Best Glamping near North Branch, MN

Afton is a gorgeous park. There's beautiful trails that take you through dense woods and prairie, and then you take a pretty decline to get to the St Croix River. It was foggy when we were there but still gorgeous. We also managed to get a yurt and it was so much fun. Comfy beds, room for 7 and it was clean and well built. This is a great park!

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.

The mosquitos were terrible due to all the rain and there was a threat of bears in campsites to eat food while they humans cooking it. Yes this is all part of nature and so are snakes, but do not go here if you fear snakes. This part is a research area for snakes in Minnesota.. which I wasn't aware of and am terrified of snakes. Probably will try camping and visiting in the winter when 2/3 of these will be minimized greatly. That aside, it was a great quiet park on the river.

My partner and I scheduled a 3 day / 2 night stay in a new Vintage Cruiser RV for $39.99, in exchange for attending a presentation on private membership.

We checked in Wednesday evening, and the nicest staff I've ever met helped us acclimate to RV living. We are new to this game. They patiently described how to utilize the grey and black water tanks, as well as encouraged us to check-out the canoes, row boats, bikes, horseshoes, ladder golf and many other entertainment items - for FREE!

The map provided was accurate which made locating the cruiser a breeze. There were further instructions inside as well. The RV was immaculate. Provided for our use were all linens (a public very clean bath and shower was just across the road), dish soap, dish towels, paper towels, flat wear, plates, bowls, mugs and pans.

The campground has a couple of ponds, as well as access to Ham Lake where the watercraft is launched. There is a petting arena with goats, ponies, and a llama who gave my partner the stink eye, but fell in love with me rubbing the fence and giving me all googly eyes!

The clubhouse sells bundled wood, ice, snacks, cold drinks, ice cream and provides 24-hour fresh coffee. There is also a small resupply area, and gift shop.

There are pull-through sites, back ups, 50 and 30 amp hook ups, and tent sites, covered pavilions, picnic tables and fire pits.

The campground itself seems remote, secluded and peaceful, however, you are conveniently located to two well-stocked convenience stores, as well as Wal-Mart about 15 minutes away. It's also only about 45 minutes from the Minnesota Twin Cities.

One note: We visited in August and needed gallons of bug spray.

We very much enjoyed our get away!

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.

Family friendly getaway for a quick camping fix.  Nice pool and a lake.  Room between campsites and some tree coverage.  All in all a nice place to camp.

I have stayed here twice once in one of the rental cabins, and second tent camping. The campground is very quiet and never seems to be to busy. The tent sites are a little to exposed for me (I prefer to be in the woods) but they were all clean along with the facilities too. The beach is wonderful along with the section of river and hiking areas. Definitely worth a trip

Great hiking trails!

We stayed here in mid April, I believe we stayed at CC #6. The site was beautiful, the cabin well kept. My only complaint about the site is how close the cabins are together, but the fact that the decks face into the woods and ravine is very peaceful and makes up for it. The cabins are nearby a trail that you can wander through the woods down to the river which is nice. We definitely used the heat at night to stay warm but had the windows open at night, it was perfect weather, this is a great place for spring and fall camping. (Never been during the summer months.)

Have stayed here many times in all seasons. Not an over crowded park with lots of room to roam. Horses are welcome here with their own special campground area and miles of trails to ride. Hiking trails cover open grasslands, hardwood forest and valley waterways. Lots of wildlife and a great place for birders. Paved bike trails trailer and tent camping as well as camper cabins. Especially beautiful in autumn with the colorful leaves.

We stayed 4 days over a busy holiday weekend. Our site was very large with a 20'x15' tent box, more secluded than the others, and all shade with little/no grass. The bugs were out in full force, but we still had a blast. The hiking compared to many other parks we've been to was just ok. There are many horseback riding trails that can be used for hiking, but they are sand so it was hard for our 4 & 7 year old kids to walk through. We made a day trip down to Interstate Park (MN side) which is 15 minutes away, for a little extra hiking along the river to make up for it.

The campground was very nice. The sites are private, couldn't see any neighbors as there are a lot of trees. The park rangers were very helpful and informative. The facilities were nice and we'll kept. We drove about fifteen minutes to get to a hiking spot along the St Croix river, worth the drive. There weren't many people on the trail and it was very pretty.

Right on the main loop of the campground, but without having the neighbors right on top of you!

Was a little bit rambunctious during the day, but utterly silent at night.

Beautiful spot on the St Croix River.

The place was wonderful and we enjoyed staying! Registration was a hassle but we managed to figure it out!

We had a quick overnight stay here and it was just far enough to feel like we were out the cities withiut driving for hours. Campsites are not too close to eachother, lots of trees and wildlife. Clean bathrooms. Great experience.

This campground is massive! Our campsite was on the farthest loop and was very private! We saw sooooo many deer some even walking right through campsites! You can hear coyotes, raccoons and very loud owls😂

We spent an entire day hiking and it was decent hiking along the river, some of the trails where a little confusing and trying to figure out where we at, but we made it just hiked a little further than we wanted to😂! This seems to be the hot spot for horses and if we go back I definitely want to do the horseback riding right outside the park! DRIVE to the visitors center from the campsites it’s a bit away!

Postives: Very private and remote, Lots of wildlife, friendly staff, okay hiking. The canoe rental place wasn’t open so we can’t comment of water activities!

Negatives: Only one shower house and we had to drive there, the primitive toilet smelled so bad it burned!! It needed to be emptied and wasn’t the entire time we were there. This isn’t a comment on this state park but because we where no where near a real bathroom and we have a toddler who wears a diaper/potty training there are no trash cans in the primitive toilet it could create a problem if you had a little one or if your a women😉

overall it was good camping trip, but if we did come back we would definitely camp closer to the shower house.

Great, easy-to-access campground and state park. Absolutely beautiful! The park even had free family-friendly archery available while we were there!

I stayed in one of the group sites, and while there were several other groups, the sites are well-spaced enough that the noise wasn't too bad. There are 2 vault toilets available at the group camps, as well as an old-fashioned water pump. Note: the group sites are cart-in ONLY.

Plenty of hiking trails, and there's almost always something scheduled on the weekends for families to enjoy. Highly recommended!

Great trails! Most sites are located along the river. We were at the furthest location called buck hill. About a 2 mile hike from your car. They did give us the option to temporarily park on the hwy to drop our stuff off (yes it's totally cheating but if you were given the option wouldn't you take it?) Then go back and walk it without all of our gear. They allow dogs with us a plus for us. The grounds were all kept very well! Definitely would recommend this location. Only down side is that you are near the hwy and can hear all the cars driving by.

It is a relaxing, semi-modern campground. Very nice trails to hike by the river.

I booked this campsite last minute for the weekend because my other campsite was booked. The park had great reviews and looked like a nice area of the state to visit. As you drive to the campground area, you pass signs that state Snake Research Area. I have a fear of snakes, but never thought this would impact my visit. I came across two very large snakes (apx. 4ft long and maybe longer) in the road, having to wait for them to slither across the road. Once I got to my campsite, I was walking with my dog along the perimeter of the campsite and came across multiple snakes of this same size right on the edge of my site! I have been camping many times in many different areas, but this was something that I have never experienced before. I think there should be some sort of disclosure on the state parks' website that snakes of this size are around the campgrounds.