Best Campgrounds near Tower, MN

Maybe 3 sites. Right off main road. Close to Ash River Visitor Center.

Quiet Campground with plenty of wooded area between campsites for privacy. Mix of RV/Travel Trailers and Tent campers. Vault toilets and drinking water available. Our site did not have direct clear access to the water, but we walked past other sites that did. Boat launch available right at the entrance to the campground. Our site fit our 30’ travel trailer with left slide just fine and plenty of room for the truck. Overflow parking available near the campground entrance for a small fee. Clean and well kept! Would definitely recommend

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.

**NOTE:  To the best of what I can find, this appears to be a free site.  I can't, at this time, find any indication that's it's paid or reserve-able**

This is a great little free campsite right on Crane Lake before you go into the Boundary Waters Canoe area.

The site has a fire ring with grate, picnic table, plenty of trees for hammocks, and a small tent pad that would be good for a three or four person tent. There's also a primitive toilet so you don't have to dig a cat hole!

This is a motorized lake so there is boat noise, but the water lapping on the rocks at the island makes it very tolerable. Fairly easy access to grab drinking water for filtering, and some decent pine branches for hanging a bear bag. (even on an island - it's advisable to hang a bear bag. Also helps with other critters like squirrels and mice)

The campsite faces the West so if the weather is good, you're in for a great sunset!

Toward the last minute in July of 2024, I needed RV spaces near water (that I could kayak) for two travel trailers. I found this campground and booked two of the last three spaces available. Three hours from my house, as the crow flies, I found myself visiting Minnesota's iron range. This campground is next to a reservoir with many islands and no current (unless the mining company is pushing or pulling water from the lake. The sites are of varying sizes and some are pull through. Leveling took me a bit, but I found just the right angle to jack up the front of my RV for leveling. My site was smaller, but still large enough for my 20 trailer, a screen house, the picnic table and fire pit, my Grand Cherokee, and plenty of extra room onto which I could probably have put at least three more screen tents, with room to walk. Electricity is provided on each site. There are no water hookups per site, but there are a few water spigots around the grounds to fill fresh water tanks. Because the grounds are small (45 camping sites) a short walk gets you anywhere on the site; like to the showers, beach, and other recreational facilities. Frisbee golf is on site. There is no tank dump available. The campground is surrounded by forest, so wild animals can and do appear. The lake is large enough for some long and interesting kayaking, and there are multiple kinds of fish (from bullheads to northern pike). The woman in charge works very hard to keep these grounds as perfect as possible. The place is clean and mostly dead quiet after hours. Two free showers per gender, but they have minimal privacy. The free showers have sufficient pressure to do the job, although you cannot control the temperature; which I found to be fine, even if it was not the burning hot showers I like to have. The sites have pretty good privacy, although during the day I had to listen to the typical chatting from my neighboring campers. I very much love this campground and will be back as my time permits.There is no wifi. We had strong service on T-mobile and Verizon, so we used our hotspots for media connectivity.

We arrived late and set up in the dark, but were pleasantly surprised in the morning. Quiet except for the nature sounds - fronts, owls, loons at night. Hiking trails right out of the campsite.

This will now be one of our new favorite campgrounds. It’s the perfect mix of modern (lots of nicely spaced electric sites, well maintained shower/bathrooms, on-site store, canoe rentals and more) and rustic. (Wildlife, birds, a stones throw from the BWCA, and gorgeous sunsets.) Be mindful of your camping equipment and the size of the sites - it varies widely. There’s no dump station (closest is in Ely), but there’s a spigot to fill your RV’s water tank. AT&T service was good (2 bars, fast internet and streaming), T-Mobile not so good. (1 bar, slow internet and no streaming) Thanks to the great campground hosts for tips and info too!

Camped here on Oct 22, 2023. Free primitive national forest campground with 5 sites. Wooded. Campground is suitable for truck campers and smaller. There was a crappy looking RV parked next to the vault toilet; sketchy, looked like long term residents. I did not get a good vibe here but stayed anyway since it was getting late. No drinking water. Fire ring at site. Sites spaced apart okay. Beautiful lake. Nice hiking trail around lake. Fishing is good. Road coming to the campground can be rough in places, but doable with passenger car. The campground itself was nothing special, but camping in the woods along a beautiful lake was appealing.

We loved how private the campsites are! The people who run the campground were also super nice!

This campground is a forest campground so while there is a vault toilet and solar powered water, it is just that. Not fancy, not frilly.  If you are used to camping this way it's perfectly fine. But if you are not, this might not be the right spot for your family.

