Are you in need of a campground near Bigelow, MN? Aside from great camping spots, you'll find hiking and many more outdoor experiences. Thinking of traveling with kids? You're in luck—Bigelow is surrounded by family-friendly activities. You're sure to find the perfect spot for your Minnesota camping adventure.
$20 - $35 / night
"The bathroom facility at the drive-in campground is much nicer than the one for the tipis and cart-in sites."
"Amazing remnant of Minnesota prairie set among the farm country."
"I did notice that the power boxes are set up is only few spots with multiple power boxes on the post. So you could need a power cord extention. If all spots by the power boxes are taken up."
"The electrical and water are a little spaced out. We took the end spot and count quite reach our two water hoses. There two long-term campers who were hooked up to the water spigot closest to us."
$5 - $45 / night
"A good place to camp for the night with gas and groceries nearby. All sites have electricity but only 20/30/60 amps. Water spigots are spread throughout the campground."
"Very cheap , 15$ a night for rv with electric and water, 5$ for tents. Huge swimming area with slides for kids, and river with a lot of fish!!! Brand New shower houses ."
"They sell campfire wood for 6$ a bundle on site so we had some great campfires going. They have nice long paved trails for walking and biking."
"Easy access from 90W, not much road noise and close to the town of Brandon for supplies. "
"Some have electric hook up, others are just for tent camping. All of them provide a picnic table and a fire pit. They also have little log cabins. We stayed at campsite 6 which was a very good spot."
"The campsite was easy to find and close to the town of Garretson. There was a small grocery store there."
"Arrived after office was closed. Still greeted by the owner very welcomingly. Test site is flat, dry and grassy. Could’ve ask for a better site. Mosquitoes where not an issue at this site."
"Great KOA, owners were very friendly and welcoming. They invited us to their “end of season” party and came and talked to us the next morning."
$23 - $33 / night
"We spent three nights at the Oak Woods campground at Lake Shetek State Park in May 2022."
"Tons of walking trails and pet friendly!! You’ll see lots of birds and deer... Second time here and love it!!"
"Frisbee Golf, playground, and a 5mile trail around lake. As good as you get for a Municipal Campground."
GuideI spent the night here and had to pay the entrance fee to the park as well as the camping fee for my tentsite. They had only a few tentsites available amid all the RV sites, but they were right on the edge of the playground, so the families had to walk right through my campsite to get to the play area. Not too big a deal as no one wanted to use the play area at night while I was sleeping, but still. I also looked over at the power lines. There was a flush toilet facility close by but there was a very bright light on all night. Good for families needing to navigate in the dark but not wonderful if you like sleeping in darkness. And though I was told that quiet hours began at 10PM, the site next to me was quite loud through the trees until at least midnight so the quiet hours are not enforced. Meh. I don't think I'll be going back.
LegendWe camped here over the weekend with our dogs. The campground is within 10 miles off of I90.
The park is not very big so there are not many campsites. Some have electric hook up, others are just for tent camping. All of them provide a picnic table and a fire pit. They also have little log cabins. We stayed at campsite 6 which was a very good spot. Some of the other sites seemed very close together without much privacy or shade.
The park staff (rangers, camp host and volunteers) was extremely friendly. They always made sure that we had everything we needed. The rangers also offer different programs on the weekend like learning about geocaching or how to make campfire desserts.
There is one bathhouse for the entire campground. It seemed a little old but got cleaned daily. There are also several vault toilets around the area. From the campground you have access to the water. There are also several short hiking trails from where you can see the rock formations.
It was just a very short ride to the Devils Gulch (Jesse James historical site) or Split Rock Park. There is also a Dollar General close by. We would definitely recommend the campground.
TravelerThis campground is still charging $17 for a camp site, $7 transaction fee and $7/day entrance fee despite the fact they have no running water. The toilets still flush. In the morning our car filled up with flies that bit us for hours before we were able to eliminate all of them. It is a 5 mile drive back to Luverne if you need supplies, and I was unable to locate a grocery store.
Two good things; they have a Free Little Library and at night the lawn was covered with fireflies
The campground was so miserable that the campground host had abandoned their trailer and was never present. We did have several locals drive through the campground to spy on us, presumably to see who was stupid enough to camp there. You are entirely responsible for knowing what site you reserved because there was no attempt to label reserves sites.
There is no privacy between sites. This is just a big lawn with driveways, picnic tables and fire pits. The landscaping is nicely done with blackberries popping out of some hedges and providing eye-level interest at the base of trees.
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LegendThis was a drive-by site for us and not a destination, so our review is based on only one night. We found the park to be very quiet and only had a few camping neighbors during our stay. It seems like it might be a destination for retired RVers, as everyone seemed to know each other well, which was fun.
Highlights include nice, easy trails through the prairie, lots of wildflowers, and a herd of bison. We only saw the bison from a distance, but apparently, there are tours. We experienced lots of bugs in early July - biting flies and mosquitoes, and there was a constant humming noise from a nearby farm that really detracted from our experience.
Otherwise, the campground was really peaceful and the bathhouse was clean. We arrived around 4:30 pm and the office was closed. We didn't see a single park employee or campground host during our visit.
We checked out the tipis, which looked really fun, but with all the flies, we opted for setting up our tents to keep them out. We'd totally stay here again, but we probably wouldn't go out of the way to visit.
LegendLast August we headed to Blue Mounds to investigate out the SW corner of our state for the first time. We swung through New Ulm on the way there to check out the Schell's brewing company and we also stopped at Laura Ingalls Wilder's Plum Creek to break up the drive from the twin cities. The drive itself got pretty boring on the last half- lots of flat fields and cows. As you get closer to Luverne things start to become more interesting and the town of Luverne itself was an unexpected delight.
