Sakatah Lake State Park

On the boundary between the prairie and the "Big Woods", this 835-acre park offers a diversity of landscapes. Situated on the shore of Upper and Lower Sakatah lakes, this wooded park offers camping, biking, hiking, fishing and canoeing. Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail runs through the park, providing access to 39 mi of biking and snowmobiling trails with approx 3 mi of the trail within park boundaries. The park has 5 miles of trail for hiking.

The park was established in 1963 by an act of the Minnesota Legislature. The parklands include 3.5 miles of shoreline along Sakatah Lake. The rolling topography of the park features rich, mixed hardwood forest and dry upland prairie. The Cannon River area formed the boundary between the “Big Woods” of the Minnesota and Mississippi River Valleys, and the southern oak barrens south of the park. Sakatah Lake, a natural widening of the Cannon River, provides visitors with opportunities for many forms of outdoor recreation and nature study including hiking, biking, birding, fishing, and other activities.

Located just a few miles east of Minnesota's Prairie Region, frequent fires shaped this old growth forest. As a result, ancient oaks are the most common trees, and prairie plants grow along the area's roadsides and railroad lines.