Carlos Avery State Wildlife Management Area — Attraction in Columbus

The place itself is beautiful and special, but the whole hunting scene spoils the tranquility and serenity, and, did you know that hunters are allowed to shoot your dogs at certain times of year if they chase after game? Yes, the gov allows it!!! It says so on their website. Typical, rural red-neck MN style. Let's hope this sick, backward, bizarre mentality changes as more intelligent, cultured folk move in. I was out on one of the trails hiking with my dogs recently, like we often do, when a hunter somewhere on the other side of a lake, a couple of hundred feet away or more (no less), started shouting at the top of his lungs (very angry, threatening). Now my dogs were not chasing after game, there was nowhere they could go except on the trail that has wetland/lakes on either side. I grabbed my dogs and turned back, not wanting to risk our lives. He fired a shot, and I have no idea whether that was at us or not. I could hardly see him, he was so far off but is seems he somehow had "claim" to just about all that area within sight, for some strange reason. I wasn't about to hang around, and I'm European, where we are not used to every idiot our there carrying a gun around and shooting it off from the bushes where people like to hike, OR for that matter, as is the case here - in neighborhoods. SO, beautiful as this place is, it's marred by morons like this who are allowed to run around with guns, lay cruel traps, and kill anything that moves. Scary to say the least! Hunting should only be allowed in very VAST, wild areas, away from hikers and domestic animals, and neighborhoods. It should be far more controlled than...

The "trail" (old unused road) is across the highway (south) from the place with all the buildings & sign (trail does not have a sign, except to say that dogs can't be off leash). The road is sandy for the first part & more gravel than sand (easier walking) around the loop.

The hike is a variety of forest & marsh areas. We saw bluejays & sparrows on the first section of the hike. We went to the left at the fork (for the loop) & hadn't seen much by the time we got to a path across for a shorter loop. However, when we kept going, we were rewarded with Sandhill cranes (at a distance - chick was barely visible with binoculars), egret, swans, yellow neck warblers, & king bird, along with more common red-wing blackbirds, and a family of geese with one gosling (one of the adults looked sick - never seen a goose lay like that). We thought about going back along same way we came but decided to do full loop. We saw nothing in terms of wildlife or birds on the other side of the loop, which was disappointing.

The AllTails app suggested it was 6.5 mile hike, but my smartphone measured it as about 7 miles. We thought we'd give it 3.5 stars, but that isn't an option. On the way home, we stopped at a different (favorite) park and saw more birds in a short time than we'd seen for the entirety of the full afternoon hike at Carlos Avery park. So, then 3 stars felt appropriate. (Note: photos of birds were taken with smartphone through...

Awesome magical place to visit and hunt for waterfowl. You can walk the dirt roads and hike around, bird watch.

Be careful because sections of the management area is blocked off for public Access it will be posted with science saying "sanctuary".

As for hunting waterfowl? Things seem to be getting better now that hunters have learned to respect the area much better, my opinion.

It seems to be that some of the people who complain the most, are the ones violating the rules the most, not the other way around.. my opinion.

Keep in mind the Carlos Avery wildlife Management area belongs to us all who use it and must be maintained. Open to the public used by the public and should be maintained by the DNR only. No jus playing but.....

It is our job as human beings to take care of this area because we use this area just as much as the wildlife that use the area, because this place belongs to everyone...