Rice Park
Maybe not a happier time but a warmer time. This was taken last April.
park
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Lilydale Park
Lilydale Park is West of downtown St. Paul and on the other side of the river. There used to be houses in the little town of Lilydale which is right on the flood plane. The houses are long gone but you can see parts of foundations and old driveways in the woods. Some of the flowers in the gardens survived too.
Bike path – Lilydale regional park
The park is heavily wooded but there are paved trails and gravel trails going through the woods. There are plans to improve the park, the road, and add parking. [see Lilydale Park shelter and roadway design on the City of St. Paul web site before they move the page]
I am not sure where there will be a shelter but I am sure someone will tell me after they read this.
The park could use some improvements but I worry. Right now it is wild with native birds and plants and there isn’t anything else like it right in the city. There are gravel paths higher up on the bluff that lead to the old brick factory and Pickerel lake.
Woods
The lake is a great place for bird watching and wildflower hunting. There is a citizens task force involved in the planning. . . .but if you have not been through the park this might be a good time to check it out.
Water Street in Lilydale Minnesota
Rice Park Wins Award
Rice park in downtown St. Paul was named one of America’s top great spaces by the America Planning Association.
“Rice Park is a counterpoint to its busy surroundings. Its period lamps, statuary, benches, center fountain, and adjacent national landmark buildings lend a European feeling to the space. Trapezoidal in shape with two diagonal walkways, the park serves as much as a pathway and shortcut as it does a lunch stop, festival grounds, and outdoor sanctuary. Rice Park has undergone far-reaching changes since its establishment in 1849, when Minnesota was still a territory.”
As a child I enjoyed going to the library and getting books and sitting in the park and reading them. As an adult I enjoy eating lunch in the park, the holiday lights, people watching, dog walking and the events, like the Saint Paul Winter Carnival which starts on January 26th this year even if we still don’t have any snow.
Park Benches and Flowers
Holiday Lights with the landmark center in the background
The fountain and statue of “The Source”
The park can be reserved for weddings and other events. Contact St. Paul Parks.
The Blue Hour
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. The blue hour doesn’t last an hour but it happens twice a day or at least it has so far. The blue hour is the time shortly after sunset and before sunrise. It is one of my favorite times to go out and get photographs.
For fun I got up super early last Sunday and went downtown to photograph Rice Park. There was plenty of parking and no traffic and no snow.
Rice Park Holiday Lights Downtown St. Paul
City Parks
We love our city parks and green spaces. This one is next to the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul and across the street from Lawson software which you can see in the background. I took a picture of it last winter when the piano was buried under the snow. I think it looks better without the snow.
Schroeder on the keyboard
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The Park with the bricks
There is a lot of park land here in St. Paul, MN. There are city parks, county parks, regional parks, state parks and national parks.
Last weekend I spent some time hiking in Lilydale regional park which is a national park along the Mississippi river south and west of downtown. There is a public boat landing on the river, woods, pickerel lake and the remnants of the Twin Cities brick factory. There are kilns in the woods and of course bricks. Motorized boats are not allowed on the lake but people fish from the shore.
Some of the trails in the park are paved and others are not. I took a bike trail most of the way and walked the rest. The trail system connects Lilydale park to Harriet Island Regional park and Raspberry Island park, and to downtown via the Wabasha Bridge. There used to be homes in Lilydale along the river but parkland is a much better use for the land because it floods. You can find cement slabs and pieces of foundations along the trail and a lot of wildflowers and native plants and song birds.
Here are a couple of photos I took in the park. The woods are fairly dense and the photograph of the lake just shows a small part of it that I took from the woods.
