Between the Marathon and the Drumstick Dash: Getting Around Lake Harriet and Minnehaha Creek This Fall

The Twin Cities Marathon went around Lake Harriet on Oct. 4. Repaving of the parkway was scheduled to begin the next morning. A few blocks south, the Minnehaha Creek trail at Nicollet Avenue has been on a detour since early September, and the bridge over it has been closed since March. These are two separate projects with two separate agencies running them, but they finish within about two weeks of each other. The paving is scheduled to wrap up in mid-November, the creek trail is expected back on Wednesday, Nov. 25, and on Thanksgiving morning the Drumstick Dash lines up beside the Bandshell.

So for about seven weeks, a Southwest Minneapolis walk around the lake and down the creek works more like a set of pieces than a loop. Below is how the pieces fit together right now, and which ones are still worth the trip.

The lake: half the loop is paving, the north trail stays open

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and the City of Minneapolis are resurfacing Lake Harriet Parkway from W 42nd Street to Roseway Road. They're also upgrading pedestrian ramps and rebuilding the intersection at William Berry Parkway. The work runs from Oct. 5 through mid-November. According to the park board's road closures page, the bike and pedestrian trail along the north side of the lake stays open, and so does the Bandshell south parking lot entrance at W 42nd Street.

Friends of Roberts Bird Sanctuary gives a firmer date for the stretch that matters most to sanctuary visitors. It lists the parkway from Roseway Road to the Bandshell as closed for construction from Oct. 5 through Nov. 13. The park board just says "mid November," so that segment should reopen sometime after Nov. 13, depending on the weather.

This fall's paving is one phase of a longer plan. The ramp upgrades happened this summer, the north segment is being done now, and the rest of the parkway gets resurfaced in 2027. Anyone hoping for a fully smooth loop next summer may see more orange cones first.

The creek: a 1923 bridge and the detour it has created

The Nicollet Avenue bridge over Minnehaha Creek was built in 1923 and last repaired in 1973. The city's project overview blames water and salt moving through the concrete for its severe deterioration. Both the deck and the substructure scored a 4 on a 0-to-9 condition scale. Minnehaha Parkway closed at the bridge on Feb. 23, 2026, and the bridge closed to all traffic on March 2. The city's project page says it will stay closed through late 2027.

That's a lot of traffic to reroute. Axios Twin Cities reported roughly 14,000 vehicles using the bridge on an average day before it closed, and that traffic now goes around Tangletown instead. Here's how each way of getting across works now:

1. Driving the parkway west: Detour on 50th Street to Lyndale Avenue.
2. Driving the parkway east: Use the two-block parkway frontage road that crosses Nicollet.
3. Riding Metro Transit Route 18: Buses leave Nicollet between 50th Street and Diamond Lake Road. Northbound buses run on Diamond Lake Road/54th Street, Lyndale and 50th, and southbound buses run the same streets in reverse.
4. Walking or biking north-south on Nicollet: Go around via Luverne Avenue and Minnehaha Parkway. The southwest stairs at the bridge stay open, and the northeast stairs are being removed during construction.
5. Using the creek trail east-west: The trail is closed at the work site, and a posted trail detour has been in place since Sept. 9. The city expects the trail to reopen on Wednesday, Nov. 25.

Nicollet south of the bridge is open to every business at all times, according to the city. Work runs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and some Saturdays. The park board notes that a platform over the creek is catching demolition debris and that two new trees will be planted for every tree removed to get equipment in.

The Nov. 25 date has already moved once. A July city email had forecast the trail reopening in early July, and the current project page moved it to late November. The city project page, last updated Sept. 9, has the most current date, so check it before planning a creek run that week.

What's still running away from the pavement

With the parkway and the creek both under construction, the parts of the lake still worth a trip this month mostly sit off the road.

Bread & Pickle isn't one of them. The Bandshell concession had its last service window Thursday, Oct. 8, through Sunday, Oct. 11, and now says it's closed for the 2026 season and will see everyone in 2027.

The Como-Harriet Streetcar has taken over as the lake's October draw. The Minnesota Streetcar Museum's timetable lists regular rides on Saturdays and Sundays in October from 1 to 4 p.m. It doesn't give a season end date. The museum's Halloween lineup is the busiest stretch of the calendar:

The gardens are still open too. Per the park board, the Lyndale Park Rose Garden is open 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., with peak display running from mid-June to early October, so the roses are near the end of their season. The Peace Garden keeps the same hours, and its bloom period often lasts until frost. Roberts Bird Sanctuary is also open 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friends of Roberts is holding buckthorn-removal mornings from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Oct. 21, Saturday, Oct. 24, and Thursday, Oct. 29. Volunteers meet at the visitor shelter by the Peace Garden parking lot. All three spots are on the north side, where the trail stays open during paving.

The park board says restroom hours vary in fall as the days get shorter, and some restrooms may close before the park does. It doesn't post a specific schedule for the Lake Harriet restrooms.

New food along the detour streets

Some of this fall's new food is opening on streets the detours already use.

Clementine is coming to 614 W. 54th St., the former Spice Your Life shop just off Lyndale, in the same commercial cluster as Kowalski's Market and South Lyndale Liquors. That puts it at the corner where the Route 18 detour turns. The Star Tribune reported in July that pastry chef Jasmine Weiser Kaysen, formerly executive chef at Edwards Dessert Kitchen, is building a 20-seat bakery with viennoiserie, ice cream, cakes and coffee. It's named after her daughter.

"We're going to be dessert-focused," Weiser Kaysen told the Star Tribune. "It will utilize French techniques but it's not going to be a French bakery."

The paper said a fall opening was possible if the build-out went well. We haven't found a confirmed opening date yet.

North of the creek, Taizo is open at 4743 Nicollet Ave. Chef-owner Hide Tozawa is also behind Nokko and Okome House, according to the Star Tribune on Oct. 6. Farther east, Nokomis House opened in August at 5401 Chicago Ave. The paper's restaurant roll call says its owner also runs La Madre and La Tapatia.

Thanksgiving week puts the circuit back together

The creek trail is scheduled to reopen on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Drumstick Dash starts and finishes on the west side of Lake Harriet, near the Bandshell parking lot at 4135 W. Lake Harriet Parkway. The park board lists a Lake Harriet Parkway closure from 7 to 11 a.m. on Nov. 26 for the race.

The race's 2026 charity partner is Mile in My Shoes. Runners can donate when they register or sign up as FundRacers, according to the official race site. Registration opened Aug. 19.

The bridge itself stays closed after all this. Cars and the Route 18 will keep detouring around Tangletown into late 2027, and the rest of Lake Harriet Parkway gets resurfaced next year. On foot or by bike, though, the lake loop and the creek trail are expected to connect again by Thanksgiving morning.

Closures like these come up when you're timing a showing or deciding which route gets a buyer to a front door, and we follow them for that reason. If you want to know how the Nicollet bridge schedule or next year's Lake Harriet paving could affect a particular street, ask Elizabeth McKevitt Perez. We'll tell you what we know about your block.