Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Rochester, MN
Rochester-Marion KOA accommodates tent campers, RV owners, and cabin guests with pets throughout its shaded, well-maintained grounds. Located just minutes from Interstate 90, this pet-friendly campground maintains clean facilities and offers grassy sites perfect for dog walking. Pets are welcome at most sites with standard leash policies in place. Chester Woods Park similarly welcomes pets throughout its campground, featuring spacious sites along the edge of the park that provide soft ground ideal for setting up tents with dogs. Both campgrounds maintain clean bathroom facilities and shower areas, making longer stays with pets more comfortable. The bathrooms are regularly cleaned and stocked, important for campers traveling with animals who need reliable facilities nearby.
Multiple hiking trails at both locations allow leashed dogs, with Chester Woods offering paths along the lake shoreline particularly popular among pet owners. The county park environment at Oxbow provides peaceful pet camping with trails of varying difficulty levels from riverside walks to prairie top hikes. The small zoo at Oxbow operates on a donation-only basis and sits about 500 yards from the campground, though campers report you would never know it's there while at your site. Autumn Woods RV Park offers a convenient location for Mayo Clinic visitors traveling with pets, though reviews note their community campfire policy rather than individual site fires. Most campgrounds in the Rochester area maintain standard pet policies requiring leashes, waste cleanup, and responsible pet ownership, with no specific breed restrictions mentioned in reviews.