Bakken Center Reset & Renew Week: A 90-Minute Forest Bathing Walk

This 90-minute forest bathing walk invites the general public, as well as any University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff to slow down and reconnect with the living world. Forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, is a gentle, research-supported practice of unhurried sensory immersion in nature. We do walk — but slowly, covering less than a mile over the full ninety minutes. There is no destination and nothing to achieve. A trained guide offers a series of simple invitations to notice what you see, hear, smell, and feel, followed by time to share if you wish and a closing moment of gratitude. Participants often leave with a settled nervous system, a clearer head, and a renewed sense of belonging.

About the location: Hidden Falls Regional Park sits below the bluffs on the east bank of the Mississippi River in St. Paul, within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. Its floodplain forest opens…