West Central Minnesota boasts a lot of natural beauty, with a number of state parks with miles of paved and natural hiking trails through out as well as designated scientific and natural areas. Here are some worth visiting: Blue Devil Valley In between Minnesota Highway 23 and U.S.
Highway 212, in Yellow Medicine County, is 27 acres of natural Minnesota River Prairie where the largest populations of Minnesota's rarest lizard species can be found. The namesake of the park comes from the five-lined skink, known for its bright blue tail in juvenile stages and five bright shiny stripes that run along its back. The granite outcrops are a feature of the the lizards love as the natural habitat helps allow them to regulate their body temperatures.
To find the park go .2 miles south from Granite Falls on Minnesota Highway 23 and then west on County Highway 39 (540th Street) for about .15 miles and park in the pull-off near the wood-routed sign.
Glacial Ridge State Trail Connecting Kandiyohi and Stearns Counties is the Glacial Lakes State Trail. Paved for 22 miles between the cities of Willmar and Hawick and connected with many different parks in the area. An additional seven and a half miles of paved trail between Roscoe and Cold Spring is popular among tourists due to the fact the trail runs past a number of area lakes south of Richmond.
Though most of the land has since been cultivated, remnants of what the environment could have looked like all those years ago can be seen along the.