Parks & recreation in Fairmount, Duluth, Minnesota
Part of the Fairmount neighborhood guide. Back to the full guide.
For a small, low-priced neighborhood, Fairmount's recreation access is genuinely strong, and it rates 4.3.
The Lake Superior Zoo is inside the neighborhood at 72nd Avenue West and Grand Avenue, with Kingsbury Creek running through the grounds. Having the city zoo within walking distance is an amenity no other Duluth neighborhood offers.
The Keene Creek Dog Park sits at the eastern edge along the creek corridor, and both creek valleys give wooded green edges that the built middle of the neighborhood lacks.
Southwest, minutes away in adjoining Norton Park, the Willard Munger State Trail begins at 75th Avenue West and runs 70 paved, car-free miles south through Jay Cooke toward Hinckley. Indian Point Park, with St. Louis River frontage and a campground, is about four minutes away.
Six minutes southwest, Spirit Mountain carries downhill skiing, tubing, Nordic trails and a lift-served bike park, and the Duluth Traverse singletrack runs the hillside above. Further west on Skyline Parkway, the Magney-Snively Natural Area's old-growth sugar maple gives the best fall color inside the city, and the Superior Hiking Trail runs the same ridge.
What is missing is the everyday layer: no playground, ball field or rink of the neighborhood's own. Organized youth sports run through the West Duluth facilities.
Winter: downhill skiing and tubing at Spirit Mountain, Nordic skiing at Spirit Mountain and Magney-Snively, fat biking on the Duluth Traverse, snowmobiling on the Munger corridor, sledding.
Parks
Duluth's zoo, inside the neighborhood at 72nd Avenue West and Grand Avenue, and Fairmount's defining institution.
The creek corridor forming the neighborhood's eastern boundary, with the Keene Creek Dog Park at that edge.
Duluth's ski hill, about six minutes southwest along Grand Avenue.
The riverside park and campground in adjoining Norton Park, about four minutes southwest.
Trails
The paved rail trail beginning just southwest of the neighborhood and running 70 miles south through Jay Cooke.
The city-spanning singletrack spine, with the Spirit Mountain end six minutes away.
The paved cross-town route running northeast toward the Bayfront and downtown.
The Duluth section runs the ridge line above West Duluth.
Parks & recreation next door
North up the slope, a quieter residential neighborhood with the same price band and no arterial through it.
IrvingEast toward the bay, with a park and playfield of its own and Grassy Point on the shoreline.
Norton ParkSouth and west along Grand Avenue, with Indian Point, the Munger trailhead and the Western Waterfront Trail.
Spirit ValleyNortheast, the main street where most Fairmount errands actually happen.
DenfeldNortheast, more housing stock, the high school and the nearest published median.