Best Glamping near Finlayson, MN

As this was our second time here at Minnesota National, we had no problem finding the course or RV park. The RV navigation in our new Ford 450 was also spot on. When you turn in at the golf course, drive all the way to the club house/lodge parking lot and there’s a road to the right that takes you into the campground (CG). As you check-in online prior to arrival, you simply proceed to your camp site. As you turn down the short road to the CG, there’s a sign to help you identify your site location. We proceeded to back-in site 25 with full hook ups. The utilities are in the back of pad in this CG, so you may need 20+ feet of electric, sewer, or water cord/hose depending on your rig’s configuration. The sewer grade is a bit up hill. We got 3 bars LTE on Verizon and no CG WiFi. There is only a vault toilet/out house in the CG. We came here to golf for two weeks. The 18 hole course is quite challenging where the 9 hole Savannah is shorter and a little bit easier. The golf course restaurant has decent food and a good deal on draft beer during their Sunday to Thursday Happy Hours.There is not much more to do here except golf. McGregor is about 15 minutes away and is where we did laundry and got our groceries.

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.

We discovered this campground while researching the area, it is fairly new and not only not reviewed on the Dyrt but not listed on it yet either. If you are planning to explore the Kettle River and Banning State Park nearby, this is a good alternative to camping within the State Park itself. With easy access to both the Twin Cities metro area and Duluth, with desireable whitewater paddling and rockclimbing both available in the area, Banning State Park campground fills quickly especially in summer and on weekends, and the Banning RV Park is an excellent backup alternative for overflow demand. And, actually, it may be your go-to option even if campsites at Banning are available, because this RV campground is located only½ mile from the Banning State Park entrance, and because it is at a higher elevation further from the river it is remarkably less buggy which Banning State Park can be in springtime or after recent rains. This campground is quite large, geared towards RVs and trailers but also has dozens of tent sites and is currently adding more! There are also several nice new camper cabins available. We stayed in site 297, a very large double tent site with soft grass for tenting, big shady trees, picnic table and fire ring, with possibility for water and electric hookup but we didn’t use it. We had two families with 3 tents and two vehicles, plus bought firewood(which was delivered in generous quantities) and the total price was$48, which would have been the cost of the two campsites we would have needed if camping at the nearby state park. We were located near the campground pavilion, which included picnic tables, family bathrooms with showers, playground, activity center with craft classes etc, and laundry room. Remarkably, in addition to playgrounds for children in different places around the campground, there was a huge dog walking and play area that was grassy and beautifully clean—and, of special interest, included a complete“dog playground” with all the standards elements of a dog agility course! Very cool—and an expense and effort most places wouldn’t go to. The campground itself was very clean and well landscaped and maintained, however the bathrooms do get heavy use and, though nicely cleaned a few times during the day, are in need of attention in the evening. The campers are mostly family oriented so the campground itself is very quiet in the evenings—however, it is not far from nearby Highway 35, so there is a fair amount of road noise despite a barrier of pines planted as a buffer. I was a bit concerned that folks camping there were not too concerned about covid precautions, no one was wearing masks even when participating at close range to others during some of the campgrounds organized group activities, and there was lotion soap but no hand sanitizer in the bathrooms. You may want to bring your own. Overall, nicely maintained, reasonably priced, conveniently located, and less buggy than the nearby state park! We would camp here again if returning to the area.

I love Jay Cooke year round! The tent camping is great, the park is amazing for hiking and geology study, and there are camper cabins that I have often stayed at as well. This was my first time staying in winter, the camper cabins are cozy and fully heated and really nice. People use them when coming here in winter for the terrific cross country skiing or snowshoeing. The cabins are very simple and have beds, table, heat, and electricity, but no water inside (water punps are nearby, so bring a bucket ir canteen) and no bathroom (but you can use the outhouse nearby, and the campground will have a new bath house by early summer, it is inder construction and almost finished!) . You can use the facilities at the visitor center during the day but they arent open in the evening and are a bit of a trek from the campground. But, it you want to camp in warmth and relative comfort, and want to explire this amazing state park, the camper cabins are a great way to go year round! You can reserve campsites too if you have an RV or dont mind winter camping