Best Glamping near Ocheyedan, IA

We camped here in July and had a blast. Buffalo, an old rock quarry, a mulberry tree, prickly pear cacti and more! The view from the ridge goes for miles, you can actually see Iowa. Site #9 is partially shaded and very level with just a slight walk to the restroom facilities. Take a short drive to see the Pipestone National Monument if you have time, you only need about 30 minutes to see the monument itself. This park was definitely worth the 4 hour drive we took to get there. Luverne, MN is a cute little town to visit as well.

Enjoyable Stay

We go in early in the afternoon after traveling from Madison WI.  

The KOA seemed alright but I was very disappointed in the long term/ Full time RVs parked there.  Some were alright but a couple of pretty dumping ones.  

They were not full and I can understand the reason.  

The facilities seemed to be well maintained.  The pool and playground were very nice and the sites we stayed around were fine.  It was just those few trailers that gave it that run downed feeling. If they took care of those even made them clean the area around them and wash them it  would go up a star or 2.

The internet was iffy again and I guess we will just have to live with that though I did expect more from a KOA.

That night they did have live entertainment but we did not know about it until they started to play.  It was locals I think that lived there and was like a jam session.

We stayed here for one night on the way to the Black Hills in South Dakota. The campground is in the far south western corner of Minnesota about 30 minutes for Sioux Falls South Dakota. The site is in the middle of grasslands and cornfields. They have very organized park staff that have an efficient check in process. The campground has some nice ponds and bike routes. It’s located next to a bison range and tours are available. Unfortunately the camp sites are packed in on top of each other with no privacy. You have a lot of local large RV users using loud generators and playing music until after midnight. They have good facilities with showers and dump stations. During our stay, the water in the camp tested positive for bacteria and the camp was giving out free drinking water. Since you don’t have many options in the area, this may be a good choice. The overcrowding was our main issue.

Stayed at Blue Mounds on one of the hottest weekends this summer! We booked site 12 initially based off of reviews from the Dyrt suggesting riverside sites. Site 11 and 12 were NOT good. There's a dumpster in the middle of the two sites, absolutely no privacy, and no shade. Thankfully, there is good cell service (and free wifi!), and we looked up what other sites were open. 13 was open! And boy did we luck out with this. Even though it's just adjacent, 13 had a nice little secluded area for our tent, and a *private* riverside walk out to the cliffs overlooking the river! No direct river access- it's about a 15 foot drop to the river. The moonrise from this site was gorgeous. Had a spooky visit from the Starlink satellites. We drove in the morning to the bison area and saw about 12 of them roaming near the fence.  Bathrooms were decent. Close by to Luverne for any last minute needs while camping.

What an amazing time! We stayed at site 54E which was pretty secluded our first night there. We got there a little late in the afternoon to do anything but get set up after which we got our grill going and enjoyed a delicious steak dinner. The next morning we went on a couple trails and just enjoyed the beautiful fall colors and we lucked out because the buffalo were close to the ranger station. It was quiet our entire stay and the weather cooperated except for some wind and a little rain. Definitely will be coming back!

This campground is still charging $17 for a camp site, $7 transaction fee and $7/day entrance fee despite the fact they have no running water. The toilets still flush. In the morning our car filled up with flies that bit us for hours before we were able to eliminate all of them. It is a 5 mile drive back to Luverne if you need supplies, and I was unable to locate a grocery store.

Two good things; they have a Free Little Library and at night the lawn was covered with fireflies

The campground was so miserable that the campground host had abandoned their trailer and was never present. We did have several locals drive through the campground to spy on us, presumably to see who was stupid enough to camp there. You are entirely responsible for knowing what site you reserved because there was no attempt to label reserves sites.

There is no privacy between sites. This is just a big lawn with driveways, picnic tables and fire pits. The landscaping is nicely done with blackberries popping out of some hedges and providing eye-level interest at the base of trees.

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Last August we headed to Blue Mounds to investigate out the SW corner of our state for the first time. We swung through New Ulm on the way there to check out the Schell's brewing company and we also stopped at Laura Ingalls Wilder's Plum Creek to break up the drive from the twin cities. The drive itself got pretty boring on the last half- lots of flat fields and cows. As you get closer to Luverne things start to become more interesting and the town of Luverne itself was an unexpected delight.

Yes, the water currently has e.coli in it. There is a huge alert on the park's page explaining how you can go about accessing water and showers nearby. The $17 rate is the discounted price to reflect the e. coli discount. The main campground is pretty open, some sites have shade, it is a prairie after all. The cart-in campsite offers much more privacy with the grove of trees there. The bathroom facility at the drive-in campground is much nicer than the one for the tipis and cart-in sites.

We spent one night in the tipi (cool experience for $30-$35 a night) and two nights at a cart-in site w-09. Some of the paths to the cart-in sites are not flat and rather long, but ours wasn't bad at all. I would definitely consider staying at that campsite again. I don't think I would necessarily stay in a tipi again unless I could book it on short notice if I knew that the weather was going to be dry and cool. The day before we got there it had rained quit a bit and when we arrived it was HOT. This meant that we got to enjoy our tipi experience with the aroma of hot wet tipi. The tipi floor is a platform made out of manufactured deck boards that keep you off the ground. The tipi itself isn't nearly as critter-proof as a tent. We wound up packing up our belongings and putting them in our car between leaving the tipi and moving into our campsite since we wanted to go check out the local area before we could check into our next site and somehow a garter snake got transported out of the tipi in our belongings and into our car- awesome haha.

The park was flooded a few years back which washed out a quite a bit- the lake that used to be there is now gone and just overgrown with plants. Most of the park is dedicated to the bison, so hiking opportunities are kind of limited. There are a ton of bison, but you either get to see them or you don't unless you go on one of their bison tours. They were present by the fence twice while we were there. There is pretty much a large trail loop with another large loop that swings off of that. Bring a wide-brimmed hat and tons of sun screen, not much tree cover on the trails. The one visitor center located in the southern portion of the park appeared to be permanently closed.

Luverne was cool. There are tons of historic houses and next time I'm out there I'll spend some time driving through neighborhoods to check them out. There is a basic grocery store off of Main Street for anything that you may need to pick up. I kind of wish that we had gone out to eat in town more because of how great the food was. Sterling's was delicious and much more upscale than anything I expected to find out there, the local Buffalo Sweat beer was great enough that I tried to find it at the local liquor store before I left. Showers are available at the Luverne aquatic center for free.

Overall I really enjoyed my experience and I look forward to my next trip out there, whenever that may be. If you are coming from the Twin Cities make sure to hit up Schells and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Plum Creek homestead like I mentioned above. Nearby side trips are Pipestone, Touch the Sky prairie, and Jeffers Petroglyphs

The campground is smaller but it is very well maintained. New bath house. They have done a lot to make this park accessible. Grassy sites, some better positioned than others. Very good shade. Some random placement for trash bins but I’d rather have too many than not enough.

There are lots of hiking trails with options for lots of distances. It was cool to see the Bison (from the west loop). The dam is pretty as well.

Beautiful park. Trails to hike are great with beautiful sweeping views.

Our campsite was not as great. We are a family of five and we are crammed in here. It’s also stuffy with no air flow and wafts of the pit toilet.

There are some other cart in sites that looked a little better. Overall I like the hiking but not the camping.

Couldn’t ask for any better. The climbing is great too

The cart in sites are close to the parking lot pretty secluded. Amazing area at night so open. You can stand by your car and see so many stars. We saw the neowise comet here. This is a beautiful park definitely worth the drive.