Wait, There’s A ‘Yellowstone Park’ Right Here In Minnesota?

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Have you ever heard of the 'Little Yellowstone of Minnesota?' It's a park that is often called by that name, and it's right here in our neck of the woods.

Thanks to the 'Yellowstone' TV series with Kevin Costner, it seems like anything with that name in it is popular these days. That's not the reason my wife and I took a trip to the real Yellowstone National Park (the one in Wyoming and Montana) a few years ago, but, much like the scenery in that series, we were stunned by the scenic beauty and natural features of America's very first national park.

So when I stumbled on this story about a park called the 'Little Yellowstone' park that was right here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, it caught my attention. Did you know that there was a 'Yellowstone' Park right here in the Gopher State? I confess I didn't.

The park Only In Your State refers to as the 'Little Yellowstone of Minnesota' is actually Alexander Ramsey Park (or, more accurately, Ramsey Park) and it's located in the city of Redwood Falls, in central Minnesota. (Google Maps says it's a little northwest of Mankato, about two hours southwest of the Twin Cities, and about 2-and-a-half hours away from Rochester.)

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According to the city of Redwood Falls website, Ramsey Park is the largest municipal park in the state of Minnesota, at a whopping 256 acres in size. (That's pretty big, but it still pales in comparison to the size of Yellowstone National Park, which is nearly 2.2 MILLION acres!)

 Termed as the “Little Yellowstone of Minnesota”, the park is enhanced by 1930′s Civilian Conservation Corps shelters and bridges and picturesque Ramsey Falls. The park serves as a focal point for community events, festivals and summer activities and features campground facilities, shelter houses, four miles of paved hiking trails, a DNR trout stream, scenic overlooks, and a zoo.

The biggest feature of the 'Little Yellowstone of Minnesota,' however, is likely Ramsey Falls. According to Only In Your State, "Ramsey Falls is not as large as the waterfall at Yellowstone, but it is certainly beautiful nonetheless. It drops over 30 feet into a wide, rocky gorge."

Just for comparison, here's a picture of Gibbon Falls at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming:

And, from the Ramsey Park Facebook page, here's a picture of Ramsey Falls...

They both look incredibly scenic, don't they? It appears that camping and shelter reservations at Ramsey Park are now closed for the season but will reopen again next spring. I'm going to have to check it out.

And if you're interested in Yellowstone or any other national parks, keep scrolling to see some amazing pictures of the most popular national parks here in the U.S.

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