Best Tent Camping near Esko, MN

A great campground! There is a beach, playground, as well as drive-in and hike-in sites. The waterfalls are very cool, and they have nice signage and pamphlets to learn more about them. I recommend taking the time to read about the geology. I haven't stayed in a car camping sites, but we thought they looked very nice.

The hike-in sites are great, not too far to walk but you have privacy. One thing to note about the hike-in sites is that the trails aren't well marked. Once you're on the trail for a while, they start having regular signage, but the start of the trails themselves aren't marked. You park in an area behind the car camping sites, next to what I assume is a storage building or old house. There are two starts to the trail, the one I found best is down the service road maybe a couple hundred yards. There's also one on the other side of the lot, but it winds a bit, forks into another trail, and all in all seems a little more confusing. I'd recommend just talking to the campground host when you get there, they can explain everything. The walk is short enough (a mile and a half) that we hiked out and back a couple times when camping, either to access the beach or to fill up water. Another important note is that while it's in an area where hanging a bear bag is recommended, the woods aren't thinned enough to where there are strong branches low enough for a bag. It took quite a lot of looking to find a suitable spot for our bag. There's a fire ring and picnic table at each site, which was nice. The bathrooms outhouses, which was a nice surprise, as I was expecting an unenclosed vault toilet.

There's a separate trail to the beach from the sites as well, but I went back the main way anyway. The beach isn't anything special, but is nice enough. There's a nice, small playground near the beach as well.

This is a beautiful park with tons of great hiking trails and amazing waterfalls. The campground is also really nice, and very popular. It was sold out the day I was there. I was surprised it was sold out considering there was no water, no showers, and no toilets due to major construction to fix the plumbing of the entire campground and to build new bathrooms. The campground is set up with a series of loops in a wooded area, so most campsites have nice privacy. You need to check in at the ranger station to get your campsite and learn about the water problems/solutions, as well as pay for your site and pay for the day use permit. I was kind of glad it was sold out as I found it to be very pricy for a campground that had no water or toilets (they did have porta potties). But, the hiking trails and waterfalls were definitely worth the visit.

What a treasure! I was the first person to stay at this campsite and loved it! I am a full-time solo camper in my 5th year. I love off-grid camping. My rig is a GMC Yukon and 17' Casita camper. 

Directions:

Address for house just beyond campsite is 8214 E. Stone Lake Rd. Forbes, MN 

Coordinates are: N47.286675, W092.549313 

Turn on E. Stone Lake Rd. from Highway 7 and where the blacktop turns to gravel drive 2.5 miles then bear right at the fork to remain on E. Stone Lake Rd. Just beyond the fork watch for the red 8217 address marker. The drive into the campsite is directly across the road and before you get to 8214. Park and walk in to get a feel for the site. 

A big rig could back in as far as they want. Smaller rigs will probably pull in and then back into the site on the side with the lovely clearing. The area has some residential housing but the campsite is isolated and very quiet. There is a fern-filled clearing for the campsite which is surrounded by trees. My suitcase solar panels worked reasonably well. I used my generator sparingly. 

I had deer, squirrel, chipmunks and birds including Pileated Woodpeckers, Barred Owls and Common Loons on the lake. I had less than expected mosquitoes. 

The campsite is very close to the north section of Sax-Zim Bog and about 20 minutes from the Visitor's Center. Further down E. Stone Lake Rd. is the Blue Dasher Bog trail. The lake, left fork of the road, has a lovely picnic area with vault toilets, fire rings, picnic tables and boat ramp. 

This was just the kind of hidden gem I love to find.

A River Runs Through it(specifically the St. Louis River)- and a train runs through somewhere nearby. We stayed at this campground on our way back from the North Shore, we almost decided to just skip it and head home and I’m so glad that we didn’t! I knew as soon as we pulled into the campground that we made the right decision to stay. We did do a little hiking along the river, but we didn’t do any longer hikes since my brief park research led me to believe that the river is the best feature. It is a very popular campground- we stayed on a Monday night and less than 5 campsites were vacant.

Pros

-Every campsite seems to be well-treed and relatively private, providing a perfect atmosphere to just enjoy nature from your campsite.

-Tree straps are available to borrow at the ranger station. This was the first time I have ever been asked if I’m hanging anything from trees- even a clothes line. It had never occurred to me that a clothes line would be a problem for trees, but I’m glad that I know that now!

