Minneiska Campground — Whitewater State Park

This campground is on the opposite side of the road as the park office… but on the same side as the beach. Nice new shower building and nice roads. Some sites are a bit on the smaller side, but there are some drive through sites as well. There are also group sites and cabins.

During a cross country trip we were tired and looking for a place to rest. Found this campground it was clean. Nice bathrooms and easy access. Found a site paid on line.

I thought I was getting punked. I had the entire State Park to myself. It was super cool be eerie. Great hikes and the view from the top was worth it. Campsites in the campground are really close together, so when full, I imagine that is a downside. Didn’t matter to me, there were zero other campers.

Stayed here for a couple nights on a mini state park road trip. Nice place, like most of the MN state parks. Spotty cell service. Hiked a trail with lots of steps. Fire ring and picnic table are provided at each site. Restroom with showers also available in campground. Site was large and easy to back into and offered some tree cover for shade during certain times of the day. Was unable to hang hammock in specific site we stayed at, but some of the sites looked like they would be suitable.

Stayed here a few years back with a one friends. Had a good time. Nice state campground.

We camped at Whitewater State Park August 14-17, 2022, in drive-in campsite #53 of the Cedar Hill campground. The campsite was great! We were surrounded by mature trees, shrubs, and wildflowers on three sides. We could hear the flow of the river as it tumbled along its course behind the campsite. It was very peaceful.

Lots of birds, butterflies, and squirrels visited our campsite daily. We heard raccoons at night but never saw them. There were no mosquitos and very few other flying insects.

It was a long walk from our site to the new restroom/shower building. There was water and a vault toilet closer, about four campsites away.

The park has many hiking trails of varying degrees of difficulty. We hiked to Chimney Rock and Inspiration Point and found the trails more challenging than we expected from their descriptions.

We greatly enjoyed our time at Whitewater and plan to return.

We are new to tent camping and are fortunate to live a short drive away from Whitewater State Park. We have heard from our friends who go camping that this is a highly sought after destination and I can see why. Beautiful lookouts on trails, quiet camp sites (non electric sites are much more peaceful), and very nice amenities. The main shower/restroom area looks brand new and is very nice.

Not overly crowded, clean showers and family friendly. Swimming beach about half a mile from campground. Didn’t get to hike, due to heavy rain. TMobile has no service while AT&T has average to poor service. Probably one of the nicest state park camping I’ve done.

Whitewater State Park Campground is amazing. It's very clean, well kept and the sites are all mostly private with trees which is so much nicer than being in a giant field of tents and RVs like most campgrounds. There's toilets all over the place and water available in many spots. There's beautiful hiking trails right next to the campground and a lovely beach for kids. I'll definitely be back.

Enjoyed the cart-in experience. Made it feel like you were out a bit more and not totally dependent on your car. Also further away from the road. Couldn’t hear any traffic at night or day. The creek helped with that too. Enjoyed putting up our REI kingdom 6. Grilled hot dogs and s’mores. Read star Bible and Brian Jacques’ Redwall to our little boys. In the morning we did a little hike before taking off. Just 1 night stay.

Had a great long weekend every sight was booked but it rained all weekend which really thinned out the herd and made the more challenging trails slick and muddy but I loved it all the same.

Spent 2 nights here. Not so crowded during the week. In newer area of campground, very clean and nice bathhouse, camp sites don’t have as much shade here, but will as trees grow. Throughly enjoyed the hike along the Dakota trail.

One of the most amazing parks in the state! With its fun but difficult hiking trails and beautiful rivers to fish from you might be lucky to catch a rainbow or brook trout but be ready to go very early or near dusk if you hope to land a bite. For those who enjoy wildlife and nature I highly recommend but warning the wildlife is very friendly and get very close to you especially raccoons at all times of the day . The beach has really soft sand and the water is nice and cool but this time around a lot of people had mix reviews about it saying it had pockets of warm temperatures and pretty buggy. But for sure one of the best features are the restrooms always cleaned everyday and the showers water always hot and enough for multiple family’s so never any waiting time

Enjoyed a difficult but fun hike, went fishing, and camped out in group site 3 which is the one with the most shade. Keep watch on the ground to not accidentally step on a snake. They do have Timber Rattlesnake but they are so rare I didn't see one. Mostly water snakes, one was sleeping in the path and I almost stepped on him! Saw a mink on trout run creek, and a tortoise in the river in the South picnic area from the bridge. Didn't have much luck fishing. Only nibbles but no catches. A doe dropped by our group site and there are golden eagle nests at the top of the Pine trees behind the group sites next to the trail that goes to the beach. Very eventful trip, and a great view at inspiration point if you have the energy to get there!

