Before this area was developed, there was a great sand prairie. Most of it has been paved over and developed or turned into farms. Thankfully some of it has been preserved in the 61 acres of the Holland Sand Prairie. This area is open to the public for a beautiful walk. Bring your camera to photograph the wildflowers or just enjoy nature. More information can be found on the official website or on sites like these:

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2007/09/05/news/z02sand0905.txt
http://dnr.wi.gov/ORG/LAND/ER/sna/sna553.htm

This is an older park in the Apple Valley neighborhood off Sand Lake Road. It two wooden climbing structures, a tall metal slide, a merry go round, a large sandbox, a teeter-totter-like rocking toy, and a swingset with two regular and three baby swings. Two of the baby swings are the old fashioned kind with the bar. There's also a baseball field, a basketball court, and a tennis court. The bathroom is a porta potty. There isn't much for little kids as the climbing structures aren't meant for little ones.

For photography enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels. We meet the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, September thru May at 7pm. Meetings alternate between programs and competitions. We also have an educational pre-program at 6:30 for some extra instruction.

Mississippi Valley Conservancy is a regional, non-profit land trust in La Crosse founded in 1997. Since then, it has permanently conserved over 7,200 acres of blufflands, prairies, wetlands and streams in the Coulee Region.

The Conservancy works with private landowners and local communities on voluntary conservation projects in seven counties along the Mississippi River. The counties include Buffalo, Trempealeau, La Crosse, Monroe, Vernon, Crawford and Grant County.

The Conservancy uses voluntary tools such as conservation agreements, land purchases, land donations, cooperative acquisitions, and a landowner registry program to conserve lands for ecological, scenic, and open space values.

MVC works cooperatively with individuals, businesses, conservation groups, local units of government and other state and federal agencies.

This park is also called Prairie Woods. It is right on XX but there is a tiny parking area on the Prairie Woods side. There are long paths leading to the park from there and from Ver Meer on the other side. We didn't stop because the park was a long walk in but I took a picture from the road. The park has one large play structure with four slides on it. There's also an open shelter.There were no swings as far as I could see from the road.

This is a small park in a new neighborhood. There isn't a lot there, but they may plan on expanding. Currently there is a large plastic slide, a swing set with four regular swings (no baby swings), a rocking horse, and a small modern teeter totter.

Note that the Google map isn't quite right. Off New Amsterdam road, you want to turn onto Mc Wain Drive, not Pine View as it's named on the map. You'll know you have the right road if you see the end of an airport runway on the other side. Seriously.

The Google map isn't very helpful for this park. It looks as though Gaynor Dr hooks up to McHugh, but it doesn't. What you want to do is take Briggs along side the high school and make a left on Sween Drive. That takes you over to Gaynor. Take a left and follow that down to St Croix.

Unfortunately, the park itself isn't worth all the effort of finding it. The playground is old style equipment and there's not much there. The swing set has two regular swings, a swinging bar, and swinging rings. There are no baby swings. Attached to the swing set is a teeter totter and on the other side is a metal slide. The playground is way back from the road with the grass baseball field between it and the road.

Because of the old style equipment, this park isn't recommended for babies and toddlers. Older kids would do ok with it.

The playground equipment is set way back from the road with Skogen field before it. There is a small modern play structure with a slide, a wooden play structure with a metal slide, a swing set with three regular and one baby swing, and a metal climbing structure. The park also has an open shelter, a one hoop basketball court, and a sand baseball field.

Information provided by park and rec dept. Photos and more details will be added after a visit.