BayUnited States · US
Gideon Bay
Gideon Bay is one of Lake Minnetonka's quieter southern inlets, tucking in between the lake towns of Excelsior and Tonka Bay in Hennepin County, Minnesota. On a lake known for its many sheltered bays, this one is easy to pick out on the water: two small islands, Duck Island and Frog Island, sit within its curve, and a low shoreline of homes, docks and a yacht club lines the rim. It is not a place you arrive at through a ticketed gate or a busy promenade—it is best enjoyed the way Minnetonka locals enjoy it, from a boat or paddleboard, or from the public parks and launch points on its edges. The bay carries the name of Peter Gideon, a 19th-century horticulturist who settled here in 1853 and made his reputation growing the hardy Wealthy apple on his farm along the north shore—the fruit that helped establish Minnesota's apple industry. That history gives an unhurried, leafy residential inlet an unexpectedly rich story, and the surrounding villages of Excelsior and Tonka Bay make it easy to combine a morning on the water with a lakeside lunch or a walk through small-town storefronts.