Best Cabin Camping near Darwin, MN

Clean gravel sites with electric hook up surrounded by well maintained grass, picnic table, and fire pit. Central water spigot and dump station. Great signage throughout. Showers and restrooms available. A couple disc golf baskets, sand volleyball court and well maintained grass fields were available for play. Lake independence is a 5-10 minute walk along a newly paved trail. Lake offers two swimming beaches, a water equipment rental area, new restroom facilities, and a playground that was under construction at this time. Simple online reservation process at $26/night our one night total cost $36.03 all fees included. Morning of our reservation, camp staff called to communicate a change of site due to our reserved site having issues with its electrical. All amenities functioned appropriately. My wife, two young boys, and I had a great first time experience with our Bambi 19CB Airstream!

What a privilege it was to spend a night here! I had been out of town and away from home the previous week, and decided I would stop here on the long drive home in order to break up my trip. It wasnt just goid stopover, but a great retreat to restore body, mind and spirit. This listing for the Creekwood Cabin is a new listing on the“Hipcamp” website, which is like Airbnb for campgrounds, campsites, camper cabins, etc, that are located on private properties like farms and vineyards. The Theisens, Todd and Sarah, are the stewards of a beautiful farm focused on organic, sustainable and restorative land practices on acreage that is a mix of prairie, forest, wetlands, and rolling hills. They have free range cows, pigs and chickens who roam the farm freely and who are pretty happy campers themselves, it seems! The Theisens also have a traditional woodcraft and wood products business using sustainable harvest of hardwoods on their land, turning downed trees into planks for hardwood floors, wall panelling, countertops and other home woodwork for area homes. Currently in production when I was there were several outhouses to be uses at the campsites they are setting up in various wooded groves on their farm, and in the works are the production if several tiny homes that will serve as camper cabins on their farm. Any tree wood not used in their products is chipped and used as woods for the miles of walking trails they are setting up over hill and dale on the property, and for sawdust for their composting toilets for their guest facilities. As of yet, the tent campsites and tiny house camper cabins are still being constructed and are a“work in progress”, but given what I saw will be really wonderful when finished. I had the opportunity to stay in their recently opened Creek Wood Cabin, which is an amazing showcase of both their hospitality and their best woodwork artisanry. This cabin is set in a shady grove of mature trees on a hill overlooking a peaceful pond and marsh. I was serenaded all night by frogs and owls and more. The cabin is constructed with all local materials, including of course woodwork from their own trees. The cabin has a full working kitchen including microwave, stove, fridge and sink, so you can bring all you need for your own meal prep. There is one open bedroom with a comfy double bed on the main floor, and two more double beds in the sunny loft above. The sitting area is complete with two rocking chairs and a library of amazing books related to sustainable living, simplicity, camping, and various topics to restore the spirit. There are large sunny windows on all walls which makes the cabin sunny and cheerful and makes the interior woodwork glow with warmth. There is a wood stove and a well stocked wood box, but there is also electric baseboard heat. There is running water with an on-demand water heater, but the toilet is an efficient low impact composting toilet so be prepared to flush with sawdust instead if water when using the facilities! Next to the cabin is a heavenly sauna that is set up for either dry or steam saunas. I loved having a sauna before bedtime and sleeping soundly til the rooster crowed at sunrise. When I had arrived the night before, Todd took me out in his RTV to tour the whole farm to see all the animals and the farming and woodworking operations, and also showed me all the trails I could go on. So, when the rooster called me forth the next morning I knew just where to go for my morning walk. When I returned, I reD for a while and journaled for a while til Sarah showed up at the cabin door with a basket containing my piping hot breakfast complete with fresh scrambled eggs from their henhouse. After breakfast, I visited the cows and their calves in their peaceful meadow, including one calf who was pals with the Bernese mountain dogs of the farm and preferred to frolick with the dogs rather than the other calves! Then more resting, writing and relaxing in the cozy cabin before continuing in my way. I would have to recommend this cabin stay as one if the loveliest I have experienced, and I know I will be back for more! In summer, guests would enjoy being in the farm itself and learning all the Theisens can share able simple low impact living and sustainable farming and restorative land management. If staying here you could also visit like-minded facilities like the organic gardens or art studios of the nearby College of St Benedict, or the solar farm or Arboretum and restored prairie at nearby St Johns University. St Johns and St Bens also have myriad hiking trails and places for meditation both indoors and out. Guests of the cabin can easily access both campuses just minutes away by car or bike, with additional biking further afield on the nearby Lake Woebegone state bike trail. During the school year there are myriad cultural activities on both campuses that cabin guests could take advantage of, and a winter time stay would also be lovely with the chance for snowshoeing or cross country skiing on the farm itself or in the area, as well as the chance to just rest, read, write and restore in the peace and quiet and coziness if the cabin. It would be the kind of retreat that Thoreau himself would heartily recommend, but Thoreau never had it this good in his own cabin! Come check it out for yourself, or come for the tent camping or tiny house experience as soon as those options are ready!