Yes, the water currently has e.coli in it. There is a huge alert on the park's page explaining how you can go about accessing water and showers nearby. The $17 rate is the discounted price to reflect the e. coli discount. The main campground is pretty open, some sites have shade, it is a prairie after all. The cart-in campsite offers much more privacy with the grove of trees there. The bathroom facility at the drive-in campground is much nicer than the one for the tipis and cart-in sites.
We spent one night in the tipi (cool experience for $30-$35 a night) and two nights at a cart-in site w-09. Some of the paths to the cart-in sites are not flat and rather long, but ours wasn't bad at all. I would definitely consider staying at that campsite again. I don't think I would necessarily stay in a tipi again unless I could book it on short notice if I knew that the weather was going to be dry and cool. The day before we got there it had rained quit a bit and when we arrived it was HOT. This meant that we got to enjoy our tipi experience with the aroma of hot wet tipi. The tipi floor is a platform made out of manufactured deck boards that keep you off the ground. The tipi itself isn't nearly as critter-proof as a tent. We wound up packing up our belongings and putting them in our car between leaving the tipi and moving into our campsite since we wanted to go check out the local area before we could check into our next site and somehow a garter snake got transported out of the tipi in our belongings and into our car- awesome haha.
The park was flooded a few years back which washed out a quite a bit- the lake that used to be there is now gone and just overgrown with plants. Most of the park is dedicated to the bison, so hiking opportunities are kind of limited. There are a ton of bison, but you either get to see them or you don't unless you go on one of their bison tours. They were present by the fence twice while we were there. There is pretty much a large trail loop with another large loop that swings off of that. Bring a wide-brimmed hat and tons of sun screen, not much tree cover on the trails. The one visitor center located in the southern portion of the park appeared to be permanently closed.
Luverne was cool. There are tons of historic houses and next time I'm out there I'll spend some time driving through neighborhoods to check them out. There is a basic grocery store off of Main Street for anything that you may need to pick up. I kind of wish that we had gone out to eat in town more because of how great the food was. Sterling's was delicious and much more upscale than anything I expected to find out there, the local Buffalo Sweat beer was great enough that I tried to find it at the local liquor store before I left. Showers are available at the Luverne aquatic center for free.
Overall I really enjoyed my experience and I look forward to my next trip out there, whenever that may be. If you are coming from the Twin Cities make sure to hit up Schells and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Plum Creek homestead like I mentioned above. Nearby side trips are Pipestone, Touch the Sky prairie, and Jeffers Petroglyphs
GuideAmazing remnant of Minnesota prairie set among the farm country. With the prairie in Minnesota gone except for a handful of small conservation areas, Blue Mounds State Park is an oasis of prairie in a sea of corn and soybean. Bison roam a small area of a few hundred acres where prairie smoke and other native plants make a last stand in a landscape of Sioux quartzite rock outcroppings, cliffs, streams, rivers and waterfalls. Hike the park or drive over to touch the Sky prairie, there’s plenty to do. The campsites are high and dry with some set overlooking mound creek or nestled amongst the shade trees. In cooler months the park has a stone shelter with a wood burning stove to escape the rain or chill. There are three spacious tipis for rent. $30-35 a night that can sleep 4-6 people. Those sites are set to the side and offer some privacy.
TravelerThe campsite was easy to find and close to the town of Garretson. There was a small grocery store there. We only stayed one night on our way West, the sites were nice and grassy with mixed sun and shade. It’s been a dry year so the mosquitos were minimal. We explored split rock creek which is a5 minute walk from the campsite- very beautiful rock formations and an old walking bridge built in 1908. Pictures don’t do the rocks justice, they are beautiful! However, the water was very brown and murky, smelled suspiciously like manure. We saw some people swimming but opted not to because of the color and smell of the water. We did see many large fish in the creek. There were also nice picnic areas on the creek with tables and fire pits. Last issue with the campsite was the noise. The night started out quiet with lots of insect sounds, which are loud but so great when you are camping! The unexpected noises were trains passing by (sounded super close in the middle of the night), planes flying overhead, and cars driving by. This is of course not the fault of the park but the surrounding area…still wouldn’t recommend a long quiet camping trip here if you want to escape the everyday sounds of humans. Overall a very sweet campground, good bathrooms and showers. Staff was very friendly and helpful.
GuideThe campground is smaller but it is very well maintained. New bath house. They have done a lot to make this park accessible. Grassy sites, some better positioned than others. Very good shade. Some random placement for trash bins but I’d rather have too many than not enough.
There are lots of hiking trails with options for lots of distances. It was cool to see the Bison (from the west loop). The dam is pretty as well.
GuideSuch a nice campground. Nice big shady trees and manicured lawns. They sell campfire wood for 6$ a bundle on site so we had some great campfires going. They have nice long paved trails for walking and biking. We got to walk our dogs on it to avoid tick contact from the grassy trails. There was a cool suspension bridge that was fun to walk on. The showers were very nice and hot without a lot of traffic.
There is no sewage hookup or water hook ups. They do that 50/30 amp sites available. There is a dump station right at the entrance to dump when you leave and it also has a separate fresh water station if you want to fill up right when you get there so youre not traveling with a bunch of water in your tank.
It was a great campground and the falls were close by and palisades state park was also in the area with a nice hike.
There is an extra $8 car fee per night that you have to pay on top of any camping fees. If you are staying longer than 5 days it better to just get the annual parking pass for $32, which would cover parking for all state parks and recreation areas in SD.
They have great discounts if you are a veteran and south dakota resident.
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According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Bigelow, MN is Blue Mounds State Park Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 52 reviews.
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