Best Tent Camping near Henderson, MN

This campground is one of two in the Regional Dakota County Park system. At Lebanon they have two 3 campgrounds rolled into one. East look within the trees has electrical, North Loop in the trees has no electrical, and West look has full hook ups with water, waste, and electrical. It was really a great set up here. The check in was super smooth...they even give you specific bags for recycling and garbage so that is awesome they are doing their part. There are a ton of hiking trails and little ponds near by. This is the ideal place to come to get away from the city even though you can hear the cars a little. Lots of trails, great playgrounds, and perfect paths for kids to ride bikes. 

The campsites themselves range from simple out in the open to shaded lots. I chose site 78 in the east loop and I could not see my neighbors when back by the fire ring so it was perfect. Other sites in the east loop are similar. There is one shower/bathhouse per loop and each contain 2 showers and 2 stalls with 2 sinks. 

This was a great stopover on the way up north.

We stayed in the group campground for a Cub Scouting event. It's just a bit of a walk from the main campground and opposite of some very beautiful walk-in sites. The group campground has an open space to play games as well as wooded areas all around. There are vault toilets that are well kept. The hiking trails are well taken care of and far enough away from the Hidden Falls the capture the beauty of the state park, but close enough for a group of elementary age kids to manage. The walk-in sites are nested within the trees, far enough away from group sites for privacy but without a long distance to carry gear. The state park itself is only 10 miles away from a neighboring city with ample shopping resources available. Small gas and convenience store within the town of Nerstrand.

This campground is great especially when compared with state park camping. Full hookups available, quite a few pull through lots and close to the twin cities! No wifi, so make sure you've got decent cell service and hotspot if you need internet/wifi. Verizon gets ok coverage here, T-Mobile does too. Showers/bathhouses are clean and the hot water runs forever and not coin operated or push button like some others I've been to! Bonus! Good toilet paper in the bathrooms not the cheap stuff. The lake is literally out your door and they do have a small swimming beach and boat launch. MN Horse and Hunt club is about a mile or so up a trail access that is Almosy directly across from the camp entrance. There is an ATM there along with a bar and restaurant. Be prepared to hear gunshots regularly but it's not really bothersome unless you aren't prepared for it. The trail to the club is safe to walk though. The campground ONLY accepts cash so be sure to hit the ATM before you get here. They also charge $2 extra per dog if you have them. Nightly rate for the full hookup site I had was $32 with the dog. They charge .50 c per log for firewood. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring. The staff are really nice and laid back. It's a really nice little campground!

Gulley that a large creek runs through surrounded by trees and large forested hills. The entire park is surrounded by farms, nearby are some really nice Minnesota small towns like Henderson and the somewhat larger St. Peter (but still small town). I hiked in about 1/2 a mile and camped in the trees but they also have some clearings closer to the entrance, with grills, where you could easily set up. $10 suggested donation. Trash bins located all over which is good , but the wind seems to blow debris around here and there, and irresponsible people leave their beer cans/water bottles strewn about, so pick them up if you find them like I did. Website and signage on location recommends to call the sheriff's office to let them know you're camping there which I did and they were nice enough, but it's probably not the end of the world if you don't. Overall this was a pleasant spot, especially being the only camper there, so hope you all enjoy! Places like this are what I love about The Dyrt, I don't think I would have found this otherwise.

During these COVID times everyone wants to get out and about more, which means that the main parking lot for the park that used to be mostly designated for horse trailer parking is now overrun with family vehicles. So as a result the Riverbend group equestrian campground is now the parking lot for day visitors through at least August. 

In normal times you can rent this group campsite for$70-$80 a night, which is ridiculously cheap considering that you can fit quite a bit of horse trailers on here. The information for this site states you can put 10 horse trailers on this lot, but I have definitely seen groups camp here with more. The barn stalls are available for use (unlike the Blue Stem horse site), otherwise there are overhead horse hitch lines. 

This campground is nicely maintained and has nice mature trees that a lot of people set up hammocks in. The vault toilet near the barn is nice, there are no showers. Be aware that the road into this group site only is wide enough for one vehicle at a time, so far I’ve been lucky to not encounter another vehicle as I’m entering or leaving.

We pulled into this place at 2:00 AM so we weren't really able to see much of the environment. In the morning though we awoke to a beautiful park with good shade coverage from the trees. Our group only hammock camps so we were glad to see the abundance of trees between each camp slot. The only downside to this place was the gnats. Although not that bad we woke up with tiny bites on us. That being said if we would have brought a bug net or been in a tent we would have had no problem with them. Overall this camp site was a great place to stop while we were driving to the Badlands.

We stayed at site 21 in late August of 2019. It’s obvious that the park had some heavy flooding earlier in the year. A lot of the waterfront sites became sandy. The sites are close together and not very many mature trees between sites. There isn’t any cell phone coverage at the campground but there is service around the historical site. Only restrooms are single stall vault toilets. No showers. However I think the horse campground has upgraded restrooms and showers but I never checked it out because it was so far away. Mosquitoes were bad, everyone came home covered in bites. Kids had a blast playing in the creek. There was also people out on their horses offering rides to kids and educating about horse ownership.