Hartley Nature Center — Attraction in Duluth

Hartley Nature Center used to be one of my absolutely favorite places in Duluth to go hiking. In the years past, you could roam all the many miles of trails, safe from harm and harassment, enjoyably, quietly in glorious sounds of nature. Not anymore! At some point, the western portion of the trails was opened up to mountain bikers. Just today, I was horrified to learn that ALL the trails (no matter how narrow, and most of them are) are designated "shared use", which effectively means that hikers are excluded. Even though the staff at the center told me that blikers are supposed to yield to hikers, my experience here and in other places is quite different. Bikers loudly and aggressively announce their presence and expect you to jump off the trail to let them pass or else, regardless of whether you can do it safely. I have no idea how this happened, but it seems to be just another example of a loud and nasty minority having its way at the expense fo everyone else. And so, instead of doing what a lot of other places have done (e.g., Minneapolis suburbs and Thunderbay area) - building mountain bike designated trails, and leaving hiking trails alone, so that everyone can enjoy the place safely, Duluth chose to roll over and de facto confiscate hiking trails from pedestrians in favor of mountain bikers. In the years past, the place would be full of families with kids of various ages enjoyihng themselves by the pond and on the trails, free of harassment and harm. Today, on this warm Saturday in July, the only(!) family I came across was hiking the portion of Superior Hiking trail that just happens to pass through and mostly on the periphery of the place. This trail together with some rather poorly maintained but mercifully mountain-bike-free skiing trails around SHT is now the ONLY option for a safe enjoyable birdsong-filled hike. So, Hartley should be honestly renamed the mountain bike shop (yes, you can even rent them there now, and it definitely stopped being a nature center open to all constituents), and the place should "proudly" announe that hikers and families with kids are no longer welcomed there. Shame on...

Beautiful park with trails. Staff at the nature center could be a little more nicer though. I made a joke regarding the "counselor in training" name tag badges that where sitting out in the open by the map near the bathrooms and one of your staff assumed I was going to take it by the tone in her voice when I was rudely asked to put it back. My intention was to put it back in the first place as I don't steal. But if you don't want people picking up and looking at certain things then have stuff like that behind the desk not right in the open by the public map area. That makes no sense. I didn't appreciate getting scolded by your staff member for picking up a name tag that I was going to put back into the basket right after the joke was made. I even tried nicely explaining myself and the staff member walked away before giving me the...

This park is amazing for people in Duluth and visitors alike. It's surreal how once you enter the park you can't even tell that you're in the middle of the city. There's a large pond that you can canoe or kayak in. Lots of hiking trails including the superior hiking trail that come through. There's something here for everyone and it's all kept in great shape. A few years back a bunch of the trees were blown over so it looks a little different and not quite as great as it used to look, but a lot of work has gone into making it as good as they can make it given the...