Whether you're an RVer or tent camper, Ocheyedan, IA is a great place to post up for the weekend—or longer. Enjoy the scenic camping, fun activities, and sights and sounds of Ocheyedan. At The Dyrt, campers like you share their favorite spots, plus tips and photos. No matter where you're headed in Ocheyedan, you'll find the best spot for you and your camping crew.
$20 - $35 / night
"The bathroom facility at the drive-in campground is much nicer than the one for the tipis and cart-in sites."
"New bath house. They have done a lot to make this park accessible. Grassy sites, some better positioned than others. Very good shade."
"Arrived after office was closed. Still greeted by the owner very welcomingly. Test site is flat, dry and grassy. Could’ve ask for a better site. Mosquitoes where not an issue at this site."
"Great KOA, owners were very friendly and welcoming. They invited us to their “end of season” party and came and talked to us the next morning."
$5 - $45 / night
"A good place to camp for the night with gas and groceries nearby. All sites have electricity but only 20/30/60 amps. Water spigots are spread throughout the campground."
"Very cheap , 15$ a night for rv with electric and water, 5$ for tents. Huge swimming area with slides for kids, and river with a lot of fish!!! Brand New shower houses ."
"I did notice that the power boxes are set up is only few spots with multiple power boxes on the post. So you could need a power cord extention. If all spots by the power boxes are taken up."
"The electrical and water are a little spaced out. We took the end spot and count quite reach our two water hoses. There two long-term campers who were hooked up to the water spigot closest to us."
$23 - $33 / night
"We spent three nights at the Oak Woods campground at Lake Shetek State Park in May 2022."
"Tons of walking trails and pet friendly!! You’ll see lots of birds and deer... Second time here and love it!!"
$15 - $20 / night
"Right by a lake. The staff is attentive, kind and welcoming. Have not been able to have a greater look of the surroundings because just staying for a night and leaving early morning."
"Friendly and helpful staff, very accommodating. Beautiful spot, close to the lake. Water fill station, 30A power, washroom & shower if needed. Great price $25 per night (20 if tenting)."
"Frisbee Golf, playground, and a 5mile trail around lake. As good as you get for a Municipal Campground."
"Really nice spot almost overlooking the lake (Through the trees), had fire ring, picnic tables and room for quite a lot of tents! For me and my family it was perfect!"
TravelerThis 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.
.
LegendThis was a drive-by site for us and not a destination, so our review is based on only one night. We found the park to be very quiet and only had a few camping neighbors during our stay. It seems like it might be a destination for retired RVers, as everyone seemed to know each other well, which was fun.
Highlights include nice, easy trails through the prairie, lots of wildflowers, and a herd of bison. We only saw the bison from a distance, but apparently, there are tours. We experienced lots of bugs in early July - biting flies and mosquitoes, and there was a constant humming noise from a nearby farm that really detracted from our experience.
Otherwise, the campground was really peaceful and the bathhouse was clean. We arrived around 4:30 pm and the office was closed. We didn't see a single park employee or campground host during our visit.
We checked out the tipis, which looked really fun, but with all the flies, we opted for setting up our tents to keep them out. We'd totally stay here again, but we probably wouldn't go out of the way to visit.
LegendLast 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
GuideThe 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.
Travelerclean and lit up bathrooms and showers. Average campsite for $33 a night with a fire pit and picnic bench. super smelly probably due to farmland, would comeback to check out some of the bouldering nearby
GuideAmazing remnant of Minnesota prairie set among the farm country. With the prairie in Minnesota gone except for a handful of small conservation areas, Blue Mounds State Park is an oasis of prairie in a sea of corn and soybean. Bison roam a small area of a few hundred acres where prairie smoke and other native plants make a last stand in a landscape of Sioux quartzite rock outcroppings, cliffs, streams, rivers and waterfalls. Hike the park or drive over to touch the Sky prairie, there’s plenty to do. The campsites are high and dry with some set overlooking mound creek or nestled amongst the shade trees. In cooler months the park has a stone shelter with a wood burning stove to escape the rain or chill. There are three spacious tipis for rent. $30-35 a night that can sleep 4-6 people. Those sites are set to the side and offer some privacy.
TravelerI reserved a site fairly last minute after seeing the unusually nice April weather forecast. The check in was seamless and firewood is readily available ($6/bundle when I went). Each site has a picnic table and fire pit with a cooking grate. I ended up selecting a site next to the river and had a cool access point directly from my site to sit on a rock riverside. There didn’t seem to be any obvious access point into the river itself but it was too cold to go in anyways. The sites next to the river don’t have much for shade but other sites seemed to have better coverage. The sites are quite close to one another and if the campground was fully reserved you wouldn’t have much privacy at your sites.
The main park hiking trail starts a mile ish away from the campground. Beware there is NO SHADE on the trail. The quarry is worth the adventure!
Photo included of morning sunrise!
ScoutStayed 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.
LegendBlue Mounds State Park campground is located on tree-lined paved roads tucked in between a prairie and farmers' fields. It's quite peaceful and relaxing, especially with most sites unoccupied during the week.
While the sites don't offer a ton of privacy, they are well-spaced for the most part and some of the loops have foliage behind the sites so you have a bit of a buffer there. The loop we were in (on site 28) has a relatively new bathroom and shower house that is very nice. The other loop has the older-style bathroom and shower house that looked clean but is showing its age.
Even though you probably could rely on your cell phones here due to good and great signals (Verizon and T-Mobile respectively), the campground also offers WiFi that is actually quite good. The transmitter for our loop is on the bathroom building and we have been able to work, including video calls, all week without any issues.
The sites themselves have gravel pads and decent-sized grassy areas to set up screen tents, etc. The park itself offers several things to do, including watching for the protected bison herd out on the prairie, as well as hiking and biking trails that can lead you to a historic quartzite quarry and some great vistas of the area around you. At night, it's nice and dark so you can see a lot of stars -- if you walk a short way down one of the trails from the campground you can even see the Milky Way.
If we are in this area again, Blue Mounds would certainly be a place where we would check for openings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Ocheyedan, IA?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Ocheyedan, IA is Blue Mounds State Park Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 51 reviews.
What is the best site to find glamping camping near Ocheyedan, IA?
TheDyrt.com has all 10 glamping camping locations near Ocheyedan, IA, with real photos and reviews from campers.
Keep Exploring
