Looking for the best Prior Lake tent camping? Find the best information on tent campgrounds near Prior Lake, including sites, reviews, and tips. Each tent site offers quick access to one or more of Prior Lake, Minnesota's most popular destinations.
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.
The space is in the backyard of my private property on Elliot Avenue in Bloomington, MN.
The yard is almost entirely fenced-in & has lots of folliage for general privacy.
Street parking is free.
$45 - $60 / night
$50 / night
$15 / night
$50 / night
Traveler
Plenty of spots. Fairly small spots. This road is pretty busy for a dirt forest road and people FLY down it. Almost got hit a few times walking. Even through a Wednesday night cars are flying down the road.
GuideI was traveling Eastward through the upper Midwest and had a really hard time in this area finding a place to camp. I finally came across this place. There was some suggestion that there was some drive in sites that were not reservable, that is. They were first come first serve. But I was unaware or unable to find those. I ended up paying a fair amount of money for a full hookup site. The bathrooms were extremely modern and clean.
There were some really nice wide trails around the lake. I think those were basically designed for cross-country skiing in the winter. But they made a perfect opportunity for me to let the dog run off. Leash. Probably was not within the rules, but it was very quiet there and the dog didn't bother anybody with her running.
Legend
Amazing campsite! Sites are large and grassy! We had a lakeview site right off the paved walking/biking trail with room for a large tent and the pop-up camper. Fire ring and picnic table provided. A man drives through the campsite close to dusk to sell firewood as there is no traditional office. Bathrooms and showers are located near the dump station and dumpster. Be on the lookout for the code for the doors during your reservation process. We had missed it and had to ask a neighbor if they knew the codes so we could shower.
Guide
Nice distance from the twin cities for a weekend away with some nice hiking trails. The tent pads have been upgraded to pea gravel by the friends association (which seems to be quite active based on signage around park improvements). Showers and bathrooms were clean. Wi-Fi near the park entrance and spotty T-Mobile service throughout. The outside of the loop is good for tent camping but could be a little noisy if the campground had been fully booked.
Traveler
No indication when it will open, but it looks like the campground is closed because of the June 2024 flooding in the area. Be sure to check the website before going to see if they've reopened.
Traveler
The campground is right off 169 in the town of St. Peter. There are zero signs on the main road for the camp ground and signage once off the main road is terrible as well.
We had good luck with the GPS directing it toward levee park. Once in the park you can find your way.
Sights are back in with electric. Very basic but it’s perfect for the over night stay. We are hear after Labor Day on a Friday and there are plenty of open spots. The place is about 15 spots large and is at about 50% capacity.
Overall it’s well lite and feels very safe! Would recommend for a night.
ScoutThis campground is closed permanently
Scout
RV resort and some lot rentals, Heated pool, lake with beach, boat launch area just block away, tennis/pickle ball, mini golf, resort store with ice cream, goat park, paved roads and much more)!Contact for sales or rentals: 320-583-9711
Scout
Lots of activities for kids and teens. Teen social on Fridays to help them meet friends. Nice pool. The campground is on a hill if you have mobility issues. Many spots along the river.
Traveler
We stayed at this koa because it was our only way to watch softball tournament. We stayed 5 days and it was fairly nice. People that were working were very helpful and nice. Lost power a couple hours twice because of branches falling g from trees.
Guide
Lovely trails, the beach is a large area with a nice park and picnic area. The water itself is ok, lots of geese and algae. The falls are wonderful though. The bathrooms are fine. I could not find a garbage bin to save my life, not near the bathrooms or anywhere in campground 200 or by the park ranger post. If there were garbage cans dispersed throughout the campground, I would have given 5 stars. Especially along the trail to the waterfalls because there was garbage all along the trail unfortunately. Not the camps fault, but maybe people would be more responsible if garbage bins were placed along the route.
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
Stayed here while visit our son. Picked it because it was close. We were very surprised at the privacy of our site. We were in the east loop with just electric.
Guide
The east part of the park was all closed for construction. Everything on the east side of the highway was closed so we could not hike a lot of the trails or use the beach which was a challenge with kids. Constructing is scheduled to the end of 2025.
We stayed in a group site but there was no way 35 people could have camped in W3. Vaulted toilets need help and a good cleaning.
The shower house needed a cleaning as well. There is no adjusting the shower temperature. Push the button and you get what you get.
