Best Cabin Camping near Ranier, MN

In our years of RV travels The Pines of Kabetogama is among the best RV resorts we have ever stayed at. Long story short, the resort itself provides direct access to Voyageurs National Park, is immaculately maintained, has top-shelf amenities, and the staff is amazing. You truly get what you pay for.

After hours of driving, we just wanted to get to our site and settle in. Upon arrival, Jeanne greeted us at the front office and was very kind, friendly, and helpful. She treated us like family. Tom guided us to site number 20 on the upper level with a poured concrete pad with pristine full-hookups. We were pleasantly surprised at just how spread-out the sites were. There isn't a bad site in the entire resort. It comes down to what your preference is. Do you prefer the community experience? The sites on the lower level fill that preference. Spread out with more privacy? Reserve a site on the upper level.

The restrooms were an unexpected surprise. Absolutely spotless with granite countertops and glass bowl sinks!?! We didn't expect to walk into a luxury bathroom experience at an RV resort.

The view of the sky at night was amazing. We didn't know this until we arrived and walked over to the Lake Kabetogama Voyageurs National Park Visitors Center that the park is Dark Sky Certified.

Having direct shoreline access to Voyageurs National Park was the highlight for my family. As soon as you are on the water, you are in a National Park. If you have a boat be sure and bring it along, otherwise, you can rent one from the resort and tour the lake. Tom informed us that if you have a motorhome RV, as we do, and you tow your boat the staff will launch your boat for you. The resort has a very large dock system with 16 slips by our count.

In terms of wildlife, we were fortunate enough to see more deer than we could count, as well as several bald eagles, and loons during our stay.

There are on-site coin-operated washers and dryers which we did not use, but are nice to know are available. If we were there for a longer stay we would use them for sure.

Even though we were not staying in the luxury cabins, the staff was kind enough to allow us to peek inside and they are immaculate. The decor is iconic, and the finishing touches are high quality. They aren't like the other ramshackle bunkhouses with spring bed frames we've stayed at in the past.

As I began my review, because the resort itself provides direct access to Voyageurs National Park, is immaculately maintained, has top-shelf amenities, and the staff is amazing you truly get what you pay for.

A really nice place with lots of fun stuff do to right in the campground including a beach and boat ramp on Pelican Lake. There is a nice playground area for kids. The place caters mostly to seasonal folks more than overnight roadies. I stumbled on it by accident when I was heading to Voyageurs NP but just wanted to get off the road for the night.

 Some of the seasonal sites have extensive decking and screened porches. The sites for the temp folks had full hookups but were gravel that was not well maintained and not level. The bathrooms were ok, maybe a C+. There was no soap at the men’s bathroom sink. There are only six daily/weekly RV/tent sites.  The rest are seasonal rentals.  It got 4 stars instead of 3 because it is so pretty and peaceful.

We were in Site # 1 which there are only 3 sites must be self contained. They are close together yet was a place to stay in Voyagers National park with Full hook up. Wooden Frog State Forest  Campground is next door to it you can use their boat ramp & swim beach. The Lodge has rooms and a bar & restaurant you can sit in the log Lodge or out on the deck. Mike makes a good Margarita but a little pricey. The food is ok. The owners are so nice working hard to maintain the place.  There is a small playground and a community fire pit. 

Great place to watch sunset is at Wooden Frog day use area. 

They have a dock you can keep a boat at or rent a boat if you don't have one. They rent Kayaks & canoes too. We had out own Kayak you really need to get out on the water to enjoy Voyageurs National Park it's all water based. We launched the Kayak mostly at Wooden Frog and once at Arrowhead lodge depending on the wind. 

We kayaked to Bittersweet Island and got out to stretch in a cove. Took a dip and relaxed. There are some leeches in the water so check you feet if your walking around in it. Got a nice juvenile Eagle picture here on was sitting in a tree. 

lake Kabetogama is big with many islands. It can be shallow in places with big rocks submerged out of the water so know where your going. Being in a Kayak you could really see the rocks. We found a nice Swim area off an Island near the submerged rocks with warnings there was primitive camp sites on the islands some were really nice.

Fishing is great we caught Walleye & big Northern Pike.  They clean your fish for you if you want them to.

There are loons (love the sound they make) and White Pelican's on the lake. Some of the white pelicans had big bumps on their beak which we found out they have that bump till they mate. Then the bump falls off so you feel sorry for the ones with a bump on their upper beak. The white throat Sparrow has a great tune they carry. 

We saw several Eagles on the islands out there too. 

We Like to explore so we check out other campgrounds, visitors centers if open and really enjoyed eating at the Rocky Ledge (great Pizza and Patty Melt). International falls is the biggest town it's about a half hour or so away. We ate at Barajas Mexican Grill it was good. Got some groceries and went to one Antique store there. 

Heading the other direction on the Highway was another Antique place called Rainy days Antique. Nice people & a lot of stuff in there. 

We mostly had good weather yet we did have some rain & some marble sized hail once. Some big trees came down in Wooden frog with this storm that had hail.

Overall, we had a very good trip to this camp. Our experience was different than the other review, as the address took us to an area that only had tent sites. 9 spots available and we were the only ones there. It had one clean pit/ vault toilet. There was a water hydrant but we couldn’t figure it out. Pretty view of the lake from our site. We paid $17 for the night, which I found to be kind of pricey for a primitive spot, but I don’t mind supporting these campgrounds. Would go back if visiting Voyageurs again!

Lakefront, showers need updated, great for fishing

Great primitive campsite to hit on the way to Voyaguers National Park. Everyone says stay at Woodenfrog or Ash because it’s close to the park but those parks are very primitive. If you do not have a portable shower or don’t mind using a “hole-on-the-ground” toilet then Pine Acres is a great primitive campsite. There are portable potty’s around the campsite, out houses but they also have full functioning bathrooms and showers. There is a train that goes through across the lake but it stops around 10pm so horns aren’t going off while you’re sleeping. Wonderful staff very friendly. My go-to-place when I come back up here.