Best Cabin Camping near Morton, MN

We stayed in a Camper Cabin in this park in the wintertime.  It was a great experience for our kids and a fun winter camping experience for mom and dad.  The camper cabin was nice and warm and we even cooked our dinner over a fire at night.

Our party consisted of two adults, and three children under 12. The cabin consisted of bunk beds with double beds on bottom and twin bed on top. With our gear for four days we found the cabin had just enough room for our party. Any longer or more kids and the cabin would be too small.

The cabins are close to the lake. In early October the leaves are mostly fallen and you have an unobstructed view of the lake and surrounding hills. During the day take in the great vistas across the lake, at night look up and see stars that can only be seen in the wilderness.

The area has several good hikes of 3 - 7 miles in length. If you are looking for heavy wooded off trail hikes you can forge your own way otherwise we found the trails great for family hikes, and a morning run.

Bathrooms, and showers are clean and better than I have experienced at other state parks.

We spent three nights at the Oak Woods campground at Lake Shetek State Park in May 2022. The six non-electric campsites are along one edge of the campground, across the road from the park’s four camper cabins. All of the campsites are large and open and grassy. They lack privacy but have good spacing, tall trees, and lake views. One of the two bathroom-and-shower buildings is nearby. We were there in early May and were the only tent campers in the park at that time.

The park is lovely. We saw and heard many birds including songbirds, woodpeckers, geese, turkeys, pelicans, turkey vultures, and a nesting swan. We saw deer, squirrels, chipmunks, and a mink. We heard coyotes the first night. There are some nice hiking trails. We especially enjoyed the Loon Island loop, which is accessed by a causeway across the lake. There is an observation deck with a viewing telescope at Eastlick Marsh, which is where we saw the nesting swan and a beaver dam. In season there are recreational rentals (canoes, kayaks, etc.), but we were a little too early for them to be available.

This review is for Oak Woods Campground at Lake Shetek State Park. Drive-in Site 12.

This campground is pretty large and there are neighboring campgrounds that make the camping options plentiful in this state park!

Sites are well marked and they are all in close proximity to one another. There are little to no natural features that divide each site from the next. When this campground is full you have zero privacy, and can probably hear the conversation by the fire at the neighboring site!

Site 12 in directly across from one of the camper cabins - these little cabins are super cute! You are also probably ~1000ft from the lake shore and can clearly see the lake from the site. It’s possible that sight line becomes somewhat obstructed when other sites are occupied. Restrooms and water source are very nearby.

It's a great park in an area of Minnesota that is not well traveled. There's also a lot of history here with an interesting museum on the U.S.-Dakota Conflict of 1862.

6/12/20-6/14/20 cart in 3

Lake Shetek State Park is located in the SW corner is Minnesota and on Lake Shetek. They have 4 campgrounds. We always up for the more private sites and stayed in the cart-in campground. There are carts available to haul your gear if you choose. The cart in sits sit up on a ridge and had some views of Lake Shetek. Our campsite (3) was spacious with a tent pad large enough to hold 2 tents and had a spot for a hammock. It had a fire ring and picnic table. The vault toilet was right across from our campsite, so we had a lot of foot traffic. It was not the most private site of the bunch, we liked 5 and 7 better.

Lake Shetek allows motor boats and there was a lot of boat traffic. There are other resorts on this lake so it’s very active. We brought our kayaks and enjoyed kayaking the lake, though there was always a pretty big wake and we stayed near the shoreline. We kayaked (a short Portage) to 2 smaller lakes that had no one on them. We were able to tie our boats to a tree below our campsite and scaled up the embankment, there was a path already there. There are a few hiking trails in the state park (roughly 4 miles of hiking tidal) but I wouldn’t say it’s known for its hiking. We enjoyed the causeway that led to the 1-mile Loon Island Trail. We saw turtles, deer, waterfowl and eagles during our stay. There is a “beach” locates near the Oak Wood campground however it was underwater, people still enjoyed swimming as it was shallow and warm in June. We did find another beach within the state park that was a longer walk to reach, but MANY boats were docked and “partying” here. There is a nice fishing pier and a dock within the park.

Due to all the boat traffic, I would say this is a much less private and serene state park.

This park is only about 1 1/2 hours from shakopee. It’s a wonderful surprise to find this beautiful wooded river valley on the middle of farm fields. The non electric sites are very wooded and private. The electric sites are very open and offer little privacy. The shower facility is located in the chalet near the main office. Unlike most state parks, there is a $2 fee to shower. The trails are mostly wooded and offer a variety of difficulty. The historical fort site has lots of great information and signage around the excavations. There is a fee to enter the museum.

I love checking out the state park walk-in camp sites. These sites are the first I've been at where you behave to hike up a steep hill. Totally worth it if you're staying for multiple nights. We only stayed one night, so lugging all our stuff up was not fun.

The main campground is a bit crowded with not a ton of space between sites. We did think #37 was a good pick: spaced farther away and the river sounds drawn-out anyone else.

