Winter on the Isles: When the Loop Belongs to the Walkers

When the cold sets in, the loop around Lake of the Isles thins to a smaller crowd of walkers, dog owners and skaters. The Minneapolis Chain of Lakes Regional Park drew nearly 7 million visitors in 2024, nearly twice as many as the next-busiest Twin Cities park, but most of that crowd comes in summer. In winter the bays freeze into white expanses and the basin takes on a stillness it never has in July, the restored native banks and arched bridges standing out plainly against the snow.

That winter identity nearly lost one of its anchors. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board considered closing the Lake of the Isles rink, citing rising costs and shorter, warmer winters. Kenwood resident Janet Hallaway and her husband Phil started a Change.org petition that drew nearly 3,000 signatures. "Winter can be hard in Minnesota unless you're an outdoor person, so the thought of losing this as an opportunity made me spring to action," Janet Hallaway told FOX 9. District 4 Commissioner Elizabeth Shaffer and District 3 Commissioner Becky Alper pushed to keep rink funding in the Park Board's 2026-27 budget. Staff not only kept the Isles rink but restored several others, including a couple closed the previous year, and are developing a longer-term policy for managing outdoor rinks as winters shorten. "What a win for the city and for all the people who have their little community centers built around these rinks," Hallaway said. The rink also anchors the annual Luminary Loppet, the Loppet Foundation's largest fundraiser of the year, which in 2025 returned to a frozen Isles.

The ice is never a guarantee. The Minnesota DNR warns that no ice is ever completely safe, that thickness varies across a single lake, and that the public should stay off ice less than 4 inches thick and check it at least every 150 feet. On a lake as channeled as the Isles, where moving water near the inlets leaves thin spots, the prudent move is to stay near shore, go with someone, and treat early and late ice with suspicion. For the regulars who show up anyway, the trade of fewer people for more stillness is the entire appeal.