SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Winter is over at two popular Minnesota lakes at, or near, the border with South Dakota.
Terri Dinesen, the park ranger at Laq qui Parle State Park near Milan and Big Stone State Park at Ortonville, said the ice is gone and docks are going in.
“The docks are going in at Big Stone Lake,” Dinesen said on May 9.
The docks at Twin Bridges on Laq qui Parle are underwater, “but you can able to get a boat in,” Dinesen said.
The water is high around Lac qui Parle which includes the lake, river and dock system about 30 miles east of the South Dakota border.
A fishing pier on Lac qui Parle that replaced the pier damaged in 2019 is waiting for parts but it will be installed soon, she said.
Although there was heavy snow and ice cover this winter, Dinesen said the shorelines of the lakes don’t appear to have had any ice damage. However, several houses along Big Stone in Ortonville did have water, she said.
“A lot of the lower (Lac qui Parle) has riprap,” Dinesen said.
When the ice left Lac qui Parle it did close Minnesota Highway 40 by the Milan bridge for a time, Dinesen said.