-The restroom/shower facility is very new and has my favorite layout where there is one main area with toilets and sinks and separate rooms accessible from the outside for private shower rooms. Not only is the shower privacy nice, but it keeps the water contained to that individual room. This was great in comparison to Whitewater State park which had constantly wet floors in the shared shower, toilet, sink space. The pit toilets are also nice(for a pit toilet). The outhouse near my site had a hook for hanging things(nice) and a hand-written note explaining that in order to keep smells to a minimum you need to close the lid AND the door when you leave. So while it wasn’t the newest pit toilet I’ve ever used, I didn’t mind using it at all. 

Cons

-One of the only things that was obnoxious about this park is that there is a frequently used train track nearby- and the trains really lay on whistle. I slept with earplugs in because of this, but I was still woken up around 4 times that night.

-The layout of most campsites is kind of tight. If you are camping with multiple tents it might be a good idea to get multiple sites OR just do your research to make sure that the tent pad measurements listed on the reservation site are going to be sufficient. Most sites did not have enough space for your car, your tent, the fire ring, and a bug house. Our site would have had enough space for all of them had we chosen to move our picnic table into the car area, but we weren’t planning on a fire so we just left the picnic table by the fire pit and put our bug house over it. We DID see a campsite with their bug house literally 2 feet from an active fire- do not do this.

-Our tent pad was really well graveled and made me realize that the standard stakes that came with our tent and bug house need to be upgraded. I was able to get most anchor points secure, but I gave up on one particularly resistant spot.

-The Hiking Club trail is probably the most used, I considered the CCC hike which is accessible from the loop I was staying in- but I’m tick phobic and the grass trail looked a bit overgrown. The Hiking Club trail wasn’t super well marked and based on the markers I went on the rocky side trail to the river assuming that that was the Hiking Club trail- it wasn’t.

The main reason we wanted to come to this park was to hike the trails and experience the famous swinging bridge that takes you over the St. Louis River and the rushing rapids below and rocky gorge below. The park dates back to the early 1900’s and its historic character comes from the influence of the Civilian Conservation Corps who made improvements to the park in the 1930’s and 40’s. The park has an 82-site campground and LOTS of activities to keep adults and kids busy.

The campground is what you would expect in a state park with tall trees, shady sites, lots of activities, and popular with families. Roads and sites are gravel and each site has a picnic table and fire pit. Some campsites are long and suited for large RV’s while others are more rustic tent sites and there are 5 cabins for rent. Twenty-one sites have electric hook-ups. If you are looking for more rustic, remote tent sites there are some hike-in sites. Four sites are located 1 to 4 miles from parking area where each site has picnic table, fire ring and latrine but water must be hauled in.  About half of the sites are reservable online with the others being first come, first served. What we liked was that this park was very well cared as sites and facilities were very clean. Tall trees provided nice shade and campsites were well-spaced so you didn’t feel like you were on top of your neighbor. 

There is lots to do in this park and we were sorry we didn’t have more time to spend. Activities include hiking (over 50 miles of trails including a stretch of the North Country National Scenic Trail), 8 miles of biking trails, 30+ miles of cross-country ski trails, kayaking and fishing. The park offers hundreds of naturalist programs including nature walks, evening campfire talks, fishing programs, and geocaching.  Just a short drive north of the state park is Gordy’s High Hat which is a famous hamburger joint that has been around for years and still draws a massive crowd. There is a big enough parking lot to pull your RV into if you need to. Food was great and cheap!

Even if you don’t camp in this park, I think it is well worth the $7/daily admission fee to spend a day enjoying all this place has to offer.

We stayed here for two nights over the 4th of July. A little crowded on the river front but our site was tucked into a more secluded area not far from the river. The hosts were very nice and accommodating. This campground does not take reservations. It is on a first come basis. We had no problem finding a place to park here. No showers but water and electric were available, only vault toilets but they are kept up very well. No designated swimming area. There was however Horseshoe and bag pits, a small game room and at least one cabin for rental. Self serve pay station with firewood to purchase also. It was a very quiet place and there were many families with children who were playing on the small playground, shooting hoops, fishing, and riding bike. Many biking and hiking trails close by. It is very close to Jay Cook State Park. We enjoyed our stay.