Best Tent Camping near Grand Rapids, MN

This is a full service fishing resort with a lodge and cabin rental, but RV and tent camping is also available. The campsites are very nice and wooded, the tenting sites include some very secluded spots back in the woods which is nice for solitude but precludes a view of the lake. There are daily rates as well as weekly rates for camping or cabin stays. This is a top notch place to stay for a fishing vacation, off the beaten path but with full amenities. It can be a destination vacation spot, or can be a great stop-over  for through-paddlers crossing Lake Winnie on the Mississippi River Headwaters Water Trail. Although near the National Forest campground on Tamarack Point, this has many more amenities which is nice when you are so far from the nearest town, especially if you are paddling through and have no vehicle for travel. Amenities include groceries, ice cream shop, full service boat launch and fishing supplies, and more. You might not be into winter camping in a tent, but there are ice houses to rent that you could camp in if you come in winter. More expensive than usual campgrounds, but with more amenities provided and with a stellar location. Pets welcome at no extra charge! Seasonal campsite rental can also be arranged.

Trout Lake is a small campground less than 10 minutes from Grand Rapids. We came here because we wanted to see Grand Rapids and liked that this campground was right on a lake that we could fish. The park is mostly occupied by seasonal campers who take advantage of the amazing fishing in the lake, but, there are some sites for transient RVers and tent campers. The park recently came under new management and they are working hard to improve the campground. When we were there the park was pretty full and because of our RV length they offered to let us park down near the pavilion. The site was great because it had a nice view of the lake with 30amp electric and water hook-up (there is a pump out service which costs $5/40 gallons) and we loved the privacy as the main part of the campground was a little too cramped for our taste. Unfortunately, the day after we arrived a woman with six kids drove up and set up her tent about 15 yards away from where we were camped. We complained to management because there were numerous other places they could have camped that were even more ideal than right in front of us. Finally, they moved but only another 15 or so yards. This campground actually has some really nice tent sites set right on the lake in some trees but apparently this woman wanted to be right near the pavilion. For us, it meant kids running through our campsite all day and night which kind of ruined our experience.

The campground has a swim beach which is a big attraction for kids. You can also launch a kayak or canoe there or use the concrete public boat launch right next to the campground. We spent many hours paddling the lake and had great luck catching bass and walleye. Apparently, the lake is well-known for its fishing in the area. The park was $35/night which seems a little high for what you get especially since a weekly rate is listed at $150-200. We did like that everything was on the honor system – self pay, firewood, t-shirts, etc.

The Pokegama Dam & Recreation Area is a small but comfortable campground just minutes from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. There are 19 extra large campsites that can accommodate a large RV, boat & trailer, and vehIcle wIth room to spare, and also two gorgeous campsItes rIght along the bank of the MIssIssIppI RIver. We had a girls getaway camping trip here during the Tall Timber Days Festival so the campground was at full capacity.

There are so many activities to do while staying at the campground!! We toured the dam area that offers a great history lesson about the dam, we spent time in the boat fishing on Lake Pokegama, there are gorgeous and well maintained trails to hike (bring bug spray!!) and a great breeze coming off the dam/river to sit and enjoy the spectacular view of mighty pines and oak trees. The only drawbacks for us(hence the 4 star rating) are that you are just feet off the 4 lane highway, so there is a lot of traffic noise, and the cost per nIght Is $26.00.

All campsites (save the 2 tent areas) offer 30 amp electric service, and there is a roomy area for dump/fresh water/drinking water fill. There’s a great playground for kids, and a big picnic shelter that’s reservable. The bathrooms were very clean, and they have 1 shower stall in both the men’s and women’s bathroom. Plus they have 1 family/handicap accessible bathroom. The fish cleaning shack is clean, and has a beautiful flower garden surrounding it:)

Next time we visit we will bring our kayaks to paddle down the Mississippi. To make a reservatIon (up to 6 months In advance) by goIng onlIne to www.recreatIon.gov or callIng 1-877-444-6777. Check out is at Noon. And while you’re in Grand Rapids, we recommend taking the tour of the Forest History Center-great for adults and kids!!

