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.

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.

Love this place your site is of the road with a campfire ring n ok water or power in the woods lots of wildlife you can camp for free for 21 days at a time if your a rock hound great place for it got stuck in a ditch last year for the whole weekend not one person came by all weekend lol that's how private it is there

Nice campground with amenities, pool and water play area for kids. Nice on-site store for any needs. I have a small travel trailer that is self contained so I could reserve spots down by the river. Ability to go tubing down the river. You can even get pizza delivered by the local Chanticlear Pizza!

I give it a 4 star only because twice I ran into the same group of people that thought it was ok to open up their vehicle doors and blast music well into the night. Owner warned them the first time but quiet time isn’t until 11 pm. 2nd trip, I just packed up and left.

This campground is great for everyone! It’s has a heated pool, splash pad area, BIG playground area, indoor game room, HUGE sites! You can either relax in the pool or even take a ride down the rum river in a rented canoe,tube, or kayak. We would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking to having a great time camping. This place does have 30amp and 50amp hook ups and has pull through spots and sewer sites so that needs to change on this app. Max trailer length that I’ve seen here is 70’. Anyone can fit in here!

I stayed here 3 weeks ago with my wife and 2 young children and it was fantastic great playground and heated pool the spaces were well kept and spaced apart 10-10 would most defiantly go again! A ton for the kids to do!

The campground is nice and clean. Good size spaces. The tubing is a plus. Had one issue with power dropping so we had to pull the surge protector off the. It was fine. Also very hot and humid so everyone was running AC to the max. Pool was small but nice. Splash pad was even nice for adults I recommend this campground. Key thing is the river is very clean and sandy bottom.

Large sites. Great tubing and canoeing.

Nice river nearby canoeing swimming pool fireplaces and little store for treats.

This is a nice and family friendly campground. We've camped in loops E and F and both are good. Most sides have some shade and trees and the picnic tables are in great condition! We were there over the 4th weekend and it was pretty busy, but everyone seemed respectful and the loud parties seemed mostly to be over at the beach. Lots of great paved trails surrounding the area, and Wargo nature center is only about 2.5 miles away, a bikable distance even for my 7 year old!

We love to camp here as it's so close to home. Decent amenities, however NOT the feel of a State Park. Think suburbia meets nature.

This campground was very accommodating! We came in late due to the Adventure and they had no issue with it. The site was large and flat with a nice fire pit. Thank you!

It was very easy to find, close to the twin cities, and clean. There was good access to kindling for a fire in the nice fire pit that has a grill. There is ample room to park a car and put up a large tent. We were impressed with the upkeep of the park.

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