Heart of the Lakes Trail

Minnesota winters are harsh, which is why residents are eager to take advantage of the summer months by spending time around the beautiful forests and lakes throughout the state. This is especially true in Otter Tail County (OTC).

Several years ago, the Otter Tail County Highway Department and Parks and Trails Department began an ambitious trail project that would create a system between the cities of Pelican Rapids and Perham. This multi-use trail will provide cyclists, joggers/hikers, and others more than 30 miles of new trails. The new trail will run through Maplewood State Park, making the park’s existing and extensive trail system a natural destination and extension of this new multi-use trail.

Because the project limits extend nearly 30 miles with some rough terrain, the client and HEI chose to employ drone-based LiDAR. This allowed the entire corridor to be surveyed in a fraction of the time and was safer than with traditional survey. Traditional survey was still used to verify LiDAR accuracy as well as to survey culverts and locations where the LiDAR was not able to penetrate.