Southern Minnesota

Regions

Its regions includes Big Stone, Blue Earth, Brown, Chippewa, Cottonwood, Dodge, Faribault, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Le Sueur, Lincoln, Lyon, McLeod, Martin, Meeker, Mower, Murray, Nicollet, Nobles, Olmsted, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville, Rice, Rock, Sibley, Steele, Swift, Wabasha, Waseca, Watonwan, Winona, and Yellow Medicine counties.

Cities

• Albert Lea
• Austin
• Blue Earth
• Byron
• Cannon Falls
• Darwin, home to the world's largest ball of twine
• Fairmont
• Faribault
• Jackson
• Lanesboro
• Litchfield
• Luverne
• Madison
• Mankato
• Marshall
• Montevideo
• New Ulm
• Northfield
• Ortonville
• Owatonna
• Pipestone
• Red Wing
• Redwood Falls
• Rochester
• Sherburn
• Spring Grove
• St. James
• Trimont
• Truman
• Wabasha
• Willmar
• Winona
• Worthington
• Zumbrota

Other destinations

• Blue Mounds State Park
• Flandrau State Park
• Pipestone National Monument

Get in

Drive:

From the West => I-90 or highway 212 from South Dakota

From the East => I-90, Highway 14 or state highways in Wisconsin

From the North => I-35

From the South => I-35

Get around

The overwhelming majority of people in southern Minnesota commute via personal automobile.

Interstate 90 runs east-west 15 miles north of the Iowa border, from Sioux Falls, SD, to Worthington, Jackson, Fairmont, Albert Lea, Austin, Rochester, and into La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Running diagonally from Worthington to the Twin Cities metro area is highway 169, which is 4 lane in many areas.

The region is quite flat, and has many lightly-traveled paved roads that provide wonderful cycling opportunities.

In the winter, ample snowfall allows for the use of snowmobiles, on both groomed trails and in snow-packed ditches. In winters with heavy snowfall and below-freezing temperatures, snow accumulation can become deep enough for traveling across open fields and through wooded areas.

If you find yourself on top of water, odds are you are in a boat. With many gorgeous, unpretentious lake available, many southern MN residents possess watercraft, from jet skis and wave runners to large fishing boats and pontoons.