MENOMONIE – January has finally done its job.

The ice is thick. The cold is honest. And across Menomonie, winter has rolled out its slick, frozen white carpet and invited everyone to step – carefully – onto the stage.

With winter firmly settled in and consistent cold temperatures locking in ice conditions, Menomonie residents have multiple outdoor options for ice skating across the city. The City of Menomonie maintains several outdoor skating locations each winter, offering a mix of maintained park rinks and natural ice surfaces. With January temperatures providing reliable ice, many of the city’s outdoor rinks are fully in use.

The City of Menomonie floods a neighborhood ice rink in Half Moon Park in Park Circle just north of Stout Road off 11th Street. The rink has been used for and is ideal for pick-up hockey, skating and broomball contests and is in a setting of some of Menomonie’s oldest and historic homes.

Wolske Bay Road leads to three popular winter destinations – Christmas Miracle Winter Wonderland, Wolske Bay and Lake Menomin.

Christmas Miracle Winter Wonderland, off Wolske Bay Road just north of the Menomonie Public Library, offers outdoor skating during the winter months, along with hockey and sledding opportunities. The location continues to attract families and groups seeking multiple activities in one area as the winter season reaches its midpoint.

Thanks to the outdoor Christmas light display over the past several years, Wolske Bay has once again become a popular winter destination, combining outdoor skating opportunities even as the seasonal lighting displays come to their conclusions. When conditions allow, the area accommodates ice skating and hockey, including a cleared ice skating path around the exterior of the island, drawing residents looking to enjoy winter recreation in a scenic setting.

Park rinks are available until 10 p.m. and are not supervised, allowing skaters flexibility while requiring them to take personal responsibility for safety. Wolske Bay and the Winter Wonderland skating areas are lit during the evening hours.

Lake Menomin provides another option for skaters now that ice has set across much of the approximately 1000-acre lake. In addition to ice fishing where fishing shacks dot the lake surface, portions of the lake are used for skating during extended cold stretches. City officials remind residents that ice conditions can vary and should always be checked before venturing out.

City officials encourage skaters to remain aware of changing conditions, particularly during periods of fluctuating temperatures that we have experienced throughout this month, and to follow posted guidelines to ensure a safe and enjoyable winter skating season.

And finally, if the weather gets too cold or blustery to venture outside for long periods of time, the Fanetti Community Center, located in the Dunn County Recreation Park on Menomonie’s east side, offers hockey fans an opportunity to cheer on local youth hockey teams, Menomonie High School boys and girls hockey teams and the UW-Stout men’s hockey team.

The Center also offers open skating on most Sunday evenings from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. There is an admission fee and skate rental is available. No hockey sticks, pucks or other toys are allowed during the open skating time.

The story Ice Skating Season in Full Swing by Menomonie News Net staff is licensed under a CC BY SA 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/