Discover Brainerd: Art, History, and Trails

Brainerd offers several ways to shape your stay: art galleries, a guided historical walking tour, hiking trails, and a paved trail between two cities. This lets you plan ahead around a specific interest. If art is your main focus, you’ll find different options than if you’re exploring downtown history or looking for a stay with hiking trails. There are also different options within the theme of trails: the Northland Arboretum and the Paul Bunyan Trail differ in length, surface, and geographic route.

Art in Galleries and Other Formats

The Franklin Arts Center in Brainerd is home to several unique art galleries. The Crossing Arts Alliance in downtown offers art classes, exhibitions, and events. These provide a range of art formats to choose from: galleries, classes, exhibitions, and events each offer a different focus and can shape your reason for traveling in different ways. If you’re including art in your travel plans, you can first consider which of these forms matters most to you. If you’re planning to travel to Brainerd for a particular event, check its date in advance.

City History on Foot

For a historical perspective, the Brainerd Public Library and the Brainerd History Group offer a step-by-step walking tour through downtown Brainerd. Unlike the art offerings, this tour focuses on local history, with downtown as the setting for the exploration. Its step-by-step format gives the tour a distinctive character among the options: you can choose history as your theme rather than focusing exclusively on galleries, classes, or exhibitions. So if city history is central to your stay, this walking tour offers a distinct focus for your plans.

Hiking Trails and a Paved Route

For hiking trails, the Northland Arboretum in Brainerd is a specific point of interest: it has more than 20 miles of trails. The Paul Bunyan Trail, by contrast, is a paved trail between Brainerd and Bemidji. The two options therefore cannot be described in the same way. At the arboretum, the focus is on the hiking trails and their length; for the Paul Bunyan Trail, its paved surface and route between the two cities are defining features. When choosing, you can consider whether you’d like to explore the trails at the Northland Arboretum or the route between two cities. Comparing the options can help you define your interests more precisely.

Plan Your Stay Around Your Interests

If several of these themes shape your trip, choose a primary focus and treat other interests as additions. This helps you keep in mind which activities you want to shape your trip and what role your accommodations will play.

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