That said - we are used to it and it's exactly what we expected and wanted. 

Sites have plenty of privacy between them - this campground was established a long time ago and actually, many many years ago this are was used as a CCC camp! Little bits of evidence are around if you look for them.  That said - lots of space, lots of mature trees and bushes (even this time of year post autumn)

We were in site 5 which had a parking space and then a short walk (lightly downhill) about 20 feet to our picnic table and fire ring in a large area under a giant pine tree with a gorgeous view of the lake! Nice little path to the next site over where our buddy was staying with his dogs.

We had our teardrop to sleep in, but there was no problem getting it backed in (larger RVs might have issues since space is more limited than at giant RV campgrounds). It's $20 to stay with an honor system pay box and that helps keep the sites maintained - I think it's totally worth it.

We had a fire ring with plenty of space for chairs, lots of space for dogs, a lake if we needed to filter water (easy to get to if it's not frozen) and was very quiet.  There were definitely spaces that were better for "wind blocks" than others so check em out when you arrive.  For this time of year ours was good. There was a HUGE boulder the size of a small house in our buddy's site that blocked the wind so it was great.

Campsite was good size and relatively private in the non electric area. Beautiful park overall and love the proximity from Ely and Lake Vermillion. I did find bear scat near our site so be sure to practice proper bear safety precautions.

This campground is great if you have smaller kids or group camping. Campgrounds are close together and a lot of the great campsitess are already taken by permanent campers. They do have nice bathrooms and showers. We do love the area and the beautiful lake the campground and some sites overlook.

There were no problems getting to this state park. We pulled into the dump station just before entering the campground(CG) area to get fresh water. While we were there, a park ranger stopped to check us in, including processing us for a free annual MN state park pass for disabled veterans. We followed the site signage to electric(50/30/20 AMP) only site 110, which was an easy back-in. The site was long enough for our 40’ toy hauler to include putting our back patio down and parking our F-450. We especially liked how ample trees and bushes were separating the sites, and you are well away from your neighbors. The site gave us plenty of space to set up our chairs around a nice fire pit and one fine picnic table. Get water as you come into the CG, as the spigots throughout the park do not have threads. The 300 loop has pull-throughs that will handle large rigs, with 312 being the best. We got 5 bars 4G. on Verizon. We put Starlink on the roof and got a decent signal. There was a nice shower house/restrooms where the park also sold firewood. Formal trail systems are throughout the CG and park, and we enjoyed walking our dogs. We really like the variety of RV sites for all sizes of RVs, but it's too bad the CG area has no water views.

I personally liked the Campground, close to the lake and clean bathrooms.

Fenske Lake Campground, MN: (Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good (70 yr olds in 17’ trailer) Overall Rating: 4 - Great place for a canoe trip, I am told. Also access close by to the boundary waters Price 2023: $10 / night w lifetime senior pass. Usage during visit: During mid week it was pretty busy. Site Privacy: pretty nice Site Spacing: pretty nice Site surface: Gravel Reservations: Yes Campground Noise: Quiet Road Noise: There may be occasional road noise in the few sites closer to the entry.
Through Traffic in campground: None Electric Hookup: No Sewer Hookup: No Dump Station: No Potable Water Available: Yes Generators: Allowed Bathroom: Pit Toilets Showers: No Pull Throughs: There are ‘some pullovers’, no separation from cg road. Those in use only had a van or used as tent sites Cell Service (AT&T). We didn’t check at the campground. But, down the road we accessed via a new AT&T tower.
Setting: In the woods Weather: 70’s with a storm in the forecast Bugs: Mosquitoes are moderate. Solar: Not great for fixed panels Rig size: Some sites take large rigs. Check rec.gov for each site before making your reservation. Sites:

This is a small campground but so beautiful. We stayed at site 7. It consisted of "two areas" which was super cool. The "lower level" was where we parked with a decent driveway. It also had the picnic table and fire pit with a gravel area for a tent pad. The "upper area" was up a small hill and there was the amazing view overlooking Jeanette lake. There was a huge rock outcropping overlooking the lake and an area for our 8 woman tent. We had views of the lake from bed. So beautiful! The mosquitoes weren't too bad except right at dusk. The vault toilets were not the best and the sites were rather close but with the right site you wouldn't even know it. Sites 6 and 7 both have the "two areas" with more secluded areas you could tent. Site 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 all have some level of water access. The people at sites 8 and 9 had kayaks/canoes pulled right into their site. Site 7 has the best overview of the lake but no direct water access. The best part...the loons and ducks at dusk and dawn. One of my favorite things.