenic state parks, with additional accessible paddling equipment planned for more state parks in the future.

Accessibility, she recalls, wasn't something that came naturally to the world around her. "Growing up, having accessible devices was foreign."

Jenna has spent most of her life in Two Harbors, Minnesota, and along the North Shore. After a 19-year career as a K–12 music educator, she channeled her energy into inclusive activism and founded the nonprofit Above and Beyond With U. Then, in 2020, the pandemic hit.

With masking and distancing recommendations in place, Jenna upgraded her manual wheelchair with an electric wheel attachment so that she could fully get around without needing a hand. "It wasn't just for the fact of wanting to go on an adventure. That was the byproduct!" Once she could roll on her own, she began heading out to trails with friends and Minnesota's state parks came into view in a whole new way.

Her first track chair experience was at Myre-Big Island State Park. After connecting with park staff, she was invited to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park's press day to help celebrate the park's new track chair. She now visits state parks regularly, Tettegouche State Park being one of her favorites: "The visitor center is amazing, you have two different bathroom types that can work for me, and there are two amazing views that I can access," she says. "If [wheelchair users] know it's there, we'll come and hang out. Don't feel bad that we can't go explore your other thousands of acres—tell us all the things we can explore."

Jenna is also a member of the Parks and Trails Legacy Fund Advisory Committee. For her, one of the most encouraging things about working with the DNR has been seeing how accessibility conversations can lead to real progress. When she has raised ideas about features like accessible fishing docks or improving water views from bridges for visitors using wheelchairs, she has been met with thoughtful discussions and a willingness to make improvements. It's a reminder that accessibility is an ongoing journey, and meaningful progress is being made throughout Minnesota state parks and trails.

This summer, look for Jenna cruising the Gitchi Gami State Trail and continuing to speak up for more accessible outdoor spaces. "I learned a lot about nature just in those spaces," she says.