La Salle Lake State Recreation Area Snapshot Tour

Welcome to the La Salle Lake State Recreation Area virtual tour! La Salle Lake is one of the most pristine and deepest lakes in Minnesota. We hope it prompts you to visit the park in person sometime soon.

Lake View from Boat Launch

At 221 acres in size and 213 feet in depth, La Salle Lake is one of the most pristine and deepest lakes in Minnesota. The lake offers 18,600 feet of shoreline that provide wonderful wildlife viewing opportunities. Due to the side slopes of the La Salle Creek glacial tunnel valley and the steepness of the bottom of La Salle Lake, the lake’s littoral zone is relatively narrow and represents a very small portion of the lake’s surface area. La Salle Lake supports numerous fish, including: walleye, northern pike, largemouth bass, black crappie, and bluegill sunfish populations.

Black Bear Cabin Exterior

You and your family or friends will experience comfort away from home in this two-story, three bedroom cabin with four queen-sized beds and a pull-out futon couch.  Enjoy a nearby boat access and scenic views of La Salle Lake during your stay at this spacious cabin.

Black Bear Cabin Interior

This spacious, three bedroom cabin has a full bathroom and kitchen. The cabin is available year-round and offers guests a variety of conveniences, including: cozy furniture, utensils, cable TV, internet access, an emergency phone, wooden deck, and an outdoor picnic table and benches. Visitors will need to bring their own linens and towels, but blankets and pillows are provided.

Black Bear Cabin Sunroom

The spacious sunroom and deck at the Black Bear Cabin offer spectacular views of the lake and surrounding woodland. Spend the evening outdoors at a picnic table on the deck, or enjoy a game of cards in the sunroom with family and friends.

Lone Wolf Cabin Exterior

This two bedroom cabin offers a full bathroom and kitchen and is available year-round. As you enjoy an afternoon on the cabin’s wooden deck, look for remnants of the July 2012 blow down storm evident throughout the property. You may also see signs of recent logging activity around the cabin.

Lone Wolf Cabin Interior

The Lone Wolf Cabin offers many conveniences, including: cozy furniture, cable TV, internet access, an emergency phone, utensils, gas grill, fire ring, wooden deck, and an outdoor picnic table. Visitors will need to bring their own linens and towels during their stay, but blankets and pillows are thoughtfully provided within the cabin. The cabin is located just a short walk from the campground.

Campground

Current camping facilities at La Salle Lake State Recreation Area (SRA) include a campground with 39 sites that offer electric, water and sewer hook-ups, and a sanitation and laundry building. Additional camping opportunities may be added in the future.

Campsites

Spacious campsites await campers at La Salle Lake SRA. With full hook-ups at each site and lengthy parking spurs, the campground can accommodate any size camping unit.

Hiking Trails

A dirt path winds beneath tall trees not far from the campground. As of 2013, some limited hiking trails exist within La Salle Lake SRA. Planning is underway to extend and improve this existing trail system in the future.

La Salle Creek

In the early 1900s, an early Native American Elk Lake Culture prehistoric site was discovered adjacent to La Salle Creek (near the outlet of La Salle Lake). The site was found during planning for an upgrade of the county highway and was partially excavated in 1995 before the road was rebuilt. The northern headwaters of the Mississippi River is an extremely important area for these early archaeological sites, and additional cultural resource areas may be discovered on the property.

La Salle Lake

La Salle Lake’s west-facing slopes host red pine and jack pine forests and woodlands.
East-facing slopes are covered with hardwood forests that include occasional large white pines, balsam fir, and white spruce. To the north (close to where La Salle Creek empties into the Mississippi River) a small, but high quality, old-growth northern white cedar forest exists where springs emerge from terraced slopes.

La Salle Shoreline

The La Salle Lake SRA will be managed to provide a wide range of recreational opportunities for visitors, including: hunting and trapping; fishing; hiking and snowshoeing; wildlife viewing; canoeing, kayaking and boating; swimming; campsites and year-round cabins; nearby snowmobiling and ATV trails; and scenic drive and biking opportunities along the Great River Road and Mississippi River Trail. The management plan for La Salle Lake SRA, currently under development, will identify the recreation uses that will be available and what additional facilities will be developed to support them.