Do you love the outdoors and horses? If you're looking for a rustic but comfortable experience, horse camping in Prior Lake is the way to go. It's easy to find Prior Lake equestrian campgrounds with the Dyrt. At The Dyrt, you can find top-rated spots for horse camping, as reviewed by campers.
Lebanon Hills Regional Park is the largest park in the Dakota County park system. Containing almost 2,000 acres, the park offers miles of trails and many lakes for year-round outdoor sports, recreation and environmental education. The Lebanon Hills Visitor Center, located in the eastern section of the park, offers park information, interactive nature displays, courses and programs, equipment rental and access to all the beauty the park has to offer. Dakota County Parks is actively restoring more than 1,100 acres of prairie and forest within Lebanon Hills Campground and planting more than 3,000 new trees and shrubs.
$24 - $42 / night
Located on the St. Croix River, just 20 miles east of Saint Paul, Afton State Park is great for those looking for camping near Minneapolis and is 1600 acres of rolling prairies, oak woodlands, and limestone river canyons amid an ancient glacial landscape. The land for the park was acquired in 1967, but it took almost 15 years of planning revisions and compromises with local residents before the park finally opened in 1982. Little development has gone into Afton State Park in an effort to maintain its natural characteristics, and former farmland atop the bluffs are continuously being restored to their original state. This makes Afton an ideal destination for campers looking to experience the outdoors in a wilder setting. Load up your backpack with all you’ll need for your stay, as camping at Afton State Park requires a hearty, 0.75-mile hike in from the parking area. The year-round campground offers 27 rustic sites with picnic tables and fire pits, with options for pitching your tent in either open or wooded areas. There is drinking water, a vault toilet and firewood is supplied within the camp area. There is also three boat-in campsites, and two group campsites that can accommodate up to 60 people each. If you’d rather not rough it, the park also offers four camping cabins and two yurts, some of which are wheelchair accessible. There are also several picnic areas and restrooms within the park. Campsite rates range from $15–$23/night; cabins range from $55–$70/night, and yurts $50–$65/night. When you’re ready to explore, start at the park’s Nature Store where you can pick up information about the park’s flora and fauna, or join a nature walk. Then choose from more than 20 miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails, as well as a short barrier-free path. If you’re visiting in winter, many of these trails are open for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. Bring your GPS and go on a geocaching treasure hunt, or bring your binoculars and go on safari for a variety of migratory birds, waterfowl, and wildlife, including deer, foxes and badgers. And little ones will love becoming Junior Park Naturalists and learning about bugs, birds, plants and other critters. If you’re looking for a real outdoor adventure, Afton State Park has what you’re looking for.
$20 - $32 / night
Backpack sites, located on remote lakes and ponds throughout the park, are one to two miles from the trailhead parking. New log camper cabins, located near lakes and ponds, provide bunk beds for six people and a table and benches for campers who want more of the creature comforts.
Scout
Good vibes it’s a magical place when u go hiking down the hill to the hidden creeks trails and absolute peace being one with nature..
Scout
This was a great experience overall. The sites are spacious and far enough away from others to feel like there was enough privacy.
The one negative thing was that some neighbors watched a movie each night — starting just after quiet hours. We could hear their movie from across a road and through some trees (and tents).
But overall it was great. Good hiking and geocaching.
We would go back to this campground.
Scout
Went early in the season in the afternoon and had no problems getting a good spot with electric hookups. Better for someone with an RV, and more seemingly a weekend spot for the family.
Scout
Very quiet campground, with large peaceful, rustic sites. We stopped for one night while traveling through Minneapolis area. Found several open sites on Saturday, first weekend in June. The road into the campground was a bit bumpy, take it slow it was only about 0.75 miles.
Scout
Camp Dels Review
Worth the read!
Charges:
They charged us half of what my cousin next to us got charged and we got the same thing but mine should have been more because I had 3 more adults. And it was 500$ for 3 nights. We should have just went and rented out a house.
On the last day we went up to get our bills fixed and it took 40 min for them to figure out the issue, wrote down the totals and said we'll charge the cards at 11 am when the other guy comes in. At 11am we went back up for our receipts and it took them another 20 min to figure it out. He wanted to send us away saying. I'll figure it out and email it to you. I said no that doesn't work for me I'll take it now. He said what would you like me to do. So I had to spell it out for him and said "I want you to take the full amount your charging me, subtract the deposit, then subtract the payment I made when I came on Friday, and now tell me what I owe today, run that amount on my card right now and give me the receipt and do the same for the other site we had too. It's not hard. However you have to do it in your computer you figure it out, I just want to go home. I'll wait" he said your right it's not hard. I said start over completely if you want I don't care. I just want my receipts. (They couldn't even figure out math and how simple it was. What are they going to do if there computers ever fail totally) it was painfully funny to endure both times I sat through Watching with my bill!
