Best Glamping near Holyoke, MN

This campground has it all: sites for families to reserve by one another, campsites with more privacy, RV specific loops. With newly updated facilities, it can feel like glamping. Good proximity to bridge and nearby hikes. I highly recommend finding the cedar forest near the CCC Trail on the north side of campground.

North east Minnesota has some very beautiful country. Highly recommend this spot. 

This was a last minute camping trip for us. The camp sites are spaced out enough to have privacy. The hiking trails were fun and not far from camp. It was chilly at night a very nice area to go camping. Absolutely love this place. Would comeback again if we’re ever in Minnesota again.

This is Minnesota’s largest state park and has over 200 camp sites. But where we were, we were secluded from most people. Not from the mosquitos. You had to defend against them. But clean park. Would go back for sure.

Jay Cooke is really a must experience state park within easy driving distance to other parks in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Positives:

• Amazing hiking and water play
• photogenic
• Some open site options for camping with other families or friends and many private sites
• Very clean and large shower/restroom facilities
• 15 min to small town grocery store
• Standard fire rings that you can grill on too
• lots of bird watching Negative:
• MOSQUITOS!!!! Bring bulk bug spray or extra blood.

Excellent hiking and camping experiences here. Stayed for a weekend and returned after for many, many day hikes. Plenty of wildlife to see, a newly rebuilt “swing bridge” over the rusty rushing of the Saint Louis River. And the locals are pleasant, heck, it’s Minnesota! Buggy in summer due to all the water, bring excellent hiking shoes for the rocks yer gonna wanna climb around on. Excellent autumn photography options for all occasions. Camping is is a more secluded area where most day-hikers don’t come across ya.

This is a relatively new (2016?) campground built right next to the Minnesota National Golf Course clubhouse, and in the corner surrounded by Savannah holes 8 and 9. It’s literally inside the golf course.

Gravel pads, some a bit out of level. All 50 amp water and sewer. Some great options in here for group camping as there are several loops you could be placed in the have sites near one another.

Our site (33) was tucked way back in the woods, had a nice bit of privacy.

No bath house.

The golf course is amazing - one of the nicer public courses in the state. I can see a lot of folks choosing this RV park as a golf vacation - we were here because we were spending two weeks with family on Big Sandy Lake, just ten minutes away.

Don’t miss breakfast at the Palisade Cafe and dinner/beers at the Craft House - both are legit culinary experiences, not Sysco reheaters.

With 50+ sites, park was full for the three days around July 4, but was under 50% the rest of the time. An under appreciated gem.

We stopped here on our way to north Minnesota. Originally we planned 2 days but really needed to rest so extended it to 4 days. It was a little hairy getting to, the 2 lane winding road with the raging river on one side did slow us down a bit.  The Rangers were friendly and accommodating. The park had taken quite a beating with the winter storm that had been there the previous week, a lot of sites were closed due to trees down and snow.  While we were there they were actively cleaning up, but left in the afternoon so we had no disturbances from saws or equipment noise. The water was not turned on yet for the season, so the bathroom/showers and dump station were not available.  There was a potable water source at the front of our loop to fill our fresh tank and our water storage cubes.  The sites were shaded well, and easy to back into.  We had to work a bit to get our camper level but that may have been due to the snow and water that was on the site so we figured it was par for the course.  We walked to the Welcome Center and the swinging bridge, there were multiple hiking trails accessible by the camping area.  It was relatively busy on the weekend but cleared out during the week.  We had lots of wildlife visitors.  The park is pet friendly.  We found affordable propane and a dump site closer to Duluth.

This park has a ton of camping available, particularly if you don't need electricity and have a smaller rig because then you can get into more of the campground loops. (There is electricity here, but there are many more sites without.) 

The sites in the Old Logging Campground were close together but many had vegetation between them offering some privacy. Site 207 was especially tucked in but it's a tight spot, so probably best for a van or tent. 

The park itself has a lot to offer being right on the St. Croix River, plus there are hiking trails, a paved bike path, a fire tower you can climb, an old CCC camp area you can tour, and more. Also, canoe and kayak rentals are available. And this is all within the state park boundary since, at 34,000 acres, the park is the largest in the Minnesota state park system. 

Some of the loops have old bathhouses that desperately need to be replaced, but they are in the process of doing so, which means some loops have great new bathrooms and showers. (If you stay in the upper 200s, sites, you'll have one of these new bathrooms right away, but more are being built.) Cell service was incredibly spotty on Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Depending on where you're at, you'll get a low signal, but often it was only enough for texting-- don't think about using the web or social media or getting any work done while you're here. 

Overall, we enjoyed our weekend at this park and would come back for another getaway if we had the chance and it wasn't a workday.

The site was nice a secluded but still close to water and bathrooms. The downside to this specific site is that it is close to the group camp so it was pretty noisy.

As a tent camper, i prefer quiet and private sights. The circle this site was part of, was just that. The walk to the updated bathrooms (with showers) is pretty pretty. It was buggy (mosquitoes) but fire and bug spray kept it manageable. The pit toilet next to site 18 had an occasional waft of smell but nothing too lingering or bad.

