Kayaking along the River Greenway
Outdoor Campus
If you don’t want to select just one outdoor activity in Sioux Falls, take your group to the Outdoor Campus, where they can have their pick of a wide variety of outdoor educational activities.
“The Outdoor Campus is really geared around introducing the South Dakota outdoors to groups of all kinds,” Orsack said. “You can do things from hunting to fishing, cross-country skiing, shooting a bow and arrow to cooking in a Dutch oven.”
The campus comprises 100 acres of green space in the middle of the city, along with a lake, hiking trails and gardens. The staff there offer instructional workshops to introduce groups to activities such as fly-fishing, archery and outdoor cooking. They can also lead hikes through the wilderness area, where visitors might encounter deer, woodchucks, beavers and turtles, as well as a variety of native birds.
If your group is competitive, the Outdoor Campus has a great way to enjoy some friendly tests of outdoors skills.
“They do a type of outdoor olympics for groups,” Orsack said. “They set up archery and fishing competitions and have kayak races in the lake. Our staff recently experienced that, and it was a fun group outing.”
Plenty of Parks
The downtown parks are only the beginning of the outdoor opportunities in Sioux Falls. More than 80 parks surround the city, giving locals and visitors plenty of ways to enjoy the area’s nature and history.
Many groups enjoy seeing the dramatic scenery at Terrace Park, which is set inside the Big Sioux River’s system of oxbows and overflow flood plains.
“There’s a waterfall, a bridge, stone lanterns and an island,” Orsack said. “There are Japanese gardens set along a bluff in the park overlooking the Big Sioux River Valley.”
Three miles east of the city, Great Bear Recreation Park is a hiking and mountain biking destination in the summer and a snow skiing and tubing park in winter.
Local outdoors lovers are also celebrating the opening of Good Earth State Park at Blood Run, the first new state park opened in South Dakota since 1972.
“The site was a gathering place and trading center for many Native American tribes,” Orsack said. “Since it’s only about five miles from Falls Park, you get a feel for how the Native American groups traveled through the state.”