Dent is the perfect place for adventurous campers and RVers. There are tons of hikes and other fun activities to partake in, as well as sights to see and explore. Discover great camping spots near Dent, reviewed by campers like you.
"- Went on the hiking club trail around Annie Battle Lake, most of it is even paved for biking or groomed for skiing."
"Lots of lakes, a mosaic of habitats from pine and aspen forest to maple and ash woodlands, to oak savannah, to fens and marshes and lakes and streams and prairie."
$22 / night
"The walk is an easy walk. There is a nice fire pit and good area for fishing right at the site. Also there is a picnic table and a vault toilet. Surprisingly there was toilet paper there!"
$35 - $300 / night
"We intended to stay at the tent site but when we arrived we saw a lovely cabin overlooking the lake and decided to give ourselves a treat. It was very clean and comfortable."
"This campground is right by a lake with almost every activity you could think of! Only bad thing was owner was not in the office for hours at a time."
"So close to the parking area it's a breeze to get to, yet far enough away you'd never guess you were near your car (except for very occasional road noise). "
RangerDelagoon Campground is located within Delagoon Park which is on the outskirts of Fergus Falls, the County seat of Ottertail County. The campground has 22 campsites with 14 being camper/tent sites with water & 20/30 electricity. The campsites are gravel back-in with no separation between sites so privacy is limited. The tent-only sites are against a line of trees but are still open to other campers. There are fire rings but no picnic tables so bring your camping chairs. The fishing pier is large and handicap accessible. There are non-plumbed but modern and clean restrooms within the park. The campground gets used a lot by local residents looking for a quick weekend getaway but there are usually several open spots available that are low in cost ($10 for tent-only & $20 for hookup sites). Registration is first come first serve via a self serve kiosk at the campground entrance. The noise level within the campground can be pretty high on weekends. There are no posted quiet times or on-site staff who manage the campground (it is managed by the Fergus Falls Park & Rec Dept) although the local police drive through frequently when the campground is inhabited.
TravelerEnd of October, Stopped for just one night, probably about a 20ish minute drive from 94. Was able to purchase firewood after closing, and the campsite were easy to find after (7$)entry to the park. Campsites are reserved through an online system. We found the top campsite completely empty and plenty of sites had good tree coverage for privacy/ way no protection. Nice level sites with soft ground. Each site had a fire ring and picnic table. The only bathroom in walking distance to the upper campsites was a vault toilet located amongst the cabins. Seems like a great place to stay any season.
Legendoffers sites with no hookups and sites with electric (no water, but potable water station is provided to fill up prior to parking) bathrooms and showers in the campground. Fire ring and picnic table provide for each site. Firewood and sewage dump station also provided for free to registered campers. There is a dock, sand swimming beach, horseshoe pits, disc golf, basketball court, and softball field.
RangerEach site has a picnic table and some sites have a fire ring. There are tent-only sites that have no hookups and there are semi-private sites for RVs with electric hookup only or sites that are closer together for RVs that have full hookups.
Call 218-747-2959 to book a site. The campground has a lot of trees and most campsites are on grass.
There is also a motel and cabins on-site that you can book. The motel rooms, cabins and new cabins (these are like smaller mobile homes) are all lakeside giving you nice views.
The campground has paddle boards, paddle boats, kayaks and canoes that are available to guests at no extra charge, too. You can rent a fishing boat or pontoon either by the day or the week. There is a fish cleaning house on-site as well.
This campground is in the heart of Minnesota's lake's country.
GuideStayed at backpack site 10. It’s about 250 ft from main trail and about a 40 min hike in/30 min hike out from parking lot. The main trail is wide and well maintained with ambling hills, but overall pretty flat. It is about 1/3 mile away from nearest campsite.
The site is lakeside. You can easily access the water and there are some great views (at least in early spring before the leaves come in). There is a pit toilet on the other side of the trail and is clearly signed and clearly visible from the trail (best hope no one hiking by walks in on ya).
There is only level ground enough for one tent—maybe two two-person tents if you cram them next to each other.
You can forage for firewood on the forest floor, do bring a saw. I was lucky and there were plenty of downed branches nearby. But I suspect later in the season it’ll be harder.
Also, getting water to filter from the lake was difficult without getting wet—the reeds inhibit easy access.
I read in another review that you are always aware of people around. While I think that is more true of the non-dispersed sites, I could clearly see hikers from this site. More annoying—at about 8 am there was a very loud mechanical noise that radiated over the landscape for about an hour before stopping. No idea what it was.
Unfortunately the people who had this site before me didn’t clean up after themselves—beer cans everywhere (that I ended up packing out) and a dirty diaper thrown in the woods near the tent pad. I did let the park know.
