Parks & recreation in Riverside, Duluth, Minnesota
Part of the Riverside neighborhood guide. Back to the full guide.
Riverside's recreation offer is disproportionate to its size, and it comes in two directions: water and hill.
The water. Direct St. Louis River and Spirit Lake frontage, the Spirit Lake Marina on Spring Street, and boat access at Indian Point Park just northeast. The estuary here is calm, warmer than Lake Superior and genuinely good for paddling and fishing. It is also a restoration success story: decades of work coordinated in part through the St. Louis River Alliance have substantially improved water quality and habitat.
The trail. The Willard Munger State Trail runs straight through the neighborhood, 70 paved car-free miles south through Jay Cooke State Park toward Hinckley, with the Norton Park trailhead and the Western Waterfront Trail a short ride northeast. In winter it is a snowmobile corridor.
The hill. Spirit Mountain is five minutes up: downhill skiing, tubing, Nordic trails, a campground and a lift-served bike park. The Duluth Traverse singletrack runs the same hillside. Above that, Skyline Parkway, Bardon Peak's overlook, the Magney-Snively old-growth maple and the Superior Hiking Trail.
Further out. Jay Cooke State Park is about fifteen minutes southwest, and reachable on the Munger Trail without a car, which is a rare and excellent thing. Chambers Grove Park in Fond du Lac is about seven miles west along the river.
What Riverside does not have is a neighborhood park, a playground or any organised youth sport infrastructure of its own.
Winter: downhill skiing and tubing at Spirit Mountain, Nordic skiing at Spirit Mountain and Magney-Snively, snowmobiling on the Munger corridor which runs through the neighborhood, fat biking on the Duluth Traverse, ice fishing on Spirit Lake.
Parks
The riverside park and campground just northeast in Norton Park.
Duluth's ski hill, directly above the neighborhood and about five minutes away.
The old-growth hardwood tract along Skyline Parkway above the river corridor.
The river gorge and swinging bridge, about fifteen minutes southwest, reachable along the Munger Trail from the neighborhood.
The riverside park in Fond du Lac at the far western end of the city.
Trails
Seventy paved, car-free miles running south through Jay Cooke toward Hinckley, passing straight through Riverside. The trailhead is at 75th Avenue West in Norton Park.
The riverside trail along the St. Louis River estuary.
The city-spanning singletrack spine, five minutes up the hill.
The Duluth section runs the ridge above the river corridor, with Bardon Peak's overlook nearby.
Parks & recreation next door
Northeast, where the Munger and Western Waterfront trails begin and Indian Point gives boat access.
SmithvilleSouth along the river, sharing the same Census tract and a similar owner-heavy river-corridor profile.
Morgan ParkSoutheast along the river, the 1913 US Steel company town built of concrete block.
ProctorNorth over the hill, its own school district and a walkable small-town main street.
Fond du LacSouthwest along the river, the oldest community in Duluth and even quieter.