We stayed at Ft. Ridgley horse camp. Very nice horse camp, with electric hookups, and water at every site. Bathrooms and showers right in horse camp, and a nice little creek about 50 ft behind our site, that our boys loved playing in!! Nice trails, I wish there were a few more miles, but over all very decent. We had a great time.

Beautiful wooded campsite on a creek. Great hike up to the lookout!

Plenty of sites. Not too cramped. Plenty of trails with beautiful views. Next to a nice trout stream.

Decided last minute to try a State Park campground I’d never been to and picked Fort Ridgley. Glad I did. Based on the previous reviews I was a little nervous... not really a big RV kind of girl, myself.

But I stayed in the little non-electric loop and couldn’t have been happier with the site. The sites were large enough to fit two tents and had plenty of trees to hook up the hammocks. The sites were clean and well maintained and the staff at the park were really nice!

Unlike other state park campgrounds I have been to, this one does not have a bathroom/shower house. No flush toilets here. But the vault toilets were cleaned daily. But if you are the kind of camper Thant needs a shower or a flush toilet, this isn’t the park for you.

’One day a ranger came around an offered a wildlife edible “class” which I decided to go to - that was interesting! I learned a lot (thanks Scot) and it was fun to meet some of the other campers. I also learned that this is one of the oldest State Parks in MN.

I did venture over to the RV loop and yes, very big sites that accomodate very big RVs, but if that’ is your kind of camping then make sure you get a site along the creek! They looked amazing.

The hiking was easy - which was good for me on this trip. Nothing too high of a climb or rocky. Just a beautiful stroll in the woods.

All in all I say this is a great campground!

Campsite 37 is right on a bend in the river and has an amazing view! Most others along the river don’t have the view but you can still sleep to the sound of running water (until you wake to the same sound…). Best part: no cell reception there (but there’s an app to help you not get lost that doesn’t require cell reception.

I was here on August 20, 2017. It is the anniversary date of the Sioux Uprising (155 years)@ the Fort. I arrived close to evening and drove through the site. There was not another soul in site. The building on the hill was closed so, I figured I better just find my campsite for the night. Found a campsite and realized once again, no cell phone reception so as I headed back to pay my fee I notice a sign on the building stating cell service could be obtained up on the hill where I had stopped earlier. So, I paid my fee and went up on the hill made contact with people before I settled in for the night. The campground was nearly empty and very quiet. In the morning I went back up on the hill to the fort to see if maybe the building would be open. After all, this was an anniversary date of a significant event on the site. I spent a good hour to an hour and a half walking around the fort shooting pics and reading the storyboards. No one came to open the building, no sign of any activity. Then it dawned on me...we don't really want to remember how the Indians tried to rise up against the establishment and what are ancestors did to beat them back down and steal everything they valued.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Ridgely

This is now my favorite MN State Park. Campground is VERY WELL MAINTAINED. BRAND NEW Bathroom/shower building with large ADA showers.

I was there Tuesday through Saturday and I was THE ONLY CAMPER in the whole park Wednesday through Saturday!

Drinking water is very good and many fountains and hydrants are located all throughout the park, even way out on the trails there are water fountains.

Large stone pavilion for groups picnics.

In JULY The Prairie Trails are stunning with all the wild flowers in full bloom. Many trails and nice overlooks too. I walked and hiked the trail over and over because of the beautiful flowers and trails.

The MN State Historical Society could do a much better job at EDUCATING what really happened at the Fort and why. The signage is in need of repair and restoration. Make sure to read up about the fort before arriving so that you can appreciate the importance of the site you’re camping on.

The horse campground is also very well maintained and has nice shower/bathroom building. No flys and people have been great at cleaning up manure and putting it in the compost pile.

The creek through the campground is beautiful and the sound of water over the rock is great for sleeping. The creek is cool temperature even in July but kids have fun swimming and splashing. There are marked areas for crossing the creek which make great wading areas too.

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.

The hiking here is actually challenging and the open fields in lavender bloom are beautiful. There is also some nice history to the park so a great lesson for kids especially.

The camping however is very exposed and close to each spot. Also when I went through the grounds it was crammed full of RVs. It honestly seems to have tons of access for RVs so if that is your flavor I would suggest this park.

If you are a little more flexible and have the capacity to do so, definitely consider the rustic campground rather than the semi-modern one. There aren't very many sites, the sites are very large, and the setting is lovely. There are vault toilets here, along with campfire pits and picnic tables, so if you need fresh water or want to shower, you can walk 7 or 8 minutes or drive over to the other campground for those.

Didn't get in till late evening so had to do our initial exploring at night with our handy dandy headlamps!🤪 Still fun, peaceful and even better we had the whole park to ourselves! Had tons of peaceful animal visitors including herds of white tail deer walking through our camp ground! Owls and coyotes singing in the distance... Per!!!

We stayed at a walk in site in the rustic campground. It was very private and you could barely see the other walk in site next door. The man made swimming pond was a highlight and much needed on a hot summer day. We hiked the trails through the park and saw deer, turkeys, and other small wildlife. The historic Schell’s Brewery is less than 10 min. from the campsite and it was great to visit.