Best Tent Camping near Sumner, IA

I tent camped at Six Pines Campground for 3 nights in August. The park has two campgrounds and this one is non electric with pit toilets and water. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring with a really nice grill. The sites are large and flat and the ones on the outside of the loop are well shaded. Two trails can be accessed from the tent campground - Six Pines trail and West Lake trail. There are two shower houses that you can use at the RV campground but it takes about 15-20 minutes to drive across the park to that campground. The park is very large with about 20 miles of trails. There is a spring fed creek and, if you stay away from the trout fishing area, you can play and wade in the creek. It has a sandy/rocky bottom and sandy banks. It felt wonderful on a hot day. There is a swim beach on the lake but it was closed due to E. coli in the water. There’s a small camp store too. At night in this campground there are no lights except in the registration kiosk so it’s perfect for star gazing. The Field of Dreams movie site is just 45 minutes away and makes for a fun side trip. There is a town about 10 minutes away with a couple restaurants and coffee shops. The Six Pines trail can be taken from the campground to the Backbone trail. The Backbone trail is along a rocky ridge. There are side trails down to the base of the cliffs and lots of rock climbing to do. Very fun to explore the side paths and climb up the rock walls.

I was there on a Monday and was the only tent around. Site 15 is the best for tent sites, it’s right at the delta of where two streams meet. It’s a quick bike ride to pulpit rock brewing and other parks.

Stayed in 2 primitive tent sites: table, fire ring, shaded. Great sites for hat are all within walking to stocked trout streams! CG is in valley, cooled air, shaded, cold water streams to cool off. Pit toilets, trash bins, self registration with some sites reservable.

Decorah is so beautiful. The river is right beside the tent sites. Hiking trails close by. Caves and water falls only a short drive away. Tubing, canoeing, and kayaking services behind camp grounds. Super affordable site rates. Shower house. Picnic tables and fire pits at each site.

This is a great little park if you need a place to stop for the night. It was very inexpensive for tents ($10 I think) and the tent camping area was very nice with 3 giant pine trees and some picnic tables and fire rings. As someone who bicycle tours I appreciated fire wood being on site and close to where the tent area is. The bathrooms aren’t the best but they worked. Overall its a safe, clean, welcoming campground for both tents and RV’s.

This park is perfect for families or anyone looking for plenty of activities. They have boat rentals, amazing trails, a camp store onsite, a swimming beach and super clean bathrooms. Stayed at tent site #24 in the Southlake Campground, and it was fairly quiet even on a busy holiday weekend.

It was kind of loud, but it was busy. The lake for swimming was a little gross but we did it anyway. The bike trails are excellent and same for hiking. Bathrooms were a little old but clean when we were there, but there were massive hornets all over the bathroom area. It's also pretty bright here at night because it's right in the city. But overall, a decent, cheap place to tent camp if you want to explore Cedar Falls.

I went with a group of entering sixth grade Girl Scouts on a weekend tent camping trip to this park. The campsites were simple to access and the grounds were easy to navigate. We hiked on the famous Backbone trail - a really fun hike that isn’t too incredibly long. The grounds were well kept and we had a phenomenal time. The girls gathered our firewood in the neighboring tree line, and our evenings were filled with fun and friendly camping neighbors. I highly recommend this park.

This park is arranged more for RV's than tent camping and you cannot set up right along the river but can get pretty close if you are in tent spot 25. The sites are really close to each other. Bear Mound is cool to see if you appreciate the history behind it. Bridal falls is also a must see if you are there. The hiking trails can be done with a long day hike and offer some beautiful scenery as the leaves are changing. One of the few spots I have stayed along the Mississippi and one of my favorites.

From someone who typically prefers backpacking and sleeping in remote areas, this campground facility, pretty much in the city, is okay.

The facilities are nice, bathrooms were clean. What I didn't enjoy was how close each RV site is. The sparks from our fire were making their way to our neighbors site.

The campground is situated next to the Trout Run Trail, providing quick and easy access to the 11-mile loop or in to the city center of Decorah.

Overall, decent for a city campground, but very crowded. The tent sites near the river look more spaced out.

This campground had 60+ campsites. The sites were very open and did not appear to be planned very well for camping functionality. The tent sites appeared to be very flat. Many other sites were very uneven and were challenging to get a camper into. The electric boxes in sites were also placed in strange areas (middle of campsite, 10+feet from camper parking pad, etc). The campground was also very open.

We did enjoy the peacefulness of this campground though. Lots of star viewing opportunities. Very limited road noise. Nice hiking trails. The overlook was also a great place to relax.

We definitely would return to this campground for the hiking opportunities; but we would chose to bring our tent instead of our camping trailer.