LegendLeap Day 2/29/20-3/1/20 Frog Pond
We headed to Lake Carlos for their candlelight ski, this was our first visit to this state park. Tent camping wasn’t available and we were able to reserve a camper cabin - Frog Pond. It was a nice change and a warmer option, the cabin is gorgeous! Frog Pond sleeps 6 with heat and electricity. There are 4 cabins that share 2 vault toilets.
It was a beautiful 38 degree Leap Day and we took advantage of it. They offer a large number of ski trails so we xcountry skied before dark. The trails were icy, but still enjoyable. At dark we headed to the candlelight event. It was very busy and a huge turnout. We hiked 1.2 miles and then snowshoed 2.4 miles. There are ponds and bogs that they create snowshoe trails on, so there are even more trails to explore in the winter. It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed the wooded trails and starry skies. We had a fire and enjoyed a normal outdoor cookout before bed.
We did more skiing on Sunday and checked out the 2 campgrounds as they were on the ski route. One campground is on Lake Carlos and very open. Sites have beautiful lake views. You can apparently drive your boat right into a sandy shore and dock it. They also have a swimming beach. The other campground is a bit more wooded and more suited for tents. This campground is near the camper cabins. The trails are very wooded and pretty. We enjoyed skiing the hiking club trail and ended up hitting almost every trail in our stay. I assume this park would be equally beautiful in the summer. What a beautiful state park!
GuideGet a permit to stay in the campground, or practice leave no trace dispersed camping in the forest, following state guidelines. Two inlets is a beautiful place with dark skies, a great choice for sky watching / meteor shower nights. The primary forest road is fairly well maintained and passable with standard vehicles.
RangerDelagoon is the City Park & Camping area on the outskirt of Fergus Falls, the County seat of Ottertail County. The campground is comprised of about 20 campsites with several designated for tent or RV and includes 20/30 amp & water hookups. The other sites on the west side when you enter are tent-only sites with no electricity but there is running water supply outside the bathrooms located within the campground. The sites are spacious but there are no trees separating campsites so privacy is minimal, although the views are beautiful. The bathrooms within the campground and near the playground are modern but not plumbed. Hand sanitizer is refilled often but you may want to bring your own tp in case it has been used or taken. Pebble Lake, the lake adjacent to the campground is accessible by a road to a walking area for shoreline fishing or a road within the camping area leads to a fishing pier, usually installed by May 1. Softball and soccer teams play most days of the week in the summer. There are four softball fields and one soccer field.
LegendThe Remote campsites at DeSoto Lake provide a Boundary Waters type experience without being far from the towns of Bemidji snd Park Rapids. These campsites have the double distinction of being both on the National North Country Scenic Trail, as well as being in the backcountry region of Itasca State Park. Local NCT members help maintain the trail and campsites, but as the campsites are with the State Park Boundaries, the sites must be reserved through the MN State Park reservations website, with request for Itasca Backpacking sites # 3 or 4. These sites are accessible to NCT through hikers, but access within the park is either through backpacking in in the Nicollet Trail or DeSoto Lake Trail (each a several hour hike in from the Parks Wilderness Drive), or from the Gartner Farm trailhead of the NCT to the west, or the Itasca South entrance parking lot. For those who prefer paddling, the Desoto Portage is about a 15 minute portage from the 113 parking lot to the south shore of DeSoto Lake, then a paddle acroos the lake to the campsite landings.
Both campsites are on a bluff on the northeast side of the lake, with a landing and set of stairs up to the sites. The west site has log benches, fire ring, and room for several tents, and the east site also has a picnic table. Both have access to a pit toilet of the modern type with three walls and a roof, but no door as it is off in the woods facing away from the camping sites and overlooking another nearby lake. From these camp sites you can portage into several nearby lakes that are even more remote and pristine, or you can hike miles in any direction either on the NCT, or in several state park trails that intersect nearby. DeSoto lake itself is full of many islands and small bays where there is abundant wildlife including wild swans nesting. A calm, serene, and beautiful retreat if you dont mind backpacking in at least three miles or portaging a canoe or kayak about a mile. You need to bring your own water, or a water filter as there is no potable water.
Info about remote MN state park camping and link to reservations: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/remote_camping.html
Info on Itasca State Park: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/park.html?id=spk00181#homepage
Info on the North Country Scenic Trail, part if the National Park Service’s national trail system: https://www.nps.gov/noco/index.htm
Info on the Laurentian Lakes chapter of the NCT, which maintains the trail to the DeSoto campsites https://northcountrytrail.org/trail/minnesota/llc/
Tent camping near Dent, Minnesota offers a blend of serene natural beauty and a variety of outdoor activities, making it an ideal getaway for nature enthusiasts.
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