Best Tent Camping near Tower, MN

Recent Tent Reviews in Tower

247 Reviews of 26 Tower Campgrounds

• s

  shannon

  Scout

  

  Sep. 19, 2024

  Kab-Ash Trail Dispersed Campsites

  Quiet and secluded

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

• B

  Blake S.

  Scout

  

  Sep. 15, 2024

  Lake Jeanette Campground & Backcountry Sites

  Lake Jeanette

  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

• 

  Douglas O.

  Scout

  

  Sep. 14, 2024

  Aspen Resort & Campground

  Nice location

  Camp ground right on a large lake, family owned and well maintained.

• M

  Mariajesserene A.

  Scout

  

  Sep. 8, 2024

  Pine Acres Resort and Campground

  MUST STAY LOCATION

  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.

• 

  Amy G.

  Legend

  

  Aug. 12, 2024

  Indian Island Canoe Campsite on Crane Lake

  Beautiful free site on an island

  **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!

• C

  Craig S.

  Traveler

  

  Aug. 11, 2024

  Ash River Campground

  Good one nite site

  This is a grass surface campground. Suited for car camping, smaller trailers & 25’ RV’s. Sites have picnic table & fire pit and an outhouse on site.

• 

  Bjoern C.

  Guide

  

  Aug. 7, 2024

  Silver Rapids Lodge

  Sadly not a great experience

  Friendly staff. Mostly empty campground. One neighbor was loud all night. ATV noises super loud partying. Not nice. Lake side Campspots have amazing view. The staff was friendly. We Ware a family of 4

• F

  Frank G.

  Traveler

  

  Jul. 21, 2024

  West Two River

  A hidden gem with everything I needed.

  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.

• 

  JAcob G.

  Traveler

  

  Jul. 18, 2024

  Cadotte Lake

  Very nice family campground

  Very nice campground for the family. Sort of has a mix of rustic and not rustic camping. Has a lovely beach just a few steps away from campsites. The fishing peer is more like a look out as it’s not in the water and even 20’ out from it it’s pretty shallow yet. Other than that it’s a nice camp ground.

• 

  JAcob G.

  Traveler

  

  Jul. 18, 2024

  Sullivan Lake Campground

  Sullivan Lake is awesom

  Been a long time user of Sullivan lake campground. Love the rusticity of it and the quietness of it. So quit you can feel the grouse Drumming’s deep within your soul. Highly recommend.

• R

  Ralph K.

  Scout

  

  Jun. 5, 2024

  Carrol Truck Trail

  Arrived after dark

  Easy to access, trails are all obvious, and near a water supply. We decided to go off the cuff, and the only thing we weren’t ready for was the damn mosquitos! Will be bringing repellent next time. BEAUTIFUL SPOT.

• K

  Kara B.

  Traveler

  

  Jun. 4, 2024

  Birch Lake Campground & Backcountry Sites

  Great Place!

  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.

• 

  Deb M.

  Ranger

  

  May. 26, 2024

  Superior National Forest Fall Lake Campground

  Perfect combo of modern and rustic

  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!

• 

  Fred S.

  Legend

  

  May. 24, 2024

  Eighteen Rustic Lake Campground

  Free Primitive Camping by Beautiful Lake

  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.

• L

  Layla M.

  Traveler

  

  Mar. 18, 2024

  Superior National Forest Fall Lake Campground

  Had the Best Time!

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

• 

  Amy G.

  Legend

  

  Dec. 21, 2023

  Lake Jeanette Campground & Backcountry Sites

  Last weekend open for the season - very quiet and perfect for our needs

  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.

• 

  Brady J.

  Guide

  

  Oct. 24, 2023

  Bear Head Lake State Park Campground

  Classic Northwoods camping/hiking

  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.

• 

  Krissy G.

  Guide

  

  Oct. 13, 2023

  Vermilion Trail Campground

  Smaller campground in northern MN

  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.

• 

  Jasmine L.

  Traveler

  

  Oct. 8, 2023

  Carrol Truck Trail

  Hidden Gem!

  Beautiful! Absolutely dispersed, we went all the way down the gravel road 5 miles in by SUV to the landing. Couple spots where you could clearly tell people were here before. (garbage, but we picked up as we came across) no one else out there but us! Couple fire pits already built. No bugs! Lots of wildlife for sure. But a pack of yoties or wolves was making our dog very alert they ran right next to us when we had our fire going. We had to pack up and take off they were not scared of the car horn or anything. Our dog wouldn’t sleep so had to take off. Otherwise definitely going back again!

• 

  MickandKarla W.

  Legend

  

  Oct. 1, 2023

  Lake Vermillion - Soudan Mine State Park Campsites — Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park

  Spacious Sites

  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.

• 

  C G.

  Guide

  

  Sep. 22, 2023

  Side Lake Campground — McCarthy Beach State Park

  I recommend, especially if you like kayaking/canoeing.

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

• S

  Scott K.

  Guide

  

  Sep. 9, 2023

  Big Rice Lake

  Peaceful location

  Campground is small with 3 free campsites, all of which can fit a small Rv or travel trailer. There is a boat landing with a vault toilet that was clean. Verizon cell reception of 2 bars. I was able to stream YouTube video.

• 

  Roger W.

  Legend

  

  Aug. 18, 2023

  Fenske Lake Campground

  Drive through a nice campground

  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:

• 

  Roger W.

  Legend

  

  Aug. 18, 2023

  Whiteface Reservoir

  Private Sites

  Whiteface Reservoir Campground, MN: (Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good (70 yr olds in 17’ trailer) We are only here for 1 night. So, we this is not as thorough campground examination as I’d do if we were here longer. However, the campground is near excellent, with water access near by and at some sites.
  Overall Rating: 4.7 Price 2023: $13 and &14 per site with the Lifetime Senior Pass. From the entry kiosk information, it appears that some sites have electricity available at an extra charge.
  Usage during visit: 75% full during midweek. Site Privacy: Many sites have a picnic table in a nice, private nook. Site Spacing: SUPERB Site surface