Best Tent Camping near Sandstone, MN

I've been to campgrounds in MN and other places that were nicer, but there isn't anything wrong with this campground at all. And at this time of year, the ice on the lake was breaking up, so it made for a beautiful sunset! Since it is still that time of year when it's warm during the day and cool at night, it was the perfect chance to test out the Twilight Thermal Mattress Topper by Alki while staying at Father Hennepin State Park in MN.

CAMPGROUND REVIEW:

We've been to this campground before, but not during this season or time of year. The campground is nice, but not terribly fancy. What it does have going for it is that it's a decent bit off the road, so there isn't much road noise. And although all the sites are fairly close together, there are tons of trees that (if it were summer) offer a buffer between them. It's possible to car camp at these sites or tent camp. They also have RV sites. Unfortunately, the RV sites are pretty close to the others, so if there are parties going on or radios playing, everyone can hear them, but that is to be expected at a campground where sites are close together. It wasn't terribly bothersome, though, and the scenery outweighed the mild disturbance.

They do have showers and flush toilets (during warmer seasons) and vault toilets the rest of the time. There is also a dump station for RVs.

Many of the sites are lakeside, for no additional cost. Benches dot the lakeside, and you get a gorgeous site of the sunset from here. There is also a paved path that runs near the water, so it's a pretty stroll late in the eve. This leads to a floating dock (not floating this time of year, though, because of the ice). Pretty space to chill and take in the breeze.

PRODUCT REVIEW:

As a Ranger for They Dyrt, I have the amazing opportunity to review incredible products in exchange for an honest review. This time, I received a Twilight Thermal Mattress Topper by Alki in a queen size. This is the first time I've ever tried something like this, so when I found it on Kickstarter, I was intrigued. The idea of a thermal layer built into a quilt-like blanket (think about the silver reflective stuff that everyone who camps talks about). But this isn't your typical mylar-type foil sheet. It's quiet. It's soft. It makes absolutely no noise at all. Now, this isn't something you are going to put in a backpack because it's big and it's not going to fit the bill of the ultralight hiker, but that's not what it's meant for. I emailed with the owners of the company and they intended it to be an addition to a car camping excursion or used on a bed as extra insurance from the night air. So I was intrigued. We are getting a teardrop trailer soon and I thought it might be a great way to stay warm without adding a heater to the mix.

The owners, Saul and Carolyn, have created this super soft blanket-type mattress topper that can be used several ways. You can put it on the mattress directly and sleep on top of it. You can use it as a blanket, you could wrap up in it and make a mock sleeping bag. It's a microsuede type of fabric on top and feels amazing, but has a brushed polyester bottom that helps to keep it from slipping off your pad. I'm a cold sleeper, so I really wanted to give it a good test. Normally, I use a sleeping pad with an R Value of 4.4 or better so that I don't chill out in the night. This time, I decided to use a pad with an R Value of 1.9 (thank you to my husband for sacrificing his pad). Normally, I'd be frozen from the backside, even in temps that are in the 40's. So I put down my pad in the van, laid the topper over the pad, and then my bag on top of that. And then I was off to la-la land.

The verdict…a toasty back side. It was truly wonderful to sleep in cooler weather without the typical CBS (cold butt syndrome) that campers talk about. Normally, with a pad that was only 1.9, I'd be frozen from the pad side. And that means tossing and turning all night to figure out how to stay warm. But I didn't have any cold spots from the pad side while sleeping on this topper. I just wish I'd thought to wrap it over my bag as well to insulate from the top as well. Then, I would have had the perfect night of sleep! It reflects back your own body heat to help keep you toasty.

PROS:

1. Super soft fabric! It has a great feel against your skin.
2. No noise! Even though it has similar thermal properties as the crinkly mylar-type blankets, this is absolutely not the same. It feels just like a blanket.
3. It works! Coming from me (a cold sleeper), I feel like this would be a great addition to your camping arsenal so that you can have a better night of sleep without needing a ton of expensive gear to stay warm.
4. Machine washable!

There really isn't anything negative to say about this blanket. Now, it does weigh more than a regular thermal blanket (queen is 4.5 pounds, and twin is 3 pounds), but they don't advertise it as ultra light or for backpacking. Carolyn said that it was designed with car camping in mind, as mentioned before. That said, it works beautifully for that purpose! It would be lovely if they'd consider making a skinny version that would fit in a hammock or under a sleeping bag/pad. As a cold sleeper, I'd seriously consider adding it to my cold weather backpack supplies, even if it meant an extra pound of weight.

Bottom line, if you want to enjoy a good night sleep in the chilly night air while car camping with your family or friends, take this topper for a spin. It's perfect under a sleeping bag, over a sleeping bag or to snuggle while watching the autumn sunset.

