Riverside International Friendship Gardens
410 E Veterans Memorial Dr, La Crosse, WI
La Crosse, WI
A string of garden pavilions along the Mississippi, each one a gift from a city on the other side of the world.
The Riverside International Friendship Gardens gather several distinct gardens into one riverfront corner of La Crosse, each honoring one of the city's sister cities around the world. Rather than a single style, the grounds move from a formal European layout to an East Asian pavilion and beyond, so a short walk carries you across continents.
The idea behind the gardens is older than the plantings themselves. La Crosse built friendships with cities in other countries through the sister-city movement, a grassroots effort to knit ordinary towns together across borders after decades of war. The gardens are the physical expression of those bonds, gifts and collaborations that turned a stretch of Mississippi riverbank into a small world map of goodwill.
What Guests Love
- Wandering from one country's garden to the next, each in its own architectural style
- The Chinese pavilion and its detailed woodwork beside the water
- A quiet riverfront setting with the Mississippi sliding past
- Combining the gardens with a walk through the wider Riverside Park
Worth Knowing
- The gardens are part of the larger Riverside Park, so allow time to wander the whole riverfront
- There is little shade in parts of the gardens, so summer visits are best early or late in the day
- The paved paths are easy walking and welcoming to all ages
- Spring and summer show the plantings at their fullest; the pavilions themselves stand year round
Details
La Crosse, WI
Learn about Riverside International Friendship Gardens
The story of the sister cities
La Crosse is home to the Ho-Chunk, whose presence along these rivers reaches back long before the city took shape, and the wider region is also connected to the Dakota and other tribes of the upper Mississippi. The confluence of three rivers here made this a gathering and trading place for generations.
The Friendship Gardens grew out of the sister-city relationships La Crosse formed over the second half of the twentieth century with communities abroad. Each garden reflects the character of a partner city, built with help and materials from that place, so the grounds are less a designed landscape than a collection of gifts. The result is a garden that tells the story of a small American river city reaching out to make friends in far-off countries, and of those countries reaching back.
Walking the gardens
The pleasure of the place is in the contrasts. One garden favors clipped hedges and symmetry in the European manner, another opens into an East Asian pavilion with carved beams and a tiled roof reflected in still water, and the plantings shift with each to suit its style. Benches and quiet corners invite you to slow down between them.
Because the gardens face the river, the light and the water are part of the experience. Barges and paddlewheelers pass on the Mississippi, and the paths connect easily into the rest of Riverside Park, so a visit can be as short as a lunchtime stroll or stretch into an afternoon along the waterfront.
The river and the bluffs
La Crosse sits in the Driftless Area, a corner of the Midwest the last glaciers missed, which left it a country of steep bluffs, deep coulees, and cold spring-fed streams rather than the flat, glacier-scraped land around it. The bluffs that wall in the city give it a dramatic setting, and the rivers that meet here have shaped its life for centuries.
From the gardens you look out over one of the great river confluences of the upper Mississippi, where the Black and La Crosse rivers join the main channel. This braided, island-laced stretch is a haven for herons, eagles, and migrating waterfowl, and the river remains the heart of the city's identity, from its working past to its parks and trails today.
Season by season
Spring brings the first color to the plantings and the return of migrating birds along the river, a fresh and uncrowded time to visit. Summer is the fullest season, with the gardens in bloom and the riverfront busy with festivals and boat traffic.
Fall turns the bluffs above the city gold and russet, a striking backdrop to the pavilions, and the cooler air makes for fine walking. Winter quiets the gardens, and while the plantings sleep, the architecture of the pavilions stands clear against the snow and the frozen edge of the river.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near La Crosse
Grandad Bluff
About 4 miles east
A high overlook above La Crosse with a sweeping view of the city, the river, and three states.
Downtown La Crosse
A short walk
A historic riverfront downtown of brick storefronts, breweries, and a lively riverside walk.
La Crosse River State Trail
In town
A crushed-limestone rail trail that runs east from the city into the coulees of the Driftless country.