Best Glamping near Ihlen, MN

Love the hiking and lack of bugs compared to most Minnesota parks. Great prairie views and it's always great to see Bison. Didn't love the lack of potable water. Would be nice to see more investment here- real gem of a park.

Amazing remnant of Minnesota prairie set among the farm country. With the prairie in Minnesota gone except for a handful of small conservation areas, Blue Mounds State Park is an oasis of prairie in a sea of corn and soybean. Bison roam a small area of a few hundred acres where prairie smoke and other native plants make a last stand in a landscape of Sioux quartzite rock outcroppings, cliffs, streams, rivers and waterfalls. Hike the park or drive over to touch the Sky prairie, there’s plenty to do. The campsites are high and dry with some set overlooking mound creek or nestled amongst the shade trees. In cooler months the park has a stone shelter with a wood burning stove to escape the rain or chill. There are three spacious tipis for rent. $30-35 a night that can sleep 4-6 people. Those sites are set to the side and offer some privacy.

We had a cart-in site. One of the few state parks in Minnesota that had sites open the weekend we went. It was a long drive for my sons and I but we enjoyed it. Our site was closer to the bathrooms than I’d prefer (pit toilets in a nice building) but it wasn’t too bothersome. There were plenty of trees in our sites and though we could see some of the other cart-in sites it was pretty quiet and relaxing.

A bit of good hiking in the park. But most is shade-less prairie hiking, so on summer days it can be quite hot. The bison are neat to see. There is a dammed up part of the creek, but it didn’t look like water you’d want to wade or swim in. We drove into Luverne to “The Lake” to swim and cool off.

We stayed here for one night on the way to the Black Hills in South Dakota. The campground is in the far south western corner of Minnesota about 30 minutes for Sioux Falls South Dakota. The site is in the middle of grasslands and cornfields. They have very organized park staff that have an efficient check in process. The campground has some nice ponds and bike routes. It’s located next to a bison range and tours are available. Unfortunately the camp sites are packed in on top of each other with no privacy. You have a lot of local large RV users using loud generators and playing music until after midnight. They have good facilities with showers and dump stations. During our stay, the water in the camp tested positive for bacteria and the camp was giving out free drinking water. Since you don’t have many options in the area, this may be a good choice. The overcrowding was our main issue.

We rented kayaks and went up river, then floated to our camp site. Half way we ran out of beer - AND THEY BROUGHT US SOME!!! Love, love, love this place! Will be coming every chance I get!

This is a beautful state park campground. The sites are large and wooded without feeling closed in. There is biking and hiking. I believe you can also fish in the river, but we didn’t try it. The only downside is that their water is contaminated. They provide directions to a city site where you can fill your camper tank, and they give out a gallon of drinking/cooking eater when you check in. At Blue Mounds you can experience the prairie and what it must have been like for early settlers.

Bison. Wildflowers. An old quarry.

And that’s about it.

Beautiful park with nice trails... you can hike them all in an afternoon if you’d like.

Highly recommended for a night or two.

Last August we headed to Blue Mounds to investigate out the SW corner of our state for the first time. We swung through New Ulm on the way there to check out the Schell's brewing company and we also stopped at Laura Ingalls Wilder's Plum Creek to break up the drive from the twin cities. The drive itself got pretty boring on the last half- lots of flat fields and cows. As you get closer to Luverne things start to become more interesting and the town of Luverne itself was an unexpected delight.

Yes, the water currently has e.coli in it. There is a huge alert on the park's page explaining how you can go about accessing water and showers nearby. The $17 rate is the discounted price to reflect the e. coli discount. The main campground is pretty open, some sites have shade, it is a prairie after all. The cart-in campsite offers much more privacy with the grove of trees there. The bathroom facility at the drive-in campground is much nicer than the one for the tipis and cart-in sites.

We spent one night in the tipi (cool experience for $30-$35 a night) and two nights at a cart-in site w-09. Some of the paths to the cart-in sites are not flat and rather long, but ours wasn't bad at all. I would definitely consider staying at that campsite again. I don't think I would necessarily stay in a tipi again unless I could book it on short notice if I knew that the weather was going to be dry and cool. The day before we got there it had rained quit a bit and when we arrived it was HOT. This meant that we got to enjoy our tipi experience with the aroma of hot wet tipi. The tipi floor is a platform made out of manufactured deck boards that keep you off the ground. The tipi itself isn't nearly as critter-proof as a tent. We wound up packing up our belongings and putting them in our car between leaving the tipi and moving into our campsite since we wanted to go check out the local area before we could check into our next site and somehow a garter snake got transported out of the tipi in our belongings and into our car- awesome haha.

The park was flooded a few years back which washed out a quite a bit- the lake that used to be there is now gone and just overgrown with plants. Most of the park is dedicated to the bison, so hiking opportunities are kind of limited. There are a ton of bison, but you either get to see them or you don't unless you go on one of their bison tours. They were present by the fence twice while we were there. There is pretty much a large trail loop with another large loop that swings off of that. Bring a wide-brimmed hat and tons of sun screen, not much tree cover on the trails. The one visitor center located in the southern portion of the park appeared to be permanently closed.

Luverne was cool. There are tons of historic houses and next time I'm out there I'll spend some time driving through neighborhoods to check them out. There is a basic grocery store off of Main Street for anything that you may need to pick up. I kind of wish that we had gone out to eat in town more because of how great the food was. Sterling's was delicious and much more upscale than anything I expected to find out there, the local Buffalo Sweat beer was great enough that I tried to find it at the local liquor store before I left. Showers are available at the Luverne aquatic center for free.

