St. Louis Park Has Two Skating Seasons. The First One Is Already Underway.
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
"Due to the warmer weather, there will be no outdoor skating at the ROC today, Oct. 23." That notice went up on the city's public skating page less than two weeks after outdoor public skating opened for the season. It's a small notice, but it shows how winter works here. St. Louis Park has had outdoor ice since Oct. 11, all at one rink on Monterey Drive, and even that rink still answers to the weather.
The neighborhood rinks are a separate season. The city's posted warming-house hours begin Dec. 18, about five weeks from now. Until then, the Recreation Outdoor Center is the city's whole outdoor skating season. The fall and early-winter skating events are all scheduled there or next door at The Rec Center.
The ROC sits on The Rec Center campus at 3700 Monterey Drive. The city describes it as a facility that changes with the seasons. In winter it hosts hockey, public skating, broomball and events. In spring it switches to turf for baseball, softball, soccer and lacrosse. In summer the bare concrete floor holds weddings and movie nights.
That design is the reason it can open in October. According to the Sun Sailor, the rink's refrigeration system is connected to the two indoor rinks at The Rec Center. The same paper reported that the roof is fabric and the sides are open. Glass runs 9 feet high along the rink, and a city official told the paper it would take significant wind to blow anything in. The ROC also opened on a Dec. 5 in its first season, before the roof was finished, so for a while it really was an open-air rink.
The rink also had community backing. A later Sun Sailor retrospective reported that the local hockey association covered about a quarter of the construction cost.
Even so, the ROC is open to outside air, and on Oct. 23 the city canceled outdoor skating there because of warmer weather.
Most weeks this fall, there are two ways to skate on Monterey Drive. The indoor sessions run at midday. The outdoor sessions cover Friday evening and weekend afternoons.
| Indoor, The Rec Center | Outdoor, the ROC | |
|---|---|---|
| Season | Now through June 5, 2027 | Oct. 11, 2026 through March 14, 2027 |
| Weekdays | Mon., Wed., Fri., noon to 1:30 p.m. | Fri., 5:45 to 7:15 p.m. |
| Saturday | 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. | 12:15 to 1:45 p.m. |
| Sunday | 2 to 3:30 p.m. | 12:15 to 1:45 p.m. |
| Admission | $4 youth and senior, $5 adult | $4 youth and senior, $5 adult |
| 10-visit pass | $35 youth and senior, $40 adult | $35 youth and senior, $40 adult |
Some gaps on the ROC schedule are worth knowing about. There's no outdoor public skate on Saturday, Nov. 14, because the rink is booked that evening. Feb. 13 and 14 are also off the outdoor schedule. Indoors, there's no skating on Dec. 19, Dec. 25, Dec. 30 or Jan. 1. Sticks and pucks aren't allowed at public sessions, and you can bring your own skates or rent a pair.
From now until the warming houses open, the city has scheduled its winter evenings at the ROC, with one indoor exception the day before Thanksgiving.
The Dec. 18 overlap is where the two seasons meet. If the cold arrives on schedule, that Friday is the first night you could pick between disco lights under the ROC roof and a lit rink at a neighborhood park.
The neighborhood rinks don't have an opening day. Every hour the city posts for them is marked weather permitting. Crews have to flood the rinks once it's cold enough. In one earlier season, the Sun Sailor reported that crews had been flooding them since mid-December. The city's wording then was that "temperatures will affect when safe ice is available for skating."
When the ice is ready, outdoor skating spreads across 11 parks. The city's outdoor rink page sorts them by what each one offers:
Figure skating rinks have no boards, and hockey rinks have boards on all sides. Rink lights usually come on around 4:30 p.m. and go off around 8:45 p.m.
Warming-house hours change three times over the holidays:
The Dec. 31 times fit together well. Park warming houses close at 6 p.m. that day, the same hour the free New Year's Eve skate at the ROC ends. Families could spend the afternoon at a neighborhood rink or under the ROC roof and still be home for the evening.
Cold has a limit too. Warming houses close when the temperature drops below negative 5 degrees or the wind chill hits negative 15 or lower. For updates, call the city's weather line at 952.924.2567.
As the park rinks come online, the city calendar adds a couple of outdoor nights that need boots instead of skates.
The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train stops at Lake Street and Library Lane on Monday, Dec. 14. The city says people can start gathering at 4:30 p.m. The train is expected around 6 p.m., and Allen Stone is scheduled to perform from about 6:15 to 6:45 p.m. Admission is free, and donations for the food shelf are welcome.
A week later, on Monday, Dec. 21, the Be the Light Winter Solstice Walk takes place at Westwood Hills Nature Center. It falls on the first day of winter-break hours at the neighborhood warming houses.
Until then, if you want to skate outside in St. Louis Park, the place to go is 3700 Monterey Drive. Check the city's skating page before you leave, since even the ROC can lose a session to a warm day.
Details like which parks have warming houses and which Friday the disco lights go on are part of knowing St. Louis Park block by block. If you're thinking about a move, and a lit rink at the end of the block matters to you, Sara Moran is glad to help you look for that. Let's talk about your next move.
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