The Walking Loop as the Neighborhood's Living Room

The loop around Lake of the Isles is where many Lowry Hill residents run into their neighbors, and the Park Board is advancing a multiyear plan to rebuild its shoreline and paths.

For many Lowry Hill residents, the place they cross paths with their neighbors is the path around Lake of the Isles rather than a coffee shop or a community center. The loop traces the 109-acre lake's shoreline, part of the nearly three miles of paved walking and biking paths the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board maintains there year round, plowing them through the winter. Lake of the Isles sits within the Chain of Lakes Regional Park, the system of lakeshore trails just southwest of downtown.

Morning and evening, the same dog walkers, runners and parents with strollers fill the path, and the repeated crossings build a low-stakes familiarity — you can wave and keep moving or stop and talk, and either is normal. The loop is one of the places where people who have never been introduced still recognize one another.

The Park Board is advancing a multiyear plan to stabilize the lake's shoreline, restore parkland and build a dozen stone access points to the water, part of a broader Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake rebuild that also envisions new restrooms, an outdoor skating loop and improved prairie and pollinator habitat. The board took public comment on competing concept plans at hearings in January 2026.