Backpack sites only. Love this park as it offers many backpacking sites with some being very short hikes in and some being longer hikes. Some are lake front and some are more woodsy sites. I really enjoy sites 1, 2, and 3 as they are a little more secluded from other sites, however 1 is fairly close to the county road so you will hear some vehicle noise overnight. Site comes with a fire ring, picnic table, and bear locker. Site 1 is my favorite despite the road noise due to the location of the tent pad and being on almost a peninsula offering lots of lake views.

To be fair I'd like to preface this review with a word of caution. We went in the middle of Summer. High bug season. Take a look at other reviews as they come in and see what time of year they visited. Maybe they'll have a similar experience, maybe not. The fun thing about this state park is that all the sites are hike in. No drive up camping. It has a couple camper cabins as well. But everyone is spread out along a few trails so it's a little quieter than your typical campground.

When we pulled up to the parking lot we knew we were in trouble. The black flies were dive bombing the car like a scene from Armageddon. We prepared the kiddos for a quick grab and run and jumped out of the car. Our campsite was about a mile from the car so we started at a quick walk onto the trail. First step onto the grassy trail exploded in a cloud of mosquitos. Walking along the kids all looked like Pig-Pen from Peanuts. Even though we'd sprayed everyone down the bugs must have felt safety in numbers because we were covered in welts in no time flat. That's when the jogging began. Soon we were running and also planning out how to set up camp the quickest. Little tent first, throw the kids in, big tent second and then everyone in there while dinner was being made. Luckily at our actual campsite the bugs weren't quite as horrendous so we were able to get out a bit after applying a few more layers of repellant. Our site was on a short private trail off the main loop and opened up to a decent space. We had a picnic table and fire pit and plenty of space for our two tents and an area to play. We were all entertained by the plethora of mushroom varieties that surrounded the camp. We spent a bit of time outside and then played in the tent the rest of the night. Unfortunately the bugs were bad enough that the next morning we just packed up and headed back to the car. I would like to come back to this park in late fall and try out a camper cabin. There are three of them all on lakes so if you can get past buggy season it has the potential to be a great experience. Have you ever been to Lake Maria? Stayed in one of their camper cabins? Let me know, I'd love to hear how it went!

Every site is a hike in site, including the three camper cabins. The trails are groomed enough that if you have a cart, you can pack your gear in that way too.

My wife and I stayed at camper cabin 1 on this Mon-Wed trip, and it is secluded and beautiful. You have to take a little bridge to get to it even.

There was a major storm that came through Sun-Mon, and this being a wetlands, things got muddy and buggy quick. The area around the cabin itself was good though as a breeze coming off the lake kept the bugs at bay.

The cabin itself is very cozy. Two bunks with queen on the bottom and twin on the top to sleep six total. A couple of good spots outside you can hang hammocks from too. Bring lighting as the cabin solar light only gives you a couple hours (assuming it could even charge up that day and it didn’t our first day) and it’s so wooded it gets dark very quickly. Everything is sealed up nice and tight too, so no bugs in the cabin unless you tear the screens or leave the door open.

All the necessary items to clean up the cabin were provided, broom, dustpan, spray bottle, cloth, bucket, so that made cleaning up easy.

I rated 4 stars based on three factors.

1. Park office is only open Friday through Sunday. Makes sense seeing as that if it’s not that busy of a place during this week of July 4th, I can’t imagine other weeks getting busier.

2. Rain can get things boggy quick, possibly closing the trail to your site even.

3. State website says fire wood is provided, and two cords were at the cabin when we got there, but nothing said we had to pay for the wood. It’s fine, but I’ll have to run into town as I didn’t bring cash with me to leave in the envelope at the office, since the office is closed during the week, which also means if I needed more than these two cords, I have to run to town... As of this review, cords were $6 at the park and $5.50 at the truck stop up by I-94.

Otherwise the place is great and I can imagine coming back again with friends and trying out the hike in tent sites too.

TLDR version: Great place, quiet on these weekdays during a holiday week, bring firewood, use a cart if you have one to bring things to your site.