It was a great campground. The fishing was tricky but there were tons of trout and suckers to get if you wanted them. The hiking was amazing. The swimming beach was good for the kids. They caught tadpoles galore. Another huge perk to this place is that phones don’t work. People have to actually talk to each other.

We stayed at Minneiska campground since Cedar Hills is under construction this year. It's a newer campground so the vegetation hasn't grown in fully yet - your neighbors are visible but there's good distance between sites so it wasn't a problem at all. The grounds themselves are really well-kept with nice bathroom facilities and hot showers, which was perfect for the cooler fall days. It's a busy park so you'll need to reserve early or plan on visiting during the week.

The hiking itself was awesome. We did the Dakota trail, which was a tough up and down hike with really incredible views of the fall colors. There's also a nice park/picnic area with beach access. I'm hoping to come back next summer to enjoy the swimming. All in all it was a great stay!

We were in Gooseberry Glen cart-in site 4. As other reviewers have said, it's a fairly long walk in with your gear, and the trail is challenging when pushing a cart. Once at the site, it's beautiful: right on the water, completely shaded, and spacious. However, we could clearly see our neighbors at site 3, which you don't expect at a cart-in site this far in the woods. It rained while we were there, and the site became quite muddy. Our gear and ourselves were filthy when we left. Finally, as another reviewer said, the animals in the area are not shy: mice, raccoon, squirrel, all were scampering around very close and in clear view of us throughout our stay. We kept our food in the car as there was no secure food box at the site.

We enjoyed hiking the challenging Dakota Trail during our stay. It was about a 3.5-4 hour hike with aggressive elevation changes and beautiful scenic overlooks. The majority of the trail is well shaded in the woods.

We had a great cart-in site (Gooseberry glen site 4). There weren’t a lot of signs to get us there, but we were able to figure out where to go with the state park map. The cart-in distance is long; probably about a half mile with lots of tree roots to try and drive your cart over.

Site 4 is right on a rushing creek, which was perfect, and provided a great noise to fall asleep to, and to cancel out the close neighbors (site 3 is pretty much right next to it).

Heads up that we had a lot of raccoon and mice visitors, who didn’t seem afraid of people. The food/wood locker had plenty of access points for mice, so make sure to secure your food at dusk.

Other than animal issues (and a not ideal restroom situation), this was a great spot with awesome hikes (chimney rock, inspiration point) and great access to water.

I’d recommend site 2 or 4 if you want river access.

Nice river with lots of sites right on it. Campsites nestled in trees so pretty private. Campsites are a bit tightly packed for my taste, but a nice spot for sure.

Very nice campground!! The area has lots to do.

This park has a lot to offer in terms of hiking!  Many, many miles of trials from flat prairies, to rocky bluffs, to dirt wooded.  And some excellent views from the blufftops! We plan on going in the fall again to take in the colors!  Beautiful trout fishing river running through the park, even has a swimming beach!

Overall a wonderful park to day-hike, fish, and camp in!

We stayed here over Memorial weekend and had a blast--there were so many fun things to do! We hiked, took trout fishing lesson, sat at the beach and had relaxing evenings by the fire. If you can give up electricity for a couple days I think the best sites are along the water. Theres a slow flowing spring fed river running behind site 70 (and a couple sites on either side of it) that have paths down to the water where you can sit and fish or just enjoy the sound of the water running past. There are 2 campgrounds at this State Park and the older one where we stayed will unfortunately be closed for the 2020 camping season for renovations.

Such a beautiful place to camp! The park is clean and kept up nicely! Brand new bathrooms, nice beach and fishing, great hiking trails. Lots of pretty wildflowers throughout it. Would definitely go back!

Drinking water had already been turned off for the season, but the bathroom still had running water and flush toilets in mid-October. Easy access to hiking trails. My site was close in distance to adjacent ones, but was on the edge by the creek, so it was pretty quiet. None of the cart-in sites were vacant the night I stayed, but those looked lovely as well.

Pack your hiking shoes and fishing gear! (Don’t forget that trout stamp) we hiked two different trails and had so much fun! Be carful with little ones as it’s very rocky and steep drop offs! We decided to keep our 3 year old in the carrier on dads back (especially hiking the chimney rock hike to insperation peak)

We where campsite 36 with our small camper and it was plenty big! My parents where in 38 with a HUGE camper and also had plenty of room! We visited in October so the campground wasn’t completely full but most sites where occupied and it was still quite. We had a great time!

no phone reception