I had to call the reservation.gov phone line because the website would not allow me to reserve a site for that night, even though it was available. The bathrooms are good, but they are far away from the tent site. People mostly drive up to the good bathroom. Lots of mosquitos no matter what time of day. Lots of shade, but the 4 strictly tent sites are very close together and right next to a road, separated by trees.

We went on a busy weekend, but the campground itself was in good shape and had several options for individuals who want to tent camp or RV camp. This is the best campground in the area in my opinion as it offers a lot. The hosts were great and very welcoming. The electric sites are not on the water which is fine. Sites are big and offer some privacy. The sites on the water are a little smaller, but that is the price you pay to have the ability to doc your boat at your site. Mostly RVs in the campground but you can easily tent camp and get some peace. It is a popular destination bc of its proximity to other lakes.

Not a terrible place to camp. Great amenities and care taken to clean bathrooms and showers. Walk in tent site was large enough to accommodate a 10x18 tent easily. Raccoons are smart enough to open coolers and non latching totes. Mosquitoes will also sweep you off around 9pm even with bug spray.

The park has a beautiful private lake with swimming beach, a few cabins available for rental, plenty of space for tent camping. A large pavilion with dancehall above and kitchen/dining on the lower level. There are memberships available to the park with sponsorship by a current member. There are fun events held at the park including a midsummer festival.

Check their website for scheduled events to come in and check out the park.

Stayed here for two nights in tents. Used it as a base camp while me and some friends were mountain biking RedHead Mountain and Tioga over the weekend. Beautiful spot, kind of secluded away from the rest of the campers but not tucked away by any means. Right on the lake. Grills are at all the tent sites but we used the fire. The fire wood provided was wet and sappy and didnt light but we iust grabbed some from town. Will be staying here again when I come back to the area.

Savanna Portage State Park is a beautiful and peaceful spot for camping, especially if you enjoy tent camping. The campsites are well-spaced, private, and perfect for tents, offering a great connection to nature.

The park features a lovely lake that’s ideal for kayaking, fishing, or just relaxing by the water. There are also several great hiking trails, ranging from easy walks to more challenging routes, giving you plenty of opportunities to explore the scenic forest and wetlands.

One thing to note—there are a lot of bugs in the summer, so make sure to pack plenty of bug spray! Overall, it’s a fantastic place for outdoor lovers looking for a quiet and rustic getaway.

We planned a huge family camping trip this year and the lovely Chippewa Loop campground in the Chippewa National Forest was the camp ground that we had the honor of staying at! We had three sites, 79, 80, and 81 with 17 people total. 9 Adults and 8 kids ranging from ages 7 to 1. The campground is right outside Cass Lake Minnesota that had a nice grocery store, a pretty weird liquor store, a family dollar, and a fishing pier if you didn’t have a boat. It was about a half an hour outside of Bemidji, Mn that has a lot of history from Minnesota and a great fireworks display over the lake on the Fourth of July. The City of Bemidji has a lot a little boutique shops if you are into shopping while on camping trips. It also had a cute little ice cream store that we took all the kids to across from the Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox statue and a nice park for the kids to play at right off of Lake Bemidji. If you’re into craft breweries Bemidji also has a brewery called Bemidji Brewing right in town. There’s also a Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and a dollar tree amongst other stores if you have that “I forgot list”.

