Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Pipestone, MN

Stayed for 3 nights. Very shady, but does not have sewer or water hookup. 30 amp electric service. Grounds are well maintained and the restroom and shower facilities are very up to date but heavily used. Sites are closer than I like. Park has nice trails and bluffs. Bison are within the park but did not see. Rangers and staff very friendly. Would be great for overnighter. The most irritating thing about the park were the next door neighbors who let their five dogs use our campsite as an area for deification. People with pets need to be respectful of others. I have come to the conclusion that all pets should be banned from public lands.

Spacious sites and great full hook up sites!! Tons of walking trails and pet friendly!! You’ll see lots of birds and deer... Second time here and love it!!

this campground is on leash pet friendly.  there are few trees, but it has full hookups, clean restrooms and showers.  pay 6 get 1 free.  however there is a train t

has no play ground, swimming pool, etc.

people were very friendly.

it was exactly what i was looking for.

Nice State Park kind of in the middle of no where. Super easy access and close to Pipestone National Monument. On a nice little lake with prairie views. Don't recommend for larger rigs. We struggled with our 44ft 5th wheel, only one site could fit us and it was tight to get in and out. All in all its not my favorite but a good place to call base and explore Pipestone and even Sioux Falls.

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

We camped here in July and had a blast. Buffalo, an old rock quarry, a mulberry tree, prickly pear cacti and more! The view from the ridge goes for miles, you can actually see Iowa. Site #9 is partially shaded and very level with just a slight walk to the restroom facilities. Take a short drive to see the Pipestone National Monument if you have time, you only need about 30 minutes to see the monument itself. This park was definitely worth the 4 hour drive we took to get there. Luverne, MN is a cute little town to visit as well.

the park is beautiful and the lake is really nice, however the campground was essentially an open field with sites numbered along the edge. No privacy which made it tough to travel with dogs and kids were running around everywhere. Well kept but wouldn’t stay at this site again.

Camped in the more open area (72E in campground 2). Large grassy sites with fire pit and picnic table. Clean bathrooms with hot showers. Nice path around lake for walking the dog. Lots of families having a good time! Very pleasant evening.

We are on a e/w road trip. We knew absolutely nothing about this state park but it was on our route so took a chance. An excellent choice! Sites are big and roomy. We have two big dogs and were able to put them both on 30 foot leads. Lots of trails. Bathrooms exceptionally clean. Showers great. Park staff friendly and helpful. We liked it so much we stayed a second night. Definitely would return.

I was up in the Oak Woods Campground. This was pretty much an open field with people crammed together. One of my neighbors sat and watched a certain cable news channel on a giant outdoor TV hooked up to their bus from 8am until 10p. I can tell you that a TV host named Tucker was very angry that night. Another "camper" had set up a giant playground, penned in areas for their multiple dogs, and had a bouncy castle set up for their daughter...that was running off of a very loud generator all day. The whole thing was lit up with string lights like it was an airport runway and gave the entire campground a carnival feel. WTF?  Unfortunately for your enjoyment, I deleted the video I took of the scene. Lucky for you, I still have a photograph of it. 

I had reserved 2 nights. I left at 6am after one pathetic night and went and stayed at a Harvest Host instead. 

Leave no trace (and set up no carnivals).

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

We camped here over the weekend with our dogs. The campground is within 10 miles off of I90.

The park is not very big so there are not many campsites. Some have electric hook up, others are just for tent camping. All of them provide a picnic table and a fire pit. They also have little log cabins. We stayed at campsite 6 which was a very good spot. Some of the other sites seemed very close together without much privacy or shade.

The park staff (rangers, camp host and volunteers) was extremely friendly. They always made sure that we had everything we needed. The rangers also offer different programs on the weekend like learning about geocaching or how to make campfire desserts.

There is one bathhouse for the entire campground. It seemed a little old but got cleaned daily. There are also several vault toilets around the area. From the campground you have access to the water. There are also several short hiking trails from where you can see the rock formations.

It was just a very short ride to the Devils Gulch (Jesse James historical site) or Split Rock Park. There is also a Dollar General close by. We would definitely recommend the campground.

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.

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.

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.

Such a nice campground. Nice big shady trees and manicured lawns. They sell campfire wood for 6$ a bundle on site so we had some great campfires going. They have nice long paved trails for walking and biking. We got to walk our dogs on it to avoid tick contact from the grassy trails. There was a cool suspension bridge that was fun to walk on. The showers were very nice and hot without a lot of traffic. 

There is no sewage hookup or water hook ups. They do that 50/30 amp sites available. There is a dump station right at the entrance to dump when you leave and it also has a separate fresh water station if you want to fill up right when you get there so youre not traveling with a bunch of water in your tank. 

It was a great campground and the falls were close by and palisades state park was also in the area with a nice hike. 

There is an extra $8 car fee per night that you have to pay on top of any camping fees. If you are staying longer than 5 days it better to just get the annual parking pass for $32, which would cover parking for all state parks and recreation areas in SD. 

They have great discounts if you are a veteran and south dakota resident.

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.

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.