Snail Lake Regional Park

Duel parking lots and a warm sandy bottom lake makes this Ramsey County spot a great destination to wile some time. There is a large boat launch and miles of walking paths. You will have to follow the path from the boat launch cross the road and continue in a heavily wooded forest with ponds and wet lands. If you enjoy viewing wildlife (the animal kind) this is the place. c’mon you need a walk from all those fast food stops.
A little history. Snail Lake Park used to be much smaller and was a hidden gem in Ramsey County. When the kids were little we discovered it by accident. The beach had shade trees and the parking lot was sand and grass and very small. It was little used and quiet but then suddenly a TV station did a feature on the greatness of the little park, followed by a magazine and newspaper article and suddenly citizens were complaining that the quaint park is not up to modern standards. Ramsey County found some funds, shut her down for a season and completely overhauled the park tearing down hundreds of trees. Then it became like the rest of the parks with crew cut grass and enough paved parking to serve a Target. There are shelters, picnic areas, boat launch, and still one of the best small beaches around. There no longer are trees to shade the beach area.

One of my favorite nature spots in the East Metro. Long series of paved and unpaved hiking trails. The best is the two-​mile paved loop around a wetland, which my wife and I (and our two dogs) visit at least once a month. This portion is quiet; in the spring one hears the chirping of mating frogs; at other times the flight of geese or the rat-​a-​tat-​tat of a woodpecker; in the winter, almost no sound at all. Most of the year it is important to watch out for bicyclists; while most are courteous, a few come whizzing along. A lucky few people have homes overlooking the nature preserve — I often wish that I was one of them. There is a longer series of trails across County Road F, which I also enjoy, but one is exposed to the traffic noise from I-​694.
In any case, lots of miles of walking. Highly recommended.

I rented the main pavilion for my son’s high school open house. The covered picnic area is huge and offered shade for our guests. The building has a nice kitchen with electricity, sink, refrigerator and freezer. They have clean bathrooms too!
This was a perfect venue for our party for all the reasons above-​but also for the scenery. The pavilion sits atop a hill that looks over Snail Lake. It is surrounded by the regional park and beautiful homes. The parking lot has ample parking. Also, there is a great playground for small kids, volleyball nets, large lawn spaces to play other games, and of course the beach.
It cost us $ 350 (or somewhere thereabouts) for the entire day. You can request a free beer and wine license (no hard liquor). It was a great party.

This is an ok little lake/​swim/​beach area. The water is fairly clean for being a lake that is not considered up north.
They must rake the beach so that all the creepy floaty thingys stay at bay. The fish however really like to bite at this one which kind of creeps me out. I mush prefer a good chlorinated swimming pool, but those aren’t always available.
There are lifeguards at this location. The swimming area is quite small and quite shallow, but I think its made more for the kiddies not for doing any serious laps or anything. Basically its a nice little area to go cool off in.
The park itself is nice. There are picnic tables up the hill. It’s clean and well maintained.
Flat surface parking, but it does fill up pretty quickly making it difficult to find a spot on a really warm day.