Best Glamping near Mason City, IA

Clear Lake is a popular place to spend time in North Central Iowa. McIntosh Woods State Park is right on the lake front. The campground is not on the lake, but it has some nice shade with open space.

It also has Yurts to rent as well. There is a large station for cleaning fish and a huge picnic area with wide open space and a nice playground. There is a beach for swimming but there is no lifeguard on duty. There is also a boat ramp and a few docks for launching.

This is a great campground if you like to boat or fish. Before you get in the water make sure you check with the locals to make sure there is no harmful algae. This is a great place to spend the weekend.

Beautiful shaded campground near the lake, not far from town if you forgot something. We stayed in one of the two yurts- bunk bed plus a futon and table/chairs inside. Picnic table and grill outside. Walk to small town/restaurants.Clean bathroom facilities in area. Short hikes. Fishing nearby.

I love this campground! Clean, well maintained, and the hosts are very friendly. Trail to the beach is clear, the playground has nice, safe equipment for the little kids. Sad that there were so many back up sites over the holiday weekend, would have liked to have been able to camp here. It being full more than a week before the holiday, shows how great it is.

Loved this state park. Sites not too level, but spacious. Camped in mid April and park was not very busy which was nice. Full hook up sites and W/E only sites. Close to town and lots to do.

Clear lake state park is a nice campground. It does get very busy during peak season and traffic is continuous. It is clean and close to the beach. Down town and other shopping is a short drive away. Lots of families camp here. Spots are nice.

We love coming to Clear Lake! The campgrounds are always very well kept, bathrooms very clean! Easy access to the lake, and the town has so much to do during the summer months!

We spent 4 days here and the park is a busy place! Very clean!!!!! Dump station was easy access! We were right by the shower houses. Check in and out was simple. We made our reservations online. The park had paved roads, great for bike riding, playground was a hit! The sunset was gorgeous in the evenings at the beach! We will be back!

Overall nice place to stay. We stay each year with family so there are about 4 of our campers all there together.distance between sites can be wide or narrow depending on which site you’re on.

Pros: Clean/well maintained, easy short path through the trees to get to the beach, sturdy picnic tables all around, long “driveway” for campsite

Cons: pads are gravel and not very level, pads are very narrow, beyond the trees on one side of the campground is a major road so you’ll hear cars passing by, not a lot of restroom/bathhouses

This is our second time camping at the Clear Lake State Park. The park is clean, the shower house is nice. It’s hard to control the temperature in the showers, too hot for little kids to stand directly in the water. The playground was fun for the kids, nice beach access! Limited full hook up sites. I wish there were more full hook ups that you could reserve. Paved roads are great for bike riding. Great shaded spots. DNR cruises the park daily which is nice to see.

Nice campground with grassy pull thru sites. But very close together. If full, you would have no privacy. Fortunately, it was 1/4 full, so no problem. Bathrooms clean, nice warm showers! Nice beach, lots to do. Would be a fun place if you don’t mind camping next to neighbors!

We tend to stay at campgrounds during the off or shoulder season for a quieter experience so it was with some apprehension that we reserved this campground for a summer weekend so that we could meet friends for Paddlefest. We were happy to discover that despite being a full campground, it was quiet at almost all hours of the day and night. It was, however, an entirely different story on the lake itself, where boats gathered all day to party!

There is little separation between the sites but there are trees located throughout, some of which provide shade to the site. The camper pads were a mix of dirt and gravel and mostly level. We were lucky to snag Site 34 (reserved about three months in advance) – it was on the end, making it a much larger site than the interior sites (all end sites in our section were larger) and we had plenty of shade trees, a welcome relief on a very hot weekend. 

The paved roads leading to the sites are very narrow and would appear to be one-way but are not designated as such, resulting in some confusion. The site numbers are only listed on one side, even though most of the sites appeared to be pull-through. 

The restrooms and showers were clean and had soap and (dated) air dryers. 

Overall, we had a very pleasant two-night stay even though we were prepared for a different experience.

There are only 6 full hook up sites and the care taker made sure we got one. The rest of the sites are beautiful with electric hook up. Nice clean bathroom and hot shower!

