Big lake is located just north of Minneapolis and is a great spot to cool off. Many of the over 10,000 lakes in Minnesota don’t have large public sand beaches. Big lake offers traditional MN boating but also has an incredible beach. It’s just $5 per vehicle to park for the day.

Another big lake benefit is the kids playground. It overlooks the lake and they even have surfing for Minnesotans (notice the surfing isn’t in the water).

We enjoy filling up our tubes and floating around. When you visit as many shores as we do you become masters of sand castles and we had kids come over to learn how to make a moat in the lake.

Those nice humid Minnesota summer days are always best spent at Big Lake. 

There’s a paid nice parking lot area with bathrooms to use while you visit.