Best Glamping near Duluth, MN

Located just a short drive from Duluth, MN, this state park has something to offer anyone: hiking, camping, cycling, and gnarly whitewater kayaking. The campground is nestled tightly into the woods, a little crowded, but the sites feel spacious and nearly private.  The campsites offer the usual amenities, picnic table, campfire ring, but they really excel in their full-scale recycling program and self-service bike tune up stations.  

The bathrooms and showers were very clean -- I even found a park ranger cleaning and working on the toilet at 10 pm!  After a week-long paddle in Voyageurs National Park, we pulled into this campground late in the evening simply in search of a hot shower and place to stay for the night...and found a whole lot more when we awoke in the morning!

The visitors center, just a short walk away, offers interpretive programs, miles of hiking trails, and a swinging bridge over the beautiful St. Louis River gorge. 

Reservations are required year round, and the website is easy to use https://reservations1.usedirect.com/MinnesotaWebHome/. Campground was amazingly busy in early May, so I would recommend reservations for the high season.

We have camped here multiple times in a tent and also in our RV. Grounds have a nice mix of RV spots out in the open as well as some RV and tent spots back in the trees with water and electric only sites. Full hookup sites are only out in the in the open spaces.

Sites are mostly level and are some are a bit tight and close to your neighbors. They have recently added some additional RV spots and some other upgrades as well. Staff is friendly and bathrooms, store, activity room, pool are all seemed to be well maintained.

Make reservations early in the session because things fill up quickly. Great family campground with a lot of young kids running around, riding bikes, and playing and dogs in most campsites. Pool is also available but we haven’t used.

Easy access to Jay Cook State Park. Jay Cook has a lot to offer; a suspended cable walking bridge, great moderate hikes, waterfalls, climbing on rocks, and amazing river views. Great place to stop in for a couple hours or spend the whole day hiking.

Not to far from Duluth and other amazing North Shore locations.

Dump station is conveniently located on your way out of the grounds but can get backed up at the end of a busy weekend and can make it difficult to exit the campground.

Like so many RV / campgrounds this one is also located near to railroad tracks that has several trains that come through day and night.

APPARENTLY NOT KID OR SMALL FAMILY GET TOGETHER FRIENDLY.

-Sites are way too close together. Had a terrible experience here and was even harrased by 2 other nearby campers, TWO SEPERATE TIMES, who would not leave us alone at our site and continued to be rude and yell at us with all our children around. We were minding our own business and kept to ourselves the entire time. The two campers felt we were rude for showing up past midnight trying to get our stuff together and set up. We finished setting up and made super late dinner for our children who were hungry and just finished a 5 hour, no stop, roadtrip. The first camper who showed up to tell us that we were being too loud was very rude to us, but we felt we were in the wrong and complied because it definitely was past quiet hours. We respected their confrontation, even if it came off rude. We quickly and quietly ate and all went to bed about 10 minutes after the confrontation. The "white woman who is 61 years old" (her own wording) told us off and was super disrespectful to us and our children. She came to yell at us to be quiet on our second day and even threatened to call the cops on us if we did not. It was only 7pm and we were cooking dinner for our children. Our children were playing, was that so terribly wrong?? Mind you, quiet hours dont begin until 10pm. She felt so privileged to tell us to be quiet at 7pm as we were just having family bonding time and making dinner. When she began to start getting verbally agressive, we asked her to leave our site as we did not feel comfortable with her on our site with all our children (all under age 9) around. She was even more verbally aggressive and triggered us to become verbally defensive back to her and yelled back at her because of her disrespect. She would not leave our site and continued the harrassment confrontation for another 5 minutes. They reported us the first day to the office already for apparently being too loud when we showed up past midnight to our site, we were warned by the office already. I believe that was more than enough, but they didnt feel it was enough and confronted (more like harrassed) us another 2x when we were minding our own damn business and were at a respectively loudness at 7pm BEFORE quiet hours even began. There was even another site right next to us who was thumping loud music, in the middle of the night and all day during the day of 2nd confrontation/harrasment, from their cars and camp site and it didnt seem to be be an issue whatsoever to anyone or them apparently. But i guess arriving late past quiet hours you cant make dinner or set up your site or even have your kids play together during the day because its disrespectful and rude and apparently too loud. We still own up to being "too loud" when we arrived though we felt we werent. We even complied and apologized when they came at us with rudeness. Terrible experience overall. Would not reccomend to anyone nor return again. EVER.

Also, the campground map on the website has an address which we thought and assumed was the campground address since there was no other address listed. We followed our gps to the address listed and it wasnt even the campgrounds! It looked like it was the ski area, which was 11 minutes away from the campgrounds. We were lost for a good 1 to 2 hours until we used google satelite to locate the campground and found the campground ourselves.

The campground at Jay Cooke State Park is really nice. The sites are well maintained and private (for the most part. More on that later), and the shower and bathroom facilities are really top notch. Plus, lots of great hikes nearby and only 25min from Duluth.

Sites: Most sites are very private. There are lots of trees and foliage in between, so you really can't see your neighbor - at least this was true of the loop I was in (site 18). We didn't walk around all the loops, but the one we noticed had less privacy is the loop with sites 24-37. The center sites (27, 29, 34, 36) are all pretty open and didn't seem like there was much definition between spots. So, good as a group, but maybe less desirable if you're looking for some privacy.

My site, 18, was nice. They're all a little tight, so multiple large tents isn't advisable. The only downside to 18 is it is right next to a pit toilet. They're well maintained, but if the wind blows a certain way, you may have a faint scent. I'd probably opt for site 19 or 21 next time.

Pros:

> Really nice facilities. The separate shower rooms are fantastic. Water is hot!

> Easy access to lots of great hikes

> Sites are well maintained. There are tent pads at every site that I saw. They're flat and level. 

Cons:

> There are active trains in the nearby town. I was having trouble sleeping one night and heard the horns well into the night (1 and 3am). They're not super loud so I'm not sure if they would have woken me if I was already asleep, but if you're a light sleeper I'd bring earplugs just in case.

All in all, I really enjoyed Jay Cooke and would be happy to stay here again!

This is one of my favorite campgrounds! The sites are gorgeous and well-spaced. There is running water & vault toilets - they are currently renovating their running toilets & shower as of 2018, but that should be back up for the 2019 season. The hiking trails are BEAUTIFUL, including parts of the Superior Hiking Trail! The park staff are courteous and well-informed. You can purchase firewood, ice, and souvenirs at the park headquarters during open hours. The sites are reserve-only, so check online and book before you go. I also love that it's only a 20-30 minute drive to Duluth!

We are KOA members (who stay at a lot of KOAs) - our 1st visit at this Cloquet KOA was Sept 2020:

The staff were friendly. One staff drove a cart right to our campsite and helped us determine the best way to back in our RV for the most privacy. We needed a couple of items for our RV and the store had everything we needed including a hose adapter, ketchup, buns, dog treats & s’mores fixings. The camp is close to Duluth but still far enough away to get you completely out of the city and, while exploring, we came across Jay Cook State Park (only about 15 min away) which is beautiful!! The camp was relatively quiet. We were about 20 feet from another campsite on one side and 50 feet on the other. There are a lot of trees and wooded areas so our site felt semi-private. Our Pomeranian, who loves to camp, loved the woods!! Across from us were two camping cabins filled with 20 year olds celebrating a 21st birthday but the staff drove through often and we never heard noise. This KOA offers full hookups in some parts of the campground but our site was only water/electric so they offered a complimentary pump-out with a mobile truck during our stay. We will stay here again!