Site number 80 was the best to put up a travel trailer, but it was also extremely close to site number 82 and practically joined site number 82. We ended up putting our Jayco Eagle 30 foot travel trailer in site number 81 because with everyone else tent camping and we were the only one with a travel trailer, we felt this site was the best to park our travel trailer in because it was the least level site and only had one small pad for a tent. Site number 79 and 81 were joined together by a path that made it easy for us to all eat in one site. We all pretty much congregated in site number 81. We put most of our tents, three to be exact, in site number 80 because it was the most level and open for tents. The site was capable of having two large cabin tents and a small 4 person tent comfortably. Site had a lot of good pine trees for hanging Hammocks but, like I said before, it was almost right on top of site number 82 so we decided to only put up the 3 tents and congregate across the road in site number 81 as to not disturb the other site occupants. It was pretty frustrating that that was the most level site because it was also the best one to park a travel trailer in and have an awning out and a picnic table but we couldn’t do it because we didnt want to disturb the other site with 17 people.

Site number 79 had a good drive pad but the tent pad was extremely un-level. we put up a single pole tipi in that site because the people in that site had cots and didn’t mind sleeping on an incline. When I say incline, I mean incline, the tent pad was not level at all which is kind of frustrating. Site number 79 was the least friendly for hammocks so we hung all her hammocks in site number 81.

Site number 81 is where we decided to put up the trailer but the trailer pad was super un- level. We ended up making a Walmart run to get two more packs of leveling blocks and we use three packs of leveling blocks to make it level with room to have our awning and out. Right behind the travel trailer was a sloped hill that went down to the fire pit and a tent pad that was also on a slight incline which we were up by eight person tent there but that person had a raised air mattress and didn’t mind sleeping on an incline. Attached to site number 81 was also the path to the showers that was right down the hill. It worked out great because the showers and the bathrooms were so close to our site but we felt like the trees were blocking everything from our site.

We took a lot of bike rides and got to see a lot of the other sites and they had a lot of good tent sites in some of the other loops and it seems like all of the electric sites were not as great as the tent sites. All of the electric sites seem to be un-level and not a great place to pitch a tent as well as having the camper.

The park itself was very beautiful had a lot of nature things like milk weed and monarch butterfly’s everywhere and a beautiful swimming beach that was about waist high (4 feet deep) for about 300 to 400 yards out from shore. The beach was great for swimming and kayaking and you could dock a boat on the sandy beach and eat lunch if you wanted to. We ended up catching 40 crawfish and doing a crawfish boil, which the kids absolutely loved. The picnic shelter was pretty awesome too, very shaded and on a rougher part of the beach. There was a really long bike path that went through all of the loops and the main road was super bike friendly as well.

In the visitor center there was a really cool area for the kids to go to play if it was too hot or rainy, or if you just wanted to be indoors for a little bit. They had a bike decorating event and we brought all the kids bikes and decorated them. There was a little gift shop and they also gave out free stickers which we ended putting on our camper as we do at every park we get a sticker from.

Each camp ground loop also had a campground host that sold firewood, three bundles for $10. The firewood was pretty bad and some of it was wet and it burned really really fast. But like every park in Minnesota you can’t bring your own firewood unless it’s kiln dried lumber or something like that within a certain number of miles of the place you are camping.

A few downsides to this park where there’s no official places to fill water up for your camper and no official place to dump your black and grey water tanks from your camper. You end up having to go to another park and pay to dump your camper. This could be a problem if you are staying for an extended time and use a lot of water. There also wasn’t a whole lot to do aside from biking and hiking and swimming like there was a leech lake recreation area we were at a few days prior to this trip. The restrooms and showers were pretty unkempt and dirty. Everyone but me and my sister had cold showers every time they went to take a shower.

All in all the park is very beautiful and I had some very good attributes like friendly staff, clean campsites and secluded campsites where you didn’t feel like you are right on top of the other site aside from site 80 and 82. It seemed like there were three or 4 sites together in groups and then a little ways away there were a few more clumped together.

I don’t know if we would actually come back to this park because the sites weren’t as big as they seemed in the pictures online and we felt cramped most of the time. There wasn’t a good space in the sites to put up games like corn hole or ladder ball which made it a bit boring at times to just stay at camp. We spent a lot of time at the beach.