A buddy and myself camped here for a night at drive-in 62 and it was spacious but with close proximity to other campers. There are new bathrooms and showers being developed at the current moment so there was one Biffy for the whole campsite and made it kind of difficult for. I am sure there were better campsites but from what we saw and experienced it wasn't the best.

Love this park! well maintained campground with plenty to do. you can bike, run, hike and camp.

Such a beautiful park! Great views of the river along with both long and short hiking trails. The swinging bridge was really pretty as well. We ended up going on a 4 mile hike here it was a pretty easy hike, mostly through the woods along with a few openings with river views! Dogs are welcome on a leash! They have a nice gift shop and information building!

Nice hiking trails. Not too difficult. Family friendly

Alright, just kidding. There’s so many different trails to be had here. There are beautiful sights to be seen and a wonderful lodge near the bridge that had a fire going as a warming shelter.

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.

We have stayed in a camper cabin in the winter and RV site in the summer. We have explored so many trails on our snowshoes and cross country skis in the winter and have enjoyed many hikes and mountain bike rides in the summer months. The accommodations were well maintained with very clean campground area. The shower room is very new and the bathrooms were very clean. The cabins are pretty basic with bunk beds and a small table with chairs. The cabin we stayed in was heated with base board heaters that you have control of the temperature. We have also brought our canoe to explore the river and went fishing. There are so many trails to explore so we plan on camping here again and again!

We began our 2 night trip crossing the Swing bridge and headed to the left for 2.7 miles until we reached Ash Ridge, our backpack site. The hike there was easy and fairly flat. Once you are closer to the site you walk through grass and weeds that are about 4 ft tall, so be sure to check for ticks!

The campsite was very spacious and right on the St. Louis River. To get to the river you have to walk down a steep hill right next to the campsite. There are two picnic tables, a fire ring, a bear safe box, and a latrine near by.

I did not rate 5 stars due to the fact that we could hear the highway.

I spent a day trip with friends at Jay Cook. The water levels were low, so we clambered around on the sculpted granite rocks that line the river and falls, dipping on and out of pools and up slick rock faces.

There's always a lot of people, but if you get far enough from parking it drops off dramatically.

The campground here is nice, but could use some updates (bathrooms/showers). The hiking is beautiful, especially along the river (although some trails are closed due to wash out repair). And of course the kids love the swinging bridge!

Even though it rained almost the entire time, we spent a great couple of days at Jay Cooke State Park in MN last June. We went with friends who also had an 8 year old boy. We both rented camper cabins. Our family was in Gabbro and their family was in Shale. The two cabins were separated by 20 feet of forest connected by a footpath through the trees. The boys had a blast running back and forth between the two cabins. The parents were pretty happy to have the screened in porches for listening to the rain and playing several rounds of Mad Libs.

We did a couple of short hikes during breaks in the rain. The suspension bridge was cool and all the boys had fun climbing on the rocks in the gorge and scaring us moms. There are some great trails that run through the area (Willard Munger and North Country National Scenic trails and Duluth is only 15 miles away via bike trail) and I hope to return on a drier weekend to do more hiking.

The High Landing backpack site is amazing! It's less than a 2 mile hike in unless you take a wrong turn then uh maybe about 4 but I wouldn't know, just guessing... and once you get there you're greeted with a stunning overlook of the St Louis River way below. I loved listening to the constant thunder of the river. We had a nice private trail leading to our spot so no one was ever in eye site or ear shot of us. The pit toilet was pretty far which is great till 2am and the maggots on the open air throne threw me off a bit but hey better than nothing! Late fall left us with a spattering of color and a frosted tent in the morning but hiking was perfect and plentiful in this gorgeous park. The river is a highlight of geologic wonder and the famous swinging bridge does not disappoint.

Awesome campground and state park all around. The campsites are surrounded by trees so they are very private and quiet. Hiking along the St Louis river is very cool, a lot of rocks to climb and places to wade and swim in the river. Hiking here could never get old!

Friend of mine and I couldnt sleep one night...had the next day off work and we just said lets drive up to duluth right now lol. We got there at 530am to jay cook and hiked around!!! The suspension bridge was SO COOL the raging water underneath all the exposed rock and trees! It was awesome def want to come explore this park more!!!

Jay Cooke has always been one of our favorite places to camp. It has gotten so busy it’s not even that enjoyable anymore. It’s always well maintained and clean!! We booked a walk in site ( 83 ) which was beautiful! The down side was it’s very close to the camper cabins and many families with children running around unattended. They ran into out campsite yelling and screaming with flashlights and banging bat’s against the trees  while the parents did nothing even after my husband asked them nicely.  We had planned to have a quiet getaway from the city and zone out peacefully.  I have not been back since. Busses and busses of kids pulling up the the park and a 25 minute wait to cross the swing bridge.  But it is absolutely gorgeous there despite the hoards of people.