Night time:
So at night get ready to be harassed every 30 minutes to a hour by workers trying to bully you to bed every night if you choose to stay up past 11pm. And they pick out the 1 drunk guy in your group to try and cope with when the sober one is saying "hey I'm sober. I don't drink. Can you please answer and talk to me" but they are rude to you and refuse. They pick at the drunk guy. But that was every night. All 3 nights. 1st time they come it is 1guy. 2nd time 2guys. 3rd time 3guys come. 4th time 4guys. 5th time 4guys come. They start at 11pm telling people to turn off all music (even on the phone turned way down. Even watching a video outside. Even if your humming/singing together, lol he said no/off, now). Of course we complied though.
At 12am they say time for bed and then start tying to reason with you about coming back for a time when it's going to be all over at. At 12:30/1am they will come back a 3rd time and start bullying again. And say put it out now and throw a fit when you don't completely comply. So they say "I'll be back in 15 min and we are done, fire goes out and you are all going to bed". So at 1:15 perfectly on time their gang comes to harass you adults to go to bed. He screams I'm not leaving until your fires out and your all in bed. I tell him to shhhhhh! And now the drunk guy who paid 500$ to be here gets his wood doused with water and is livid. And some of us drop off every time they come because they are so rude and don't want to deal with it but I'm sober and an adult and No one is going to put me to bed. All the adults there are waisted all day and not watching their kids. And now I know why. We talk to all our neighbors plus we are there with about 10 other scattered around sites and every neighbor couldn't believe what they were doing saying we weren't even loud. We had no music and a small fire with a few people. I kept walking 5 away to go pee and I couldn't hear our group any of the nights. And we weren't even all at 1 fire either.
* And throughout every interaction the non-drinker asks respectively (me) where in your rules or on the website does it say adults have a bed time by 1am and you guys go around harassing repeatedly trying to cause problems starting at 11pm and bully them them to bed???? Maybe you should be more transparent or be more humble and kind with your discretion. No one is being loud and belligerent. But I was ignored. Because if it had sad that on line or had I been warned about the worker's behavior after 11pm we wouldn't have came. We ourselves had 2 spots. The guy we knew who invited us had like 8 spots with him and needless to say none of us and anyone we know will ever come to
Camp Hels.
The workers/people:
Some shouldn't work with the public. But they are all family! All related just about! And they let you know it! Some of them also let you know that they aren't saposed to be working but that they are there working anyways! So I put money in for the batting cages. Nothing happened so i swiped the playing card again. A guy and lady walk out. I said excuse me. Im not sure im doing it right but i think it took my money. She yelled at me that "we are having problems, dont I see that, give us some time". So i waited. It looked like they were going to leave so i told the guy what happened to my card and he said sure we'll refund it. The last ones not working. (But they didnt put a sign on it) and he told the lady to deal with my refund. And she came and yelled at me again. I tried to explain myself but there's no talking to her. Pretty sure she was drunk. She said stay right here. Ill be back. I waited for 30 min for a refund at the batting cages. Come to find out no one works up there. She went to the office to get a refund. But I had to call the front desk to see if someone was even coming back. And he asked her while holding the phone "do you got people waiting on you up there? We'll get going there still waiting." When she got back she yelled "so who's waiting on me!" Like she didn't ask me to stay put like a dog. And was rude again. But I got a new card and 20 new mosquito bites.
There was other little things that were observed and overhead from other guests like at the pool, concert, petting zoo and other places too. We couldn't mention them all. We are very social and people loved all the stuff to do but hated the way they were all treated. We talked to a few seasonal owners and they say they get treated the same and hate it.
The sites/cleanliness/activities:
Lifeguards were nice. Business and all activities inside the campground ran smoothly and weren't awful at all. The kids enjoyed themselves using the amenities and activities. The bathrooms were ok and pretty clean. Some trash cans had overflowing garbage and a lot all over after events. I never saw anyone picking it up. But you could always see someone riding a golf cart being bossy. It was nice to see they gave their zoo animals long breaks from feeding and petting. Some of the birds looked like they had Veterinarian feather/skin illnesses. They call it a petting zoo but there's really no petting.
