Three Minnesota state parks offer guided tours, giving participants opportunities to learn about fascinating features of the parks and the history behind them.
- Blue Mounds State Park offers tours of the 530-acre bison range and the prairie landscape that supports the herd.
- Forestville/Mystery Cave State Parks has four types of cave tours to explore parts of Minnesota’s longest cave.
- Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park offers surface tours to learn about the mining industry and its impact on the state and beyond. Later in the summer, underground mine tours will resume.
Blue Mounds State Park
The 90-minute prairie tour on the 12-seat tour bus might include views of the bison herd at the park. Tours will be conducted May 22 to Oct. 19, 2025. Children must be at least four years old, and participants are encouraged to dress for windy prairie weather. The tour bus can accommodate one passenger in a wheelchair.
The 67-member herd is expected to grow this spring as cinnamon-colored calves are born, but park staff never guarantees a sighting. Binoculars are provided to spot bison in the distance. Even without a bison sighting, there’s plenty of flora and wildlife for visitors to feast their eyes on, like native grasses, wildflowers, cacti, songbirds, hawks, ground squirrels, snakes, pollinators, and a few white-tailed deer.
Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park
Mystery Cave covers over 13 miles of underground passages that were created as moving water dissolved the rock. Each tour takes participants underground through different parts of the cave, and will showcase features like stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, fossils, and beautiful underground pools as a tour guide explains how the cave and these features were formed.
One-hour scenic tours are offered multiple times daily from mid-May to mid-October, and are fully accessible. Reservations are recommended, but walk-ins will be accommodated based on availability. The 12:20 p.m. and 3:20 p.m. tours on weekends are for walk-ins only.
The lantern, geology and wild caving tours are offered weekends only, and reservations are required. Lantern and geology tours are available from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Wild caving tours take place on Saturdays from May 31 to Aug. 23.
Like the prairie tour, dress for the environment. The cave temperature is a steady 48 degrees year-round.
Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park
Flooding in June 2024 kept tourists out of the underground mine for much of last season, and repairs are ongoing. The date for resuming underground mine tours isn’t set yet; check the visitor alerts on the park website for updates about the return of underground tours.
Meanwhile, visitors can still get a good idea of mine operations from the hour and 15-minute surface tours, which start Memorial Day weekend. Participants will see buildings like the engineer house, crusher, drill shop and dry house visitor center. An interpretive naturalist will provide stories of the miners and their families, immigration throughout the area, and the critical importance of mining to Minnesota and to the United States.
Surface tours at Soudan Underground Mine do not require reservations.
Tours at Blue Mounds and Forestville/Mystery Cave state parks can be reserved starting April 1. Schedules, tour details and reservation information can be found on the state park tours website. Tour participants will also need a state park vehicle permit, which can be purchased at the same time the tour reservation is made, or at the ranger station upon arrival at the park.