Most cities have a scenic drive. Minneapolis has a 51-mile necklace: the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, a continuous loop of parkways, lakes and river bluffs designated a National Scenic Byway — the only one entirely within a major city.
Drive, bike or run its seven districts and you tour the whole Minneapolis story: the Chain of Lakes’ beaches, Minnehaha Parkway’s creekside canopy to the falls, the Mississippi River gorge’s limestone bluffs, the downtown riverfront’s mills, and the Victory Memorial and Theodore Wirth parkways through the north side’s green heart.
Visionary park planners designed it in the 1880s so that every neighborhood would touch beauty — and it still works exactly as intended. Take a Sunday, pack a picnic, and let the Grand Rounds introduce you to Minneapolis the way it introduces itself to itself.
