Most of the trails are fair but thin in a few spots. The beginning of the Savanna trail and the "finger" section of the Hills trail have the worst spots but Prairie and Brown's Pond trail are good enough. There were never rocks but definitely leaves and twigs in the bad spots. Most of the trails had been nicely groomed again recently. I didn't try Flats or North due to previous poor condition reports and they still look thin.

(James Aukema)

No classic track set but some scattered skied in tracks. Skate deck is packed medium to hard and rather uneven due to the thin snow cover. About four spots with dirt/gravel. The new Flat trails in the very SE corner has dirt, rocks and corn stalks in the trail. The new North trail has excessive foot and bike traffic where the trail goes onto the summer paved trail.

Photos:

(Bill Callas)

With a few exceptions, the "old" east-side perimeter trails - Hills, Brown's Pond, Prairie and Savanna were in very good condition. Hasn't been groomed since after Tuesday's snow but that pass established a firm base that has held up well the last two days. ( I skied yesterday and today.) On uphills, previous skaters broke thru in spots - start of Savanna was particularly bad at the start - and the hill coming down from 10E had a wide area of vegetation coming thru but I still skied thru it with no problem. I used FastWax Blue LF, which ran a little bit slower today at 17 degrees per my car's thermometer than yesterday at the low to mid 20's.

(Keith Carlson)

Went at about 8:30am this morning. Trails hadn’t been recently groomed. Decent coverage on most parts of all East side trails, but poles hit dirt on up hills and sparse on some downhills. Could use another snowfall. But we’ll take it!

(Liz Westerhaus)

All the trails were skiable this morning. The ski deck was a little soft still. The wooded trails are in much better shape and have good coverage, out in the fields you'll see more small twigs and thin spots. My skis caught a few bare spots, but didn't have to avoid any areas. Watch out for corn cobs still if you ski the new "Flat" trail. North trail goes over some paved summer trails which you can tell doesn't have much snow, my poles hit pavement pretty easily -- still in good shape.

(Scott Degner)

Designated ski trails on the east side were packed this morning. No tracks have been set. Trails were reported as being good with some thin spots present. There is some minor debris.

(Carolyn Friedrich, Washington County Parks)

Lake Elmo Park Reserve has some new trails open -- "Flats" and "North" (see photo). When there's more snow, 'Flats' should be a good place to practice Open Field (V2A) skate technique, but so far it's mostly windblown snow, dirt, and a few corn cobs. I didn't ski it, but the new 'North' trail is reportedly in similar condition. Snow is better in the woods areas. The "Green" trail (now called "Hills"), is nice in some spots, but had a few sections that required removing your skis, particularly in the "Finger" part of the trail.

Photos:

(Chuck Nelson)

70% good coverage with the usual windswept sections being very thin or bare. With the right attitude and some skis you aren't going to win a race on, it's quite enjoyable. I didn't find any scratches on my skis afterwards. The outer loop has expanded to 10k, and had the most grass/dirt showing. The interior loops had better coverage.

Photos:

(Ben Creagh)

Where there was enough snow, conditions varied between firm and soft, but decent for skating overall. But every trail has at least some big bare spots. I'm excited by the new trails but one was essentially unreachable without walking around long bare spots, so I skipped it, and another had bare spots everywhere.

(Jess Holle)

Trails are packed on both east and west side and are fair to poor condition with some bare spots. Classic tracks are not set. When skiing Washington County parks please purchase a county ski pass at pay stations or in park offices.

(Alex McKinney)