Columbus offers different ways to enjoy the outdoors, from the paved loop in Columbus City Park to trails through a Wildlife Management Area and longer routes. Lakes, wildlife-watching opportunities, and traces of Hopewell culture add to the picture. When planning, it’s worth noting the differences between the parks and natural areas—especially trail lengths, landscapes, and recreational opportunities.

Parks and Trails in Columbus

Columbus City Park covers 22 acres. Its paved loop is ¾ mile long and runs throughout the park. The park also has four ball fields with backstops, player benches, and bleachers. This puts a walking loop and several sports facilities within the same park. A renovated facility has two courts, one of which is marked for two pickleball courts.

At 1.9 acres, Hidden Park is much smaller and designated as a neighborhood park. Its amenities include a four-seat swing set, a bike rack, a half basketball court, a picnic table, and a bench. Compared with Columbus City Park, it is a different scale: here, individual amenities define the park, while the larger park also has a loop trail and several ball fields.

Lamprey Pass: Lakes and Longer Trails

Lamprey Pass covers about 1,300 acres and includes two shallow lakes: Mud Lake and Howard Lake. Many people visit the area for bird-watching, hiking, walking dogs, or hunting. A 1.5-mile loop leads from the Lamprey Pass parking lot through the Wildlife Management Area. It connects to longer trails heading northwest.

Trail lengths offer a concrete point of comparison: the 1.5-mile loop is twice as long as the ¾-mile loop in Columbus City Park. The trails also pass through different settings—one runs throughout the park, while the other goes through the Wildlife Management Area and continues to longer trails. Lamprey Pass is also home to Hopewell culture burial mounds said to be more than 2,000 years old.

Wildlife Management Areas and Water

The Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area lies partly in Columbus. Recreation opportunities there include hunting, fishing, hiking, bird-watching, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing. From Columbus, the easiest access is through two main entry points: Camp Three Road and Broadway Avenue.

Many people canoe or kayak on the Sunrise River in the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area to watch wildlife or fish. This brings activities on the water into focus alongside trails on land. When planning your time outdoors, you can distinguish these offerings from park loops and longer hiking trails without combining them into a single outing.

Regional Park and Nature Activities

The Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Regional Park Reserve lies partly within Columbus. The Regional Park Reserve offers opportunities for biking, canoeing, and hiking, as well as a boat launch. These recreational opportunities are associated with the reserve, which is only partly in Columbus. This distinction matters when identifying the location, as does the difference between the shorter park trails and the longer trails in the Wildlife Management Area.

Columbus offers several themes to shape your stay: a paved loop in the city park, facilities for ball sports and pickleball, lakes and trails at Lamprey Pass, and nature and water activities in the Wildlife Management Areas. The Hopewell burial mounds add a cultural note. You can weigh these options against the trail lengths and amenities to decide which ones will shape your stay.

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Go to the main travel overview: Anoka.