Best Campgrounds near Apple Valley, MN

I have long overlooked William O’Brien because I thought you had to drive a long way to get away. I was wrong! We planned this weekend with friends to camp in our matching teardrop trailers. We have never really camped with friends before, so the point was to just go, not to really travel far. We loved the trails. It was easy to takes hikes of varying lengths. There were so many different kinds of birds, and the wildflowers were blooming and ferns were unfurling -so many shades of green! This was the first really nice spring weather, and the Savanna Campground was quite full. Several people seemed to be there in groups, but we had no issues with noise. The pit toilets were cleaned and stocked with TP and sanitizer. The shower house needs some paint, but had been cleaned.

The river side of the park had been closed for months for construction, but had just opened two days before our stay. The Riverside campground appeared quite full, too.

All in all, I would visit again. There were lots of people, but it was easy to take a walk and get some space and some nature.

Booked two sites to camp with friends, they had an RV and given the storms we had, that would have been better than our tent. Played Boy Scout for the weekend and rigged a solid site for my family of 4. Even got to go canoeing on the river!

I bought new camping gear and this campground, given its proximity to our house, made for an easy weekend getaway to give the gear a trial run.

The beach area looks nice but we didn’t use it.

Nice little Campground right in the middle of the town plenty of spots for campers and Tents no pull through sights power yes water and sewer no but they do have a dump station.

We have stayed here for business.

Dakotah Meadows is one of the nicer parks in the Twin Cities area.  Grounds are mostly well groomed and the roads are maintained. There is some pride reflected in the ownership.

We last stayed in side 25, a back in up on the hill.  We have also stayed in the pull through sites, but not really a fan of those.  Still, I would choose this park over others in the area for the access to 494 and 35W.

Dakotah's website has an incomplete campsite map showing only the lower sites between the pond and road.  What the map doesn't show is the three rows of pull-through and additional 10 back-in sites at the top of the hill.

The site was just fine for what we wanted to do and that was trying out our new trailer. Not much in the way of hiking, but the lake access looked nice.

As with most State Parks, the campground sites are really close together and you have very little privacy. The hikes were beautiful and the variety of old growth trees was spectacular.

I was traveling Eastward through the upper Midwest and had a really hard time in this area finding a place to camp. I finally came across this place. There was some suggestion that there was some drive in sites that were not reservable, that is. They were first come first serve. But I was unaware or unable to find those. I ended up paying a fair amount of money for a full hookup site. The bathrooms were extremely modern and clean.

There were some really nice wide trails around the lake. I think those were basically designed for cross-country skiing in the winter. But they made a perfect opportunity for me to let the dog run off. Leash. Probably was not within the rules, but it was very quiet there and the dog didn't bother anybody with her running.

Nice distance from the twin cities for a weekend away with some nice hiking trails. The tent pads have been upgraded to pea gravel by the friends association (which seems to be quite active based on signage around park improvements). Showers and bathrooms were clean. Wi-Fi near the park entrance and spotty T-Mobile service throughout. The outside of the loop is good for tent camping but could be a little noisy if the campground had been fully booked.

The campground is right off 169 in the town of St. Peter. There are zero signs on the main road for the camp ground and signage once off the main road is terrible as well.

We had good luck with the GPS directing it toward levee park. Once in the park you can find your way.

Sights are back in with electric. Very basic but it’s perfect for the over night stay. We are hear after Labor Day on a Friday and there are plenty of open spots. The place is about 15 spots large and is at about 50% capacity.

Overall it’s well lite and feels very safe! Would recommend for a night.

Nice river nearby canoeing swimming pool fireplaces and little store for treats.

This campground is closed permanently

Lovely trails, the beach is a large area with a nice park and picnic area. The water itself is ok, lots of geese and algae. The falls are wonderful though. The bathrooms are fine. I could not find a garbage bin to save my life, not near the bathrooms or anywhere in campground 200 or by the park ranger post. If there were garbage cans dispersed throughout the campground, I would have given 5 stars. Especially along the trail to the waterfalls because there was garbage all along the trail unfortunately. Not the camps fault, but maybe people would be more responsible if garbage bins were placed along the route.

The east part of the park was all closed for construction. Everything on the east side of the highway was closed so we could not hike a lot of the trails or use the beach which was a challenge with kids. Constructing is scheduled to the end of 2025.

We stayed in a group site but there was no way 35 people could have camped in W3. Vaulted toilets need help and a good cleaning.

The shower house needed a cleaning as well. There is no adjusting the shower temperature. Push the button and you get what you get.

Wood was $8 bundle. This was steep in my opinion. They do not all any gathering of firewood.

If your vehicle permit is not properly displayed, you will receive a notice on your windshield and have to talk with the office.

The dumpster was overflowing the whole time we were there.

Raccoons will visit your site at night. We had everything secured but they still tried and plenty of racket until we chased them away.

Lastly we had a battle with mosquitoes. We went through a lot of bug spray and coils. Deer flies were thick around the water filling station.

Although we did not stay in the main campground the sites are very close in there and were small.