Recommendations:
Don't ever go. Or camp next door or close or get a house then just pay for a day pass if you can.
If CAMP DELS is reading this you should be more transparent on your site and train your family/workers to be more kind and just walk by reminding people to stay quit at night. Insted of being on a power trip demanding adults have a bed time, pretending you don't have discretion and choices yourselves on who and where you are actually creating the problem, bullying and then playing victim. Because the only thing your accomplishing every night is pissing people off. There is a better way. Weather your there or not trying to throw your authority around, people will go to bed. Example PD dont go into bars after 12am harassing people saying "times a coming guys! I'm going to close you down". You should only be keeping people from getting out of hand. Not causing it. Another fantastic idea is have an adult camping section where quiet time is 11pm and adults can go to bed when they choose! Instead of trying to take away people's freedom, especially on Memorial weekend! God bless and hope I never see any of you at Camp Dels ever again.
GuideVery close to other campers, but no one bothered anyone. Dog didn’t go nuts, got a good spot. Would recommend. Tent camping on the way to Alaska and filled all needs. Has a Porta-shitter and trash. Decent spot, windy.
ScoutSo beautiful and spacious
Traveler
If you're looking for a beginner backpack spot, with privacy and not too far from the cities, then this will fit your bill. You can either do a short-hike from the parking lot via the road to B5 or a 1 mile easy hike via the trail. The backpacking sites are very spread out, we could barely tell anyone else was at the park with us ever.
B5 was beautiful, already lots of mosquitos for May (and appeared poison oak/ivy). I'm not sure what this park does differently than most other parks, but our privy was LOADED with spiders. I get it, it's the outdoors. But still, I've used many in-ground toilets and never had dozens of spiders covering the toilet seat/front.
Another reason we chose this park was for birding. The park ranger at check-in was not helpful and then said he's never heard of MN State Parks free birding kits to borrow, though it's clearly listed on several spots on their website. Bummer, but we still enjoyed our time.
RangerAs previously stated, you need to follow up with the sheriif. They just want to know the duration of stay, people in the group, and vehicle information. I'm winter camping during the warm spell here in MN, and it's pretty quiet. The area is muddy with the thaw, but that's to be expected. There's quite a number of spots that all have fire rings. A large 5th wheel might have a struggle with some of the spots depending on availability, but anything else should be fine.
GuideYou’ll drive down what seems like could be a residential road, but the park is at the end of it and has some nice spots with fire pits, a playground for kids, and picnic tables. The sign says to call the sheriff to get permission to camp, but we got in a late and left early and didn’t call and had no trouble. It seemed like someone may have lived there in their camper and there was another family camping, but overall a really nice experience and the sunset was beautiful with the trees!
Guide
Good campground location for the bike trail and for going to places like Mankato, and Faribault. No swimming beach, but that's good because the lake is nasty in late summer.
GuideWe were able to find a spot for our 26ft Class C. The sites are very large, good for tenting. Nice shady spots. The road is gravel and dirt with wear and tear, which might make it difficult for large motorhomes. We were pleased for our overnight stop.
ScoutIt was our first time ever I have a old pop up but it's .t first it was. Fun and the staff and. The. Host are very helpful. A ND fun
GuideI was late getting to my site due to being delayed by some bison in South Dakota, so I was racing the dark to set up my tent and start a fire. To my delight, I found that whoever was there before me had set up a nice bed of hay and kindling in the fire pit, which was very helpful! It was very peaceful and quiet...far enough from the highway that there was no noise or light pollution. The sheriff drove through once at night and once in the morning. I felt very safe.
GuideGulley that a large creek runs through surrounded by trees and large forested hills. The entire park is surrounded by farms, nearby are some really nice Minnesota small towns like Henderson and the somewhat larger St. Peter (but still small town). I hiked in about 1/2 a mile and camped in the trees but they also have some clearings closer to the entrance, with grills, where you could easily set up. $10 suggested donation. Trash bins located all over which is good , but the wind seems to blow debris around here and there, and irresponsible people leave their beer cans/water bottles strewn about, so pick them up if you find them like I did. Website and signage on location recommends to call the sheriff's office to let them know you're camping there which I did and they were nice enough, but it's probably not the end of the world if you don't. Overall this was a pleasant spot, especially being the only camper there, so hope you all enjoy! Places like this are what I love about The Dyrt, I don't think I would have found this otherwise.
