Best Cabin Camping near Darwin, MN

Games Lake County Park, near New London, Minnesota, is a great spot for camping. With tent, RV, and cabin options, it suits all campers. The park offers electric hookups, clean facilities, and friendly staff. FR Legends recommends this park for its peaceful atmosphere and great amenities. Located near Games Lake, it’s perfect for fishing, boating, and family fun. A playground, beach, and boat launch make it a great getaway. Open May to September, it’s ideal for outdoor adventures!

Lake Maria State Park has great hiking trails for the whole family, the camper cabins are spread throughout and are hike in only. Each cabin is pretty secluded and on a body of water. The cabins themselves are very basic, but the setting is awesome.

I haven’t stayed in the backpack tent sites, but I bet they’re fantastic.

If you’re looking for a county park close to the Twin Cities metro area with a beautiful lake, good fishing, swimming, recreation rentals like paddle boards kayaks and canoes that also has a campground with Camper Cabins attached, look no further than Baker Park Reserve. Baker Park reserve is just outside of Maple Plain Minnesota which is about 45 minutes from the Twin Cities metro area.

Lake Independence is attached to Baker Park reserve which is a beautiful lake for fishing, swimming, kayaking and, recreational boating. You can catch everything from Crappies, perch, sunfish, walleye and, musky on this lake. A lot of people come out and troll the lake for musky and also bring pontoons for swimming. You can jump right off the pontoon into the lake and have a great time with the family or just be alone on the boat and catch a ton of fish.

The lake can be busy especially on holiday weeks and weekends and The park and restricts how many boats around the lake and enforces no wake zone’s during the holiday I’m busy times. So check the leak before you go if you’re planning on doing or jet skiing or just cruising around on your boat.

The campground that’s attached to the park is pretty open and there are very many secluded sites if any at all. I took a few videos while driving through the campground to show you what the campground is like. There’s a campground office that offer snacks and sodas and ice and such. If you’re looking for a good getaway for the weekend that’s close this would be a good park for you.

Overall, I would give the campground a three out of five because it is so dang open and there isn’t much privacy. There is however, very nice shower buildings and a nice office. I would give the park a four out of five for usefulness and overall fun. There is a lot to do and it is close to the metro.

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.

The camper cabins were cozy and I loved reading the logs of past visitors!

Stayed here overnight being its so close to my hometown. Its a nice quiet park and so are the campgrounds!!! They also have little cabins to stay in that id like to try out!

Appreciated the camper cabin and the clean sites. Most if not all sites are in the woods from what I could tell so there is a lot of leaves. Good trails and a fun experience.

Cute little cabins to stay at. Lots of trails to walk around and pleanty of people there too! Thought it would be quiet but maybe we picked a busy weekend lol. It was still enjoyable!

I went early in the spring for camping at this park and ended up staying in the cabin – it was sort of a, I wanna get out of the city, let’s go camping, oh the campground is still closed sort of last minute trip. I can’t comment on the facilities, as the water wasn’t even back on for the season yet (March 30). The park has two campgrounds from what I saw; one with cabins and tent sites near the wilderness center and one on Andrew Lake. The lake was BEAUTIFUL at sunset. I drove all the way around and took pictures. Lots and lots of wildlife around at this one too! Fun little café in New London (Middle Fork) – delicious French toast and friendly service; seemed like a place the locals went!

What a beautiful park and great camping spaces. We saw the cabins and they looked amazing. The activities around the were plentiful such as snow shoes and sled hill and plenty of trails. Well kept. Beautiful area

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!

This park is only about 50 minutes away from me, and for hiking/camping I only think it is worth a trip in the fall. I went a few weeks ago for the first time in the summer and I thought it was just kind of average as far as hiking goes. Campsites and cabins are walk-in only as far as I know and the site I visited had a private rustic pit toilet a stones throw away. The campsites ARE nice though and private, this just felt too close to home and too similar to parks that are closer. Last year the middle of October was prime color season- drive to the very end where Little Mary Lake is (the bigger lake) and behold- your new destination for your annual family portrait session. Seriously, the yellow leaves are VIVID.