Overall I really enjoyed my experience and I look forward to my next trip out there, whenever that may be. If you are coming from the Twin Cities make sure to hit up Schells and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Plum Creek homestead like I mentioned above. Nearby side trips are Pipestone, Touch the Sky prairie, and Jeffers Petroglyphs

I reserved a site fairly last minute after seeing the unusually nice April weather forecast. The check in was seamless and firewood is readily available ($6/bundle when I went). Each site has a picnic table and fire pit with a cooking grate. I ended up selecting a site next to the river and had a cool access point directly from my site to sit on a rock riverside. There didn’t seem to be any obvious access point into the river itself but it was too cold to go in anyways. The sites next to the river don’t have much for shade but other sites seemed to have better coverage. The sites are quite close to one another and if the campground was fully reserved you wouldn’t have much privacy at your sites.

The main park hiking trail starts a mile ish away from the campground. Beware there is NO SHADE on the trail. The quarry is worth the adventure!

Photo included of morning sunrise!

Very well maintained park! Good easy hiking trails. Bison tour was super, was brought up close to the bison and educated about them and the prairie. Quarry was neat to view from on top and from inside the quarry. Many great views looking over the prairie.

Campsites are spaced apart fairly well, all open between sites. Many nice trees in the campground for shade.

Bathrooms are SUPER CLEAN and there are two different bathroom and shower buildings. The older building Mens showers we prefer because the water temperature isn’t scalding hot. The newer bathroom showers are well designed like at the other newer MN State parks and have nice handicap bathrooms and showers.

Couldn’t ask for any better. The climbing is great too

The cart in sites are close to the parking lot pretty secluded. Amazing area at night so open. You can stand by your car and see so many stars. We saw the neowise comet here. This is a beautiful park definitely worth the drive.

Really beautiful landscape with a late check out time so we could explore the park for a while in the morning. Bathrooms could have been a bit tidier but they weren’t terrible. Pick spots deeper in the loops of the campground for a bit more privacy. You pay for the site as well as per car, but it is a very reasonable price.

I find writing a review for this state park and campground to be quite difficult. The park itself is great. It’s very beautiful, very serene, and not crowded. There’s a little more action around the rock climbing area, and the play area can get quite rowdy with local children as well as campers.

My problem totally lies with the campsite. First and foremost all of the campsites are extremely cramped and extremely open. Even the ones that look like they are hidden in trees and bush, are actually mere feet away from the next campsite. And therefore there really is no privacy or feeling like you’re out in the country.

This campsite, as a whole, from what I could tell on my visit, is used by people whose primary objective is to sit outside with their friends and drink. This is not a campsite to serve people who are coming primarily to enjoy the park. This means that there are a lot of screaming children, rowdy late night conversations, and more than a few misbehaved pooches (the dog in the site next to me —to my right by 20 ft—was territorial and growled at everyone who walked past).

I would come here again to enjoy the park, but I definitely would not camp here again. It felt more like a Boy Scout jamboree, but with adults and alcohol.

Well maintained and monitored. Bathrooms and showers are clean. Beautiful areas to explore here and nearby. (Pipestone National Monument)

We had a great time at this park. The site was nice and big. A bit muddy but it's been a wet spring. Trails right from the campground. Newer shower house and bath house.

Pulled into this park on a whim after a day of driving along I-90 and so glad we did! This was an excellent park with great amenities. We camped in the cart-in sites overlooking the prairie. The sites were back in the woods, but the park had carts you could use to haul your stuff back. Lots of bird watching, and we even spotted the bison herd on the range! Spectacular views on a clear night too. I will definitely stop there again when I’m nearby!

The campground is grass and trees, with gravel pull outs. Sites are reasonably spaced, but not very private. Sites at the end of loop A have a view of the prairie.

Bathrooms and showers are clean and modern.

Well maintained even, grassy trail circling the campground + huge ample restrooms

This was a very nice park with hiking trails and bison viewing areas. We were in site 73e, it was nice a quiet. Had great AT&T cell coverage.

We stayed at Blue Mounds for one night on a cross country trip. It’s a beautiful park and the campground was quiet and pretty. Sites were private enough. Ours looked over a beautiful meadow. Bathrooms were very clean and had showers but no hot water. Very kid friendly with easy hiking trails and a playground not far away.

This is a small but beautiful park on the prairie. We stayed in the cart-in campground as it offered more privacy between campsites compared to the drive in campground. We stayed in site 6, which is down a path way and makes you feel like you are not close to any of your neighbors. The bathrooms in the cart-in campground are vault toilets but the building is kept very clean. My girls enjoyed the variety of birds and seeing the bison in the park. The flies and ticks were horrible while we were there so be prepared for them!

Beautiful campground! The showers were the cleanest I have ever seen. Hot water and flushing toilets were nice. Campsites had fire rings and picnic tables. Our site was level and easy to drive into. My only complaint is with finding the climbing areas for recreation. That was a bit of a pain, but the campground itself is beautiful.

Stopped here on our way back from the badlands heading to Indiana. Quiet place with nice bike and walking paths. Electric only 30amp water close by. Full dump station.

Stayed at a tipi site. Camping was great, room enough for family of 4. Trails were nice, a 5 mile loop. Bison herd viewpoint across the street from campground.

Bathrooms are pristine. Private shower rooms. Paved bike path through prairie and beside rock ridge.