Elm Creek Park Reserve — Attraction in Maple Grove

We went on Memorial Day weekend 2023. I hope the poor experience was due to that factor. Will try again to see if it is better on a regular weekend and update.

Parking: Parking was terrible due to the amount of people there. We had to park in a grass lot up the road from the parking lot, the walk wasn't too bad but not a fan of parking my car on a grass lot that isn't even level or marked for parking spaces. It was a nightmare getting out of there because of all the cars that came in after us and parked however they wanted.

Paying: The line to pay was ridiculously long and SLOW!!! They had 2 windows open. Both were taking people wanting daily passes and season passes. The process for purchasing season passes is WAY too long to be completed at the window while others wait to purchase daily passes. A separate line for daily passes and season passes would have made it much faster for everyone. Or have a kiosk that sells the daily wristbands, such a simple, cost effective solution! We waited in the line while it was over 90° for 45 minutes to buy daily passes.

Food/Drinks: The window where we paid for our passes had a menu hanging on the glass showing availabile snacks and drinks with prices. I attempted to order drinks with our passes and was told no, we had to go to another window, with another long, slow line! Absolutely ridiculous! Don't post stuff at that window if you don't even sell it there. With this being our first time there, we did not know outside food/drinks are allowed. That is definitely a huge plus for this place because it takes way to long to get through their lines. Will definitely bring a cooler with food/drinks next time.

Swim Pond: The swim pond itself was okay at best. The water is pretty clear. It did not smell at all like chlorine. I don't know if that is because they use much less than a regular pool does, or because there were so many people there that the chlorine level was inadequate.

We were on the side you enter, just to the right of the outdoor showers, close to the edge of the water.

The swim area is rather shallow, not even waist deep for an adult in that entire area. Which is good for little kids to run around in, but it is really shallow all the way in the middle too, so you couldn't swim or get under the water to cool off without laying on the sand and getting it all over you.

There were too many kids with floating toys for the amount of people/space there. Many kids throwing water toys, balls, and footballs. With that many people, it was very annoying.

Unsupervised little kids running around, no parents anywhere near them, running across all the towels covering them in sand.

Lifeguards: Barely attempt to enforce rules. Their megaphones are terrible, you can't understand a word they are saying to anyone through them, so no one pays any attention. I never saw a lifeguard get up to address a child who completely ignored them when they tried to tell them something.

Filters in the pond: There are filters in the swim pond that no one is supposed to climb on. They are not marked or blocked off. So kids are constantly climbing on them and the lifeguards just yell to the kids over their megaphone, but no one can understand a word they are saying so it is a joke.

Hoping this weekend when we go it will be fun and...

Peaceful place to be. Easy billing options no matter day or night! Update. I've been camping for 4 nights here now. Last night I returned back to the camp tired from working around 11 pm. As I was driving to my campsite I noticed a horse path with a gait in front of it that I hadn't noticed before. I approached slowly due to the decline with my headlights on just to take a quick peak and continue to my paid campsite to sleep. As I came to a stop to shift into reverse 20-30 feet from the gate with no signage stating anything in reference to no parking or driving there, outside the gate, my 1997 brown Dodge Ram engine died. I was low enough on fuel that my fuel intake was sucking air. Simply fed up with constant curve balls thrown at my face, tired, no fuel container to add enough to start my truck for long enough to back up up hill. Injured on duty, disabled with 3 broken ribs from a car falling on me a week ago on my birthday helping a stranded stranger downtown, after the holiday weekend I quietly retreated to my tent to sleep. Woke around 10am to lawnmowers. I thought thank god my rescuers are here. I exited my tent and flagged down one of the workers to ask if they had a fuel container for their 2 riding lawn mowers that I could rent or borrow, with plenty cash in my hand to cover any cost, the worker said "no we don't have one of those in our trucks" and drove off. On a mission for fuel, in the middle of nowhere camping, I had a friend retrieve me to find somewhere to purchase a fuel container with fuel in it of course to move my truck from where it was parked. When we returned successfully and moved the truck away under it's own power now mind you, my friend noticed this citation on my truck. Betrayed by the ones I almost died for, shunned from where I was living in Brooklyn Park for not answering a phone call after not being paid for work completed that I was forced to do with broken ribs, promise to pay, disabled, unemployed, no family, I just want to give up on everything and everyone SMH I'm at a loss. My checkout is today at noon. I hope I can convince the Elm Creek Park Police Bullies to drop the $35 charge so I don't have any legal problems over this too. If so, I will happily update this back to the 5 stars I had originally rated this camp ground. Please do...

One of the larger trail systems in the metro, and many trails were very well groomed despite the recent snowfall. However, I'm very disappointed with their mapping. Using their winter map online, I navigated to a trail that was designated as hiking and snowshoeing only. However, I found that it was groomed for skate skiing, and in use by skiiers. I feel it's rude to trample a groomed trail, but I felt I had the right of way based on the map, so I continued. I encountered numerous junctions that were not on the map I had printed from their website, and there was often no signpost at these junctions. Most of the time, I had to rely on following the trail that looked most similar to the one I was on. At one point, I found myself outside the park, on an out and back trail. Luckily I caught my mistake before I had gone too far. If you want a well-marked trail that you can be confident is for your intended use, go to Afton. If you don't mind adding an extra jaunt or two onto a 5.5 mile (there are only two trails designated for hiking, one about to miles and one about 5.5 miles) loop due to taking the wrong trail occasionally, this park is suitable. The skiing looked great- the trails I crossed that were marked for classic and/or skate skiing were very well groomed, and I imagine the rolling hills make for great intermediate skiing. If you do the longer hiking loop, I would recommend going counterclockwise so you get the bit of the trail that runs by the road out of the way before getting into more scenic territory. Going that direction, keep left at the first unmarked intersection (you'll pass a snow machine trail first- stay on the skiing/hiking trail) to avoid getting off the loop. Otherwise, follow the skate ski tracks- I don't know what to tell you to do in winter or in the absence...