LegendMinneiska Campground — Whitewater State Park
Small and quaint with plenty of space
This campground is small and quaint...plenty of space without being too close to your neighbors. Super easy to social distance here.
We visited in winter (February) and while there was snow on the ground, the spaces were kept plowed with easy access to the electric boxes. We were in a teardrop trailer. Plenty of space for the car and the teardrop in space #202, but all spaces that were plowed had plenty of room to pull in. Some were even "pull through" which would be extra nice if you wanted it (either big rig type RV or pull behind).
As with State Parks in MN, it's best to make the reservation online, especially with office staff being spotty these days. Price is $35 for the space/night with electric, and this time of year, there are no other options besides electric spaces. The bonus of making "day of" reservations means there is no extra service fee. But waiting that "long" to make the reservation also means there are no refunds if you can't get there. You are far better off as a "no show" than "cancelling", since there is actually a cancellation fee on top of losing your nightly rate if you actually "cancel".
The campground has far more spaces than you can reserve this time of year (typical of "winter" camps at State Parks in MN). But the loop that had the openings was super easy. Just literally a loop around one side of the camp with a vault toilet on one side that was super easy to get to from anywhere you were plugged in. It was fairly clean (dirty floor understandable this time of year due to wet boots and slush).
I was surprised at the nature of the young trees. Lots of them, but all very small. That said, in the winter this is more obvious due to lack of leaves, but in summer, I suspect it's lovely. Still, there are plenty of them and with the huge spaces between sites, even without leaves it wasn't an issue. I don't think there are any trees big enough to hammock in.
The entrance to the campground is literally right inside the park. Across from the visitor center, so you can't miss it. And although it was close to the road, very little road noise. The only noises we were actually aware of were natural ones...some cows in the distance, lots of birds and at night, Barred Owls and a few coyotes. All welcome noises for us!
This time of year, water is not on in the campground, but there is a spigot right across the road at the visitor center that is on (easy 2 min walk). They also have firewood for sale with an "honor" box, but the bundles the day were were there were $6 and the small bundle was basically small kindling. Not idea for a winter fire.
All spaces had a nice picnic table and fire ring. We had to "dig" to ours with a small snow shovel in the car, but it wasn't an issue.
**NOTE: You do need a MN state park sticker or day pass to stay at the campground**
