Member Highlight: Northland Arboretum

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A Ribbon of Ice Through the Forest: How Northland Arboretum Built a Forest Skating Trail from Scratch

On a cold winter day in Brainerd, Minnesota, visitors to the Northland Arboretum are discovering something unexpected: a winding ribbon of ice carved directly into the forest. Instead of skating in circles on a rink, families, couples, and kids glide along a looping trail that follows the natural contours of the land, weaving through the forest in a quiet, immersive winter setting.

The Arboretum’s forest ice skating trail started with a simple idea. Turning that idea into reality took an enormous amount of work. This is not a poured slab or a flat surface. The trail climbs hills, dips into low areas, and crosses side slopes. Every inch of it had to be built, shaped, and maintained by hand and machine.

Over the course of the season, the project has required hundreds of staff and volunteer hours. To keep the trail open and safe, it must be flooded, resurfaced, and groomed with the Zamboni every single day that conditions allow. That means hauling water, watching weather windows closely, and working quickly when temperatures cooperate. In the early stages, the weight of fully loaded water tanks was so extreme that it broke trailers. Simply moving enough water through the woods became one of the first major challenges.

Then came the ice itself. Getting water to freeze properly on a rolling, uneven trail is far more complicated than flooding a flat rink. Too thin, and it would not build. Too wet, and it would run off the crests of hills and pool in the troughs. Figuring out how to make this work took weeks of experimentation. The team had to learn how to get ice to stick to side hills, hold on slopes, and build evenly across uneven terrain.

Even the equipment had to be invented as we went. We experimented with dozens of different drag systems behind the water tankers and the Zamboni, trying to get the water to track where we wanted it instead of wandering, washing out edges, or cutting ruts. Every small improvement came from trial, error, and more trial.

The payoff has been remarkable. The trail has drawn thousands of visitors and become a true destination experience. Videos of the trail have reached more than one million views on social media, and more importantly, local families have embraced it as a new winter tradition. Many visitors tell us they had not skated in years, but felt comfortable trying again because of the natural, non-intimidating setting.

Looking ahead, the forest ice skating trail is now a permanent and growing part of the Arboretum’s four-season vision. Future plans include investing in a dedicated water truck to make daily flooding more efficient, along with expanded lighting to extend usable hours and improve safety and accessibility. With better systems for water delivery, trail edging, and surface management, each winter becomes more reliable and sustainable. What started as an ambitious experiment has become proof that with enough persistence, creativity, and hard work, even the most challenging landscape can be transformed into something joyful.

ARTICLES & WRITTEN COVERAGE

• An ice skating loop through the woods opens at Northland Arboretum – Bring Me The News
• A Winter Skate Through the Woods at Northland Arboretum – Camp Nisswa
• Forest skating trail a big hit at the Arb – Brainerd Dispatch
• Let’s Skate Through the Woods in Northern Minnesota – 103.7 The Loon
• Arboretum in Baxter debuts new forest skating trail – MPR News
• Central Minnesota’s first forest ice skating trail opens – KFGO / Learfield

VIDEO & SOCIAL MEDIA COVERAGE

• New forest skating trail is now open in Baxter, Minnesota – MPR News (Facebook)
• New forest skating trail is now open in Baxter, Minnesota – MPR News (YouTube Short)
• Northland Arboretum Forest Ice Skating Trail – The Midwest Guide (Instagram)
• There’s a new forest ice skating trail in northern Minnesota – The Minnesota Star Tribune (Instagram)