GuideThis is a great campground within an hour's drive of the Twin Cities. Nice hiking and sites well spaced out. Beautiful in the fall! Only negative to our site was a fairly steep incline to back our trailer up. Made for more difficult but not impossible leveling, perfect site otherwise.
LegendWe went on a day trip to the eagle point section of the Lake Elmo park district. This is set in a lush rolling prairie with lots of hiking trails in addition to other attractions like an archery range and swimming pond.
The modern campground is built for non-tent campers, which is kind of a bummer because it is so much nicer than the “rustic” tent campground. Could you set up a tent there? Sure, but most of the site is devoted to a gravel parking pad.
The rustic campground is an offshoot of the horse trailer parking lot. The sites for the most part are not spacious or private. Only portapotties. I think the best camping opportunity I saw was the group campgrounds, which had more modern outhouses. This will continue to be a great day trip location for us.
Guide
Nice campground outside of Red Wing, MN with a bar/restaurant and other features. Access to trials for bikes and horses. I stayed in the horse camp without a horse but it was a nice area.
TravelerWe had a great trip there. The pool and food was outstanding. Only ding was for the actual campsite. Very small and tight and all over the campgrounds had a sewage smell that seemed to come and go.
Overall we would go again but would chose a different spot within the campground probably closer to the pool and activities.
Site 464 was super easy to back into.
My kids loved the fishing pond and the rollerball was super fun!
GuideBeautiful, small state park less than an hour south of Twin Cities. Sites are wooded and shady but some are close to neighboring sites. Not too many mosquitos or flies for August in Minnesota! Sakatah Singing Hills paved trail runs through the park. It was pouring on Saturday so most of the other campers checked out and we had the campground mostly to ourselves. Super friendly and helpful staff, clean restrooms. Faribault is 15 minutes away so we went antique shopping at Keeper's Antiques downtown and had cocktails at 10,000 Drops Distillery for rainy day activities.
TravelerGreat park if you’re not looking to drive too far to enjoy a bit of nature. Wonderful hiking paths and biking paths.
Our site was nice a secluded and right next to the trail heads.
Only downside, if you’re looking for complete quiet, this isn’t the park. It’s next to the highway and there are residents that live on the lake that can be noisy.
Otherwise, wonderful park especially for families.
GuideGreat spot with a clean port-a-potty, a comfortable grove of trees, fire pits, and peace!
GuideNice private sites, great bike trails, lakes a little way’s from campground but you can drive or bike to it easily. Clean restrooms and showers. Electric, water and dump station.
TravelerI like the primitive sites the best. Nice lake to hike down to as well. I went in August though and the mosquitos were awful.
TravelerLake Ann Campground, located in the Sand Dunes State Forest north of Big Lake, MN is great for a weekend getaway with the family or a solo walk in trip. There are RV sites, tent sites, handicap accessible, walk in sites and group sites. Camping here is primitive with few amenities you get a fire ring and a picnic table, its great camping too be one with nature. There are several water spickets located around the campground along with outhouse type restrooms. There are no hookups or electric. Camping is on a first come first serve basis and you register at the kiosk located at the front of the campground acrid from the camp host site. There are several trails and Amaya something to do.
GuideStayed here in April which was a little chilly but kept the bugs away (it’s a little swampy here). The trails seemed less travelers than other places but that may have been due to the early time of year. It’s serene and peaceful here with plenty of space between sites and clean latrines.
GuideIt was November but that's when our anniversary lands and dang it we wanted to go camping so we did. Walk in site# BP6 was a hilly 1/4 mile hike one way but worth the view. We were right on the edge looking out over a small lake with towering trees all around us. Each BP site also has it's own private latrine house slightly apart from your site. Nothing fancy but it was clean and private. There are miles of trails at this park. We didn't get to see any of the endangered Blandings turtles but there were trumpeter swans, this is a huge migratory area for the birds.
Camping near Prior Lake, Minnesota, offers a great mix of outdoor fun and relaxation. With beautiful parks and campgrounds nearby, you can enjoy nature while making lasting memories with family and friends.
Camping near Prior Lake, MN, has something for everyone, whether you're looking for a peaceful retreat or an action-packed adventure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Prior Lake, MN?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Prior Lake, MN is Lebanon Hills Regional Park with a 4.8-star rating from 41 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Prior Lake, MN?
TheDyrt.com has all 15 equestrian camping locations near Prior Lake, MN, with real photos and reviews from campers.