An extremely safe and pleasant location. You can either use the paid campground or stay in the parking lot, say if you had a sprinter travel van or some such thing. Alternatively if you are tent camping there are a couple nearly hidden campsites that you can use for free right by the canoe landing. A large part of the year clean showers are available and are free! although this fact is not publicized and at certain times of the year they are put under code for campground use only. I find that most the time they are open. A bathroom is attached each shower and can be locked from the inside making it great for a couple to use the facilities efficiently together. This is a one-of-a-kind place that does not exist much anymore. Free shower free camping clean bathroom , great walking trails, Great spot to fish. For a stop alongside the highway it has it all.

The quality of this campground is really a 4, however the location is a little  bit out of the way for doing day trips, exploring and access to the Chippewa National Forest. It is not on Lake Winnie, so you have to drive to a boat landing to launch your watercraft, and there is swimming at a nearby beach but it is not on the premises. However, the grounds are meticulously maintained and the camping prices cant be beat--$20 a night for tent camping, and $35 a night for full RV campsite with hookups. There is a playground. laundry facilities, and full bathrooms. There are also many walking trails on the premises. The general store on the premises provides staples and treats. If you prefer, there are also vintage cabins you can stay in here. Best of all, staying here supports a local family business including their painstaking efforts to maintain an hisotric general store and vintage vacation spot that was established almost a century ago and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

This campground is off the beaten path, and very quiet and peaceful. You have a choice of lakeside campsites, or sites tucked into the woods away from the lake. The lakeside campsites are your best bet, if you can get them--beautiful view over lake Winnie, cool breezes, and HUGE campsites that can accomodate large fishing boats and whatever rig you might use to haul such a boat. The campsites away from the lake are much smaller, meant more for car and tent camping. The campground is also an option for paddlers to overnight if paddling the Mississippi River water trail, which enters the west side of the lake just south of the campground. There is a boat launch with several docks adjacent to the campground, water pumps for drinking water, and a restroom building with basic toilets. This is a good option is you want a peaceful out of the way campsite in tall pines, or to go fishing on the big lake, but there arent hiking or biking trails near by so other options are a bit limited. And although the lakeshore is pretty, the swimming experience is a bit crunchy due to the lake having been invaded by zebra mussels, unfortunately

First off, and most appealing to me is the fact that there is no cell service. All 12 campsites are first come first serve and you can’t jump a line by going on a website to reserve a spot.  there are no water or electric hook ups but there are hand pumps for pumping water and you could bring a generator or not.
Located north of Grand Rapids Minnesota about 60 miles or 35 miles from Nashwauk Minnesota which is the closest gas station, grocery store or post office. All the sites are back in no pull through sites, generally level however there’s a few that are on an angle

This is a nice campground. With a playground and indoor "facilities", it's ideal for the faint-of-heart campers. Great for a day trip, but I don't know how long I'd like to stay considering how close it is to highway 2 and Grand Rapids.

Becker’s resort is a vacation destination for many folks in the summer, with offerings of cabins, RV campsites, and tent sites. The RV sites are not near the water and to me seem a little crowded, but the RV area is nestled in some nice woods. The cabins appear to be modern and recently renovated with new siding etc, and seem to be great for families. There is a nice pool, and a good boat launch and marina with easy access to the Mississippi River and Lake Winnie. Of importance to paddlers on the Mississippi River Water Trail, this is definitely an upgraded alternative to the primitive water trail campsite located just upstream, called Smiling Joe Landing, and I would recommend this one over that one. Not only do you have a nice tenting area close to the river, but you also have access to the pool and showers, flush toilets, etc, and can stock up on snacks. The owners stay alert to area weather, and can give good advice to paddlers about safe routes across Winnie before you launch, depending in weather. They are also paddler-friendly in terms if assisting in other ways, such as letting a recent through-paddler stop and use garage space for a few days to repair a hole in his canoe, which is very kind. I would give this spot a 5-star rating for canoe campers, but a 4 star overall rating for the resort

