If you've lived in Mendota Heights for more than a season, you already have a version of the Big Rivers Regional Trail in your head. Park at the trailhead off Mendota Heights Road, pedal south toward Eagan or north toward the Mississippi, cross the bridge into Lilydale, and keep going until you hit Harriet Island or you run out of daylight. It's the trail everyone describes the same way: one long ribbon along the bluffs, connecting the whole east metro.
That version isn't accurate right now, and knowing why changes how you should spend a Saturday morning this fall.
The Trail Is in Two Pieces
Dakota County Parks, which manages the trail, currently lists two separate closures on opposite ends of the route. At the south end in Eagan, the Lone Oak Trailhead, its parking lot, and a short stretch of nearby trail are closed for bridge construction, with the work area fully closed to the public. At the north end, the connection across the I-35E bridge from Lilydale into St. Paul is shut down for a separate MnDOT project.
Neither closure touches the middle of the trail, which is the good news. The Big Rivers Trailhead at 1498 Mendota Heights Road still gets you onto a fully open stretch with the overlooks of the Minnesota and Mississippi River confluence, views toward Fort Snelling and Pike Island, and the wooded bluff sections that make this trail worth the trip in the first place. What's gone, for now, is the ability to treat it as a single unbroken line from Eagan to downtown St. Paul. The classic through-ride is currently a there-and-back with a hard stop at either end.
That's not a downgrade. It's a reason to stop planning your fall walks around a route that used to work and start planning them around the loops that actually do.
What Still Works: The Overlook Walk
If your instinct is still to park at the Mendota Heights trailhead, do it, but treat it as an out-and-back rather than a crossing. Head north toward the bluff overlooks, take in the view of the two rivers meeting, and turn around before you reach the closed bridge connection. Head south instead and you'll get the shaded, gradually climbing stretch that runs parallel to Highway 13, with plenty of room before you'd hit the Lone Oak closure in Eagan. Either direction gives you the scenery the trail is known for without running into a fence.
The Better Bet for a Full Loop: Dodge Nature Center
For a walk that doesn't dead-end anywhere, Dodge Nature Center's Mendota Heights acreage is the stronger fall choice. The trails here are open to the public during daylight hours seven days a week at no charge, and September through November is when the property is at its best. Visitors consistently point to fall as the season when the apples start dropping and deer activity picks up around the orchard and prairie sections. It's the kind of detail that doesn't show up on a map but changes what you'll actually see on a Tuesday evening walk.
Closer to Home: Rogers Lake and Mendakota
Not every fall outing needs a destination. Rogers Lake Park, a 9.2-acre city park off Wagon Wheel Trail, has a walking path that loops past the fishing pier, the skate park, and a sand volleyball court, which makes it an easy pick if you're walking a dog or wrangling kids who want to stop every few minutes. Mendakota Park offers a flatter, shadier loop that circles the ball fields and is popular with stroller traffic and casual runners rather than serious mileage. Neither will test your legs, but both are the kind of five-minute-from-home option that gets used far more often than the scenic trail everyone talks about.
A Quieter Stop: Oheyawahe
Mendota Heights maintains 17 public parks and open spaces across the city, and one of them, Oheyawahe (also known as Pilot Knob), is unlike anything else on this list. It's a sacred site to Dakota people and sits on the National Register of Historic Places, with walking paths that climb to views over the river valley rather than a paved trail meant for mileage. It's not a place to knock out a workout. It's a place to walk slowly, read the interpretive signage, and understand a piece of the area's history that predates every subdivision around it.
Then Comes the Reward
A fall morning built around any of these walks tends to end the same way for a lot of people in this city: somewhere warm, with breakfast. The Copperfield on Maple Street has become the local answer to that. Minnesota's Best named it a 2026 Gold winner for Best Breakfast, Best Pancakes, and Best Brunch, on top of Gold wins in the same categories the year before. If you haven't been in a while, it's still doing the same thing it's known for, and it's still doing it well enough that the honors keep landing in the same spots.
Evenings have a new option this fall, too. Happy Joe's Pizza & Ice Cream opened at 750 Main St. on August 31, becoming the third Minnesota location for the Iowa-founded chain, joining outposts in Crookston and New Ulm. The Mendota Heights location pairs its taco pizza and party-room setup with Bridgeman's Ice Cream, a Minnesota-made brand out of Woodbury, and it comes with underground parking built for winter visits and a patio for the months when the weather still allows it. For a city that doesn't get a lot of new sit-down openings, it's worth knowing it's there before the first snow makes the underground parking the whole point.
If you'd rather close out the day at a slower pace, the Par 3 Community Golf Course on Dodd Road is a nine-hole, par-27 layout the city built for exactly this kind of low-stakes evening round, and tee times are easy to get by calling ahead.
The Actual Takeaway
None of this is about waiting for a bridge to reopen. The trail will get fixed on its own schedule, and Dakota County will post updates when it does. Until then, the fall version of Mendota Heights isn't one long ride from Eagan to St. Paul. It's a handful of short loops within ten minutes of each other, each one good for something different, whether that's the view, the dog walk, the quiet history lesson, or the pancakes at the end. Knowing which one to pick on a given Saturday is, in its own small way, what actually living here looks like.
If you're weighing a move within the city or just want to talk through what a particular block or park proximity is really like day to day, Team Edelstein has been walking these streets for a long time. Work With Us when you're ready to talk specifics.