This is a state campground. So as most will know the sites could be better maintained. The bathrooms are updated and nice. When there is heavy rain you will however have your own pond at most sites. I guess you pay for what you get. I love this campground because they are large spots. Close to the beach and fishing is awesome. A big campground but reserve early!

Great campground. Family and friends get together a must here. Close to the beach, town and the lake has great fish. Reserve early!

We can't wait to go back. Our camp was so private & we were happy because we had a new puppy that was from a hoarding situation & not real social. We didn't want to bother any neighbors if she was loud. She did very well with our other two. They all enjoyed walking on the trails with us😁 The bathrooms & showers were awesome & the park guy was very nice & informative (I feel bad I didn't get his name.) It will definitely be a place we will go back to!

Not a big campground. Sites arranged in a circle around a clean shower house. Potable water. Only 2 non-electric sites. Most sites level. Sites are close to each other, not offering much in the way of privacy. Camped here on the off season, so it wasn't crowded. Short walk to nice lake & marsh. Walking trails. Camped here during waterfowl hunting season, so there were several gunshots nearby at around sunrise. 3 bars T-Mobile. About 5 miles west of I-35; good place to stop for one night. Electric sites,: $18; non-electric $14. Would stay here again.

I prefer Clear Lake State park, but this was ok. We had lots of rain, and the sites got a bit muddy. The beach area was closed due to e-coli. Restrooms were clean, and always stocked.

Great hiking trails.

For $12/night on a 30AMP hookup, I really can't complain. This is my first of many stops in the new RV, needed a place to camp out before getting it serviced the next day. Enjoyable scenery, especially at sunset

Beautiful campground. Well maintained. Nice facilities. You can’t beat this place for the price. Nice hiking trails too.

General: A mixture of tent (non-electric) and electric sites, mostly arranged in several rows. 

Site Quality: Mixed. Not all sites are level, and most do not have delineated parking pads (there is a small pavement indent to show where to access the site). A fire pit and picnic table complete the site. Most of the sites are too close together for our liking, however, when we were there (a Monday at the end of August, the day before school started), we were only one of three sites occupied so for our stay it didn’t matter. 

Bathhouse: Basic but clean. My biggest complaint is there were no hooks or shelves for toiletries by the sinks. The showers looked nice but we did not use them. 

Activities: Horseback riding (there are trails for this), hiking, fishing. Although we did see several trailheads, I did not have a map so didn’t explore them. There is an observation tower, but it is a two-mile walk/drive from the campground (on paved roads; I didn’t try to find hiking trails to get there). 

Misc: A shout-out to the great host, Pam, who greeted us as we arrived. The observation tower, entrance gates, and picnic shelter were all constructed by the CCC and were beautiful. It almost seemed like the campground was an afterthought as it is outside the entrance gates and nowhere near the tower. The layout of the campground would be challenging if all sites were occupied.

Nice place to spend the weekend or a week! Came in late and a resident helped me find a great spot. When driving to my site two fawns were laying near the playground.

Standard site without electric was only $10.00 a night which includes a nearby water spigot to fill your tank with. Put toilets and showers available. The friendly hosts made a point to come by to chat. Two fawns were born there, under one of the picnic tables and they were around all weekend. I’ll be back !

If you are picking up a camper from Lichtsinn RV in Forest City they offer to let you stay on their lot with electric hookups during your pick up. But, we found it a little more private and less intimidating to set up camp down the road just a few miles at Plot Knob State Park. Nice level sites with electric hook ups, clean restrooms and showers. Gave us the opportunity to unload our car and figure out our new motorhome without feeling like we were being watched. We didn't explore to much but we noticed they have several hiking trails. Very nice and quiet.

Located by New Ulm, MN this campground has plenty of activities in the park or very near the park. Plenty of hiking trails, playground for the kids, and an amazing sand bottom swimming pond surrounded by sand beach. Golf is also nearby at The New Ulm Country Club which is open to the public. Nice level sites with electric, picnic tables and fire rings.

I3rd got a few awesome things to see. Hiking trails. Picnic area. We have gone a grew times a year and love it!