While at Leech Lake Recreation Area we stayed in site number 33 which was the electric site with our 30 foot Jayco Eagle travel trailer. There was enough room in the site for a travel trailer truck and probably another tent or screen tent. The other sites were close but not too close. if another travel trailer or RV pulled in it would block our view from their fire ring. The pad was all dirt and you can only set up on the dirt and not on the grass around it. The trees around the site were perfect for hammocks, we hung three of our Kammok brand hammocks. Our only complaint about the site was that the fire pit was dug down into the ground making it kind of unsafe if you had children and the fires didn’t stay lit very well because there was no oxygen going underneath them, so you’re constantly fanning it which was annoying because we cook with cast-iron over the fire for every meal.

We were able to go and take a walk to the lake which is super short walk from pretty much any of the sites but really close from our site. The sunset over the lake were stunning and a loon hung around the dock while we fished.

We took a lot of bike rides around the campground looking at each site and going to the park which was absolutely amazing for the kids. They had basketball courts, a huge playground that was amazing quality, shuffleboard, volleyball, badminton, and a picnic shelter that you could rent out with the cooking area inside the picnic shelter. There are pit toilets and bathrooms close to the playground so that isn’t an issue with little ones. The playground area is a great place to hang out with adults and children.

We took a bike ride to the tent sites as well and found that there are pretty close together and right next to a main road that was kind of noisy. They would probably be good if you got all four at once with a group of people. The dump station for the RVs was right next to the tent sites to which would probably be annoying to see all the RVs on a busy day dumping at the same time.

The federal Dan was a magnificent sight but it was pretty hard to fish around that area without a boat going on the leech lake because of the fast-moving water. They’re also wasn’t an area to swim because it would be unsafe which is kind of a bummer but the playground made up for it.

The park is run by the Army Corps of Engineers volunteers and they were super friendly and kept everything clean and sanitary which was amazing. There was even Washers and dryer’s to do laundry for free and amazing shower facilities that they called comfort stations. Everything was borrow on the loan and bring back which included all of the equipment at the park like basketballs badminton shuffle board stuff and rakes shovels and stuff to clean up your campsite.

All in all this would be a park that we would definitely come back to you and spend a week and possibly have a group of people with kids because it’s a super cool friendly kid park.

This is primarily a cabin resort, however camping is also offered for both RV's and tenters. Camping rates are a little hard to find on the website, so check them at this link:https://www.thepinesresort.com/camping/camping-rates

There is a nice swimming area and dock on the lake, a camp store, boat rentals, laundry facilities, etc. I think staying in the cabins might be a nicer experience for a long term stay, as the campsites are rather open and close together, but the lake access and amenities are favorable for a short stay. 

For through paddlers on the Mississippi Headwaters Water Trail, this is the most convenient campsite above the Winnie Dam. The tent sites are only $25 per night, you have more amenities than at the COE or Forest campgrounds on the other side of the dam, and your portage around the dam from the campground to the boat launch below is super easy if you have a canoe or kayak cart--just pull out at the resort boat launch dock, cart your craft a short walk on the paved road across the dam, and put in at the COE boat launch below the dam.Much preferable to scaling the dam on the steep rocky portage that is on the east side of the dam, plus you have a decent and reasonably priced place to camp the night before.  So for that type of camping, this spot is ideal!

Bring bug spray! LL rec area is a large campground best suited for fishing trips. I missed that there is no swimming available and my kids weren’t happy with me. This is on a river and is not suitable for swimming. There is a nice large play area for the kids and the roads around the campground are good for biking. We rained out one day so drove to Grand Rapids for a movie and stopped at Tioga Beach in Cohasset(well worth the trip) on the way back. This is very well maintained but there is very little to do outside of the campground without traveling 45 minutes in either direction.

Bring certified wood along as you don’t want to buy it from the local outfitter/guide service (trust me).