This was my first time camping EVER, and I wanted a balance of car camping ease with quiet wilderness. I stayed in the E loop. No electric sites, which cut down the number of big rig RVs, but there were plenty of small campers and trailers. To me, this means louder guests than tent campers. That said, people tended to quiet down by 9-10p. There was occasional noise during the day from crop dusters and motorized boat traffic on the St. Croix.

Site 87 had nice privacy — less between sites 87 and 89 and much more between 87 and 85 (see photos). Site 89 is a double site, so be prepared for a little more activity if someone books there. If I went again, I'd try to snag site 85. Large trees and vegetation between sites, especially on the outside loop. Plenty of space for hammocks. The site itself was level and very spacious. We had a five person tent and could have put up a bug house easily. The fire pit was clean and had a grate on top. Pit toilets were clean and had plenty of toilet paper, especially for the end of a holiday weekend. Bugs were minimal, but could have been because the weather was on the cooler side (50s-60s).

A couple random notes:

• Firewood is $6/bundle. Self-pay available if the ranger station is closed. Bring exact change since you'll be paying by envelope.

• The ranger station was open for window service, and they sold fire starters, soda, t-shirts, etc. Not sure when hours are exactly. They were open when I went around 3-4p Sunday and Monday to buy wood.

• Cell reception for T-Mobile was minimal to non-existent.

This is one campground in Minnesota that offers a handful of electric hookups for winter camping. The beauty of this campground, is that while the campsites available are in a row, there's plenty of space between sites and some of them are even pulled through. Making it easy for RVs to pull in and hook up.

The vault toilet is not easy to find from where the electric openings are in the winter. While these spaces are right next door to a shower house with toilets, this is closed in the winter. The vault toilet is several rows over and down, making it hard to find if you don't already know where it is. But it was clean, and it was available.

The campfire rings seemed clean, and each had a picnic table as well. We loved the pull-through site because then we were a little more protected from the road, although it's not busy this time of year at all. So it was very quiet except for our neighbors, and they didn't make much noise at all.

There are trails nearby that are easily accessible on foot from the campground, and you can make loops that come back to the campground as well.

There are two campgrounds at this park, but this is the one that has availability in the winter time. Ironically, they also have a couple of walk-in spots that are also open this time of year. If you're willing to brave the temps without an electric hookup. Not hard to find, not hard to access, but no electric hookups at these sites.

Backpack site Buck Hill is right on the river, beautiful view to the east. Circled by flowers (goldenrod in the late summer), brush and trees. End of the path so zero foot traffic / passersby. Fine size for us but if you had two tents maybe tight. Fire ring and picnic table of course. No drinking water (we brought a bladder). It’s a great place to star gaze. There’s a teeny somewhat treacherous path to the river- no beach or anything (water was super low when we went) - Just can get your feet wet.

Down the path a little bit is an unenclosed toilet - not the best. The other direction down the path (only about 20 ft) is a smallish bear box.

You can harvest your own wood (at this time) and that was really great - bring a backpacking saw!

Only downside to the site— you can hear cars on both sides (river and opposite side of forest).

It was a 2.37 mile walk from the parking lot, mostly shaded.

Side note: we checked out Deer Creek site which is much closer to the car. It is a hike in / canoe site. It’s wayyy more spacious, and even has two separate clearings. Also has cool stairs down the to water, and a much more expansive view of the river. We will be staying there next time! We want to take a few days to canoe the whole length of the park, camping along the different sites. Next year! :)

A great campground! There is a beach, playground, as well as drive-in and hike-in sites. The waterfalls are very cool, and they have nice signage and pamphlets to learn more about them. I recommend taking the time to read about the geology. I haven't stayed in a car camping sites, but we thought they looked very nice.

The hike-in sites are great, not too far to walk but you have privacy. One thing to note about the hike-in sites is that the trails aren't well marked. Once you're on the trail for a while, they start having regular signage, but the start of the trails themselves aren't marked. You park in an area behind the car camping sites, next to what I assume is a storage building or old house. There are two starts to the trail, the one I found best is down the service road maybe a couple hundred yards. There's also one on the other side of the lot, but it winds a bit, forks into another trail, and all in all seems a little more confusing. I'd recommend just talking to the campground host when you get there, they can explain everything. The walk is short enough (a mile and a half) that we hiked out and back a couple times when camping, either to access the beach or to fill up water. Another important note is that while it's in an area where hanging a bear bag is recommended, the woods aren't thinned enough to where there are strong branches low enough for a bag. It took quite a lot of looking to find a suitable spot for our bag. There's a fire ring and picnic table at each site, which was nice. The bathrooms outhouses, which was a nice surprise, as I was expecting an unenclosed vault toilet.

There's a separate trail to the beach from the sites as well, but I went back the main way anyway. The beach isn't anything special, but is nice enough. There's a nice, small playground near the beach as well.