Minnehaha Falls — Local services in Minneapolis

We visited Minnehaha Falls over Thanksgiving Break. When you first arrive, you enter your license plate number in a parking meter, to pay for parking. Then, you are able to go wherever you like!

There is a shop/Cafe, but it was closed (due to COVID19, I presume). We had a group of 4 adults and 2 children under 5 years old. We spent about 2 hours here, in about 37 degree weather. It was a beautiful day, sun shining down, no wind, no precipitation. It wasn't cold enough for the falls to freeze, but still oh so lovely.

We walked right up to a side view of the falls, then walked left (towards the run off/stream). All of the stairwells had a chain with a sign saying, "stairs closed," but EVERYONE was climbing over and down/up the stairs. There were no hazards on the stairwells, nor any flooding in the area.

We walked down a long set of stairs (not stroller or wheelchair friendly), and sat around a little part of the creek run off for awhile. We walked across a bridge and toward the bottom of the falls, then back up a set of stairs near the bottom of the falls, over another bridge, and back to the parking lot.

Overall great scenery and...

Explore Minnehaha Falls Bandstand, a beautiful biking path, a decorative fountain, and a disc golf course. Enjoy the convenience of drinking fountains, a lovely garden, and a pay parking lot. There's also parking in front of the meteors, or a paying parking lot you can park at. Another thing you can do while here in this beautiful area, is to relax at the picnic area, let the kids play at the playground/tot lot, and admire the public art. Take a break at the restroom facility, challenge friends at the volleyball court, or cool off at the wading pool. Other than those things another option to do would be to stroll along the walking path, visit a couple of different gardens, and let your furry friend run free at the dog park. Dine at a restaurant with a stunning view of the falls, explore historical sites, and use multiple maps to navigate the area with ease. I absolutely love this park! The scenery is outstanding. I personally think it's worth the drive and worth the view. Just make sure to get here earlyish in the day or around 2pm. Otherwise it will be extremely crowded and less fun, relaxing,...

We had other reasons to be in MLPS but could not pass up Minnehaha Falls, we have heard of its beaty and looked it up as we sat to eat our jucy lucy’s. We found it easy with Maps and found our Parking was close to the area. The charge is $2/hour paid with a credit card or using the parking app. We were able to observe the falls from the front and from directly on top, it was all icy as we went in the middle of winter, it was so awesome!!!. Then we walked several stories down on rock stairs. Thank goodness they have handrails because some of the steps are missing sections. All was good, though. We also followed an icy trail from the top of the falls that led away and went past a statue of the first settler in Minneapolis in front of his house. The house wasn't open for tours, but it was cool to see from the outside. Although The weather was so cold, it was also so beautiful and the walk was enjoyable, crunching along the frozen snow seeing our footprints and still able to hear the water from behind a frozen wall, the walk was tiring. We made our war back to our car and ventured off into other...