There are two campgrounds at this park (the first state park in Iowa): a primitive one and a “modern” one. The primitive one (Six Pine) only has a pit toilet and each site has a fire grate and a picnic table. The modern campground (South Lake) has 30 amp, 50 amp, and tent sites. The electric sites are very close together (too close for our liking) so we opted for a tent site. We were in a loop with about six sites, and while the site size was generous and spaced a decent distance apart, there was no delineation between sites and no specific place to park your vehicle (and you cannot park on the road). These sites were also decidedly bumpy and not level; it took us about 15 minutes of maneuvering our van around to find a reasonably level spot. 

The restrooms were six separate rooms, each complete with toilet, sink, and shower; they were clean. 

We drove around the park and saw the balanced rock (meh) and I walked the short distance to the mouth of the cave. There was good signage to find the cave but once there, no information about the cave and its safety (or not) was available so I opted not to explore its dark and wet interior! There are seven trails in the park; the East Lake trail was a treat to hike. It hugs the lake for about two miles and while you can veer off onto the Bluebird Trail, I enjoyed hiking out and back for a different view. You can also hike from the South Lake campground to the beach– about a mile but the trail does start and stop, and you have to walk on the road for a bit. You can rent kayaks, canoes, and paddleboats but we did not take advantage of this. We also did not swim so I cannot speak to the quality of the lake (other reviewers took issue with this). There is also a CCC museum, but it was not open while we were there. 

We stayed one night which was sufficient for us. It might have been nice to stay longer if we decided to rent kayaks or hike different trails.

During my visit the campground was fairly quiet, and the sites are decently private with lots of shade. The bath/shower house was in fair shape and clean, plus showers were free! You can reserve the sites ahead of time for a convenience fee of 4 bucks, but they also have a kiosk to pay cash first-come first served if you can stand the suspense! Tent sites were $11/night when I visited in August.

The nice thing about this campground is its proximity to a couple trail-heads that lead to some of the park's nice hiking trails.

I would definitely recommend this campground, and would absolutely stay here again given the chance!

This campground offered much privacy when I went - I was the only person camping (tent camping). It was very quiet.

That being said, there are not many amenities. It has a vault toilet. I did not check the water hydrant, or even try to locate it, since I brought my own water for one night of camping. There is a small playground for the kids, but it is definitely not a modern playground (think back to the 1970's style playground when I was a kid!).

There are opportunities to hike and view wildlife - my favorite outdoor activities.

This campground is a real bargain. It was $10/night for any site, including the electric (I stayed in one of the non-electric sites near the back).

For me, it offers solitude. I will be coming back regularly.

First off about the camping area. The sites are huge but pretty open and we needed 50’ of cord to hit electrical box (not a big deal) The lawn was nicely mowed and the sites are very level. We have a travel trailer but the tent sites looked really nice. Overall we liked our site and have no complaints. This is definitely a canoe and kayaking community! We brought are kayak with us and went down the Upper Iowa River Saturday and Sunday, if you are at this campground make sure you spend a day on the river. The owners of campground are very nice and helpful, they offered a shuttle service for 25.00 a car load to get us to drop off point with our kayak but we had transportation so it wasn’t necessary. They did give us directions to a 4 or 6 hour float and we went with the 4. The owners also told of us of a nice hike near a spring in the area that we really enjoyed. I’m a bit of a brewery buff so we hit Toppling Goliath and was not disappointed.. We did check out some of the other campgrounds and did find that some have you packed in like cord wood so double check if you go somewhere else.

Iowa only has a few state forests and this one has something the others do not... trout fishing.

There are actually three campgrounds in YRSF... one on Little Paint Creek, one equestrian campground on Little Paint Creek, and a campground on Paint Creek. I have stayed at both non-equestrian campgrounds multiple times. All of them, including the equestrian, have easy access to trout fishing. All are primitive - non-electric.

Little Paint Creek:

This is the larger of the two non-equestrian campgrounds. While there are no electric sites, there are many sites suitable for a small to large RV or camper. I generally camp in a tent here. Most of the sites are large with plenty of space between adjacent sites. Many are right next to the trout stream. This trout stream is excellent for beginners. It is stocked, and there are multiple pools that are easily accessible with one that is handicap accessible. The stream can get busy when the stock truck arrives. It is popular with fly fisherman as well as spinners and power-bait. The campsite itself is usually pretty quiet. There are several pit toilets available.

Paint Creek:

This is my favorite of the two sites and I have camped many nights here, mostly in a tent but once in a small camper. The trout stream is bigger than Little Paint and offers more challenging fishing. Fly fishing seems to be most successful but I catch most of my trout on an ultralight spinner rig. The campsite itself is usually pretty quiet and not very busy, but it can get more busy during Iowa deer season. There are two pit toilets available.

I have stayed in these campsites in spring and autumn months.