Wood was $8 bundle. This was steep in my opinion. They do not all any gathering of firewood.
If your vehicle permit is not properly displayed, you will receive a notice on your windshield and have to talk with the office.
The dumpster was overflowing the whole time we were there.
Raccoons will visit your site at night. We had everything secured but they still tried and plenty of racket until we chased them away.
Lastly we had a battle with mosquitoes. We went through a lot of bug spray and coils. Deer flies were thick around the water filling station.
Although we did not stay in the main campground the sites are very close in there and were small.
ScoutIf you do NOT stay the entire amount of time you have paid for, you may lose the right to return to your site, even if your lease says the lot is still yours.
My husband and I camped at MRRV Park from July 5 to August 5th,2023, because my husband had a job in the area. We signed a lease that went through October 15th. We agreed that the lot’s owner could find another renter after we left with the condition that some of our money would be refunded. Shortly after we left, my husband found out he had a second job in the twin cities. We tried to contact the owner many times to see if any other renters were lined up. Only by contacting the park board did we find that the lot had been rented out 2 days after we left. The lot’s owner refuses to return any money for the 9 extra weeks we paid for! My husband had to rent a hotel room☹
The RV Park board refuses to help so we are going to court.
GuideI love that it's so close to home. I was able to walk in and find an incredible spot to camp and lay in my hammock.
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.
RangerFor the proximity to the city and nearby highways, this was a good spot. Didn’t expect to see as many campers as I did, but all seemed to be friendly. I stayed here for one night and roads were totally fine for any vehicle. Most spots are like the pictures shown. There are a few spots that have great views or pull-through areas, and there are limited spots that are big-rig friendly. Saw lots of dogs, and mine had a blast, even had what seemed to be a stray husky quickly roll through camp around dusk. Something to keep on your mind. The road goes for a long ways, I parked near the front and closer to numbers, always like to be safer. Overall there was some shouting and yelling but for the location I was happy.
TravelerThere’s lots of little spots off the main gravel road. Nothing allowed further into the forest. One pull through area that I found. Couple vehicles pass a day. Stand storks are very protective. Stay away from them. They attack. 🤣
Traveler
This is just the best campground that is close to Minneapolis! Peaceful, quiet, with spacious sites that are situated in a staggered way, so you never feel like you’re on top of each other. The lake was a bit reedy and silty but overall a fantastic and easy option.
TravelerPlenty of sites and hiking to do. Very cool area. The falls are awesome!
GuideAbout the only nice thing about this place is the lady who answered the phone, Valerie.
She was extremely nice other than that it was gravel. Roads that were poorly maintained trucks were parked sticking out into the road making it difficult to get around. The site was very unlevel and the water Spicket didn’t really work very well.. we paid for two nights and bought a KOA review or rewards program to do it… We refused to stay the second night when we called to see if we could get our money back the gentleman who checked us in as a ground tender was rude and choppy he wasn’t very friendly when he brought us into the place.
The place was packed like sardines… Very difficult to negotiate at night.
Overall, the worst campground we’ve stayed in in the two RV trips we’ve taken from Florida to Minnesota. There are so many beautiful state parks don’t bother with this KOA not even for a one nighter.
We were stuck on a back loop. There were a lot of mosquitoes bugs and mud… It just wasn’t a nice experience.
Scoutthis is a nice quiet area. Some younger people coming through sporadically playing with their trucks but nothing serious and not often. Be aware if you have an rv though. I had a county sheriff person tell me it's not lawful to park a trailer and they kicked me out. I called the dnr and they said that wasn't right but I decided to leave anyway. County sheriff's not pleasent around here.
ScoutStayed on non electric site which looking at the whole campground are the better sites. Sites are wooded so you don’t have neighbor issues. All have large pea gravel tent pads - very nice. Good fire rings with lots of room for lounging. Many trails to hike but due to prior heavy rain the only trail open was down to Hidden Falls - they were roaring. No cell/ very patchy cell signal and could only get WiFi signal when standing next to Ranger station. Would definitely visit again, maybe in the fall as I’m told the colors are wonderful.
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.
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 tent campsite near Prior Lake, MN?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Prior Lake, MN is Nerstrand Big Woods State Park with a 4.4-star rating from 32 reviews.
What is the best site to find tent camping near Prior Lake, MN?
TheDyrt.com has all 16 tent camping locations near Prior Lake, MN, with real photos and reviews from campers.