RV resort and some lot rentals, Heated pool, lake with beach, boat launch area just block away, tennis/pickle ball, mini golf, resort store with ice cream, goat park, paved roads and much more)!Contact for sales or rentals: 320-583-9711

This state park uniquely showcases an ecologic transition zone between hardwood forest, savannah, and prairie. There are also local history connections. As a bird watcher, I was very excited to see birds here that I dont usually see at home in northern Minnesota, and to learn a bit more about glaciation in this area and about prairie and savannah habitats. The park has self guided hikes, educational nature programs, and learning kits for birding and more that you can check out at the ranger station. The lakeshore is pretty, and the lakeside campground is green and leafy with mature trees but the campsites are very close together, and the beachfront and bath house are currently closed for renovation which puts a damper on waterfront activities. Away from the lake is another campground in the oak savanna section of the park, and this campground seems quieter with more spacious sites, although they are more open. The park’s camper cabins are located here and are in a very pretty setting tucked into a little hill, though a bit of a walk to the bathrooms and showerhouse. At both campgrounds there are nice ADA sites which are level, spacious and accessible, and also close to the bathrooms. I was at a conference in nearby Willmar, and this park is a good alternative for lodging if you need to be in the area. If you are really into learning more about prairies and local glacial geology, the nearby Prairie Environmental Learning Center is fantastic to visit, and lots of prairie pothole WMAs are also closeby for waterfowl watching

We stayed here with two young kids tent camping. We stayed in site A20 due to the close proximity to the bathrooms. The grounds were very well kept and groomed. The sites were pretty close together with no trees in between, but only around 25% of sites were occupied when we were there so it wasn’t a problem. I would imagine it would be very cozy and not much privacy when full, which could be the only potential drawback. There were a fair amount of RVs- we were one of only a few tents I saw. There were some nice looking cabins on our loop as well. It was a very short walk down a path to the beautiful lake which was deserted when we were there. The bathrooms looked new and were very well kept. There was even one family restroom with a shower which was so awesome for trying yo get two small kids cleaned up. Loved that. Overall this was a great campsite when not full and we had a great time.

Fun spot not far from the Twin Cities. Campsites are nicely spaced and pretty secluded. Nice trails, beach, and beach rentals.

we love to camp here. Access to lake independence. A lot of biking trails. Nice clean bathrooms. Nice park for kids just a small hike away. Plus a decent amount of rentals.

1/4/20-1/5/20. BP6

First camping trip of 2020. You can reserve campsites with the online reservation system this year, which was great. This site was a 1/4 hike (we snowshoed) from the parking area. It was down a hill and set on the cliff of a pond. There were not any other sites nearby, it was very private and had its own portable toilet.. I think it would be equally beautiful in the summer. They had hiking, xcountry skiing and snowshoeing. We went snowshoeing around midnight under a full moon and had the place to ourselves.

There are nice hiking trails right out of the campsite and we went exploring. We liked BP1, 2 and 3. Each were set on a lake and BP1 had a mostly unobstructed view of the lake. The only drawback was that BP1 does not have its own toilet and you have to walk a ways, back over to BP2.

We drove to the other parking area to do some more hiking and exploring. The hiking club trail is on this loop. We didn’t like the campsites on the west end as much (BP9-BP12) as they were all too close together and open. The campsites on lakes looked fabulous - BP8, BP14 and I assume BP5 is nice, but a big hike. The camper cabins looked wonderful as well.

I loved all the trails and hiking opportunities. We will definitely visit again.

Baker park reserve is one of the favorite local parks. There is great camping for everyone. The boat launch is close and the lake has good Muskie and pan fishing. Park gets very busy on holidays and can be hard to find parking and such but overall it has everything you could want. Has playground/fishing dock/beach and water sport rentals. Park is patrolled regularly by three rivers police. Overall our family goes every holiday for the most part to the park!

I've stayed in both campgrounds here. The campground closest to the lake isn't very private but the sites are spacious. Has a clean bathroom for showering. There are a lot of hiking and biking trails and you will see many different kinds of birds and wildlife. Lake Andrew is a big and clean lake with a swimming beach, canoe rentals, and a fishing pier. It's located close to the small town of new London which is fun to wander through. I would recommend the hike to mount Tom to check out that view!

Baker is our favorite campground when visiting family in the Twin Cities.  The grounds are absoutely gorgeous, with huge hardwoods that provide lots of shaded sites.  RV pads are gravel.  Shower facilities are very nice.  We enjoy walking the grounds down to the lake.

Lake Independence has occasional bouts of bacteria that can result in beach closings.  So if swimming is an important part of your camping getaway, be sure to check whether the beach is open.  

I can also say the site D03 is densely shaded, which is great for spreading out on hot summer days, but there is little grass near the pad which can result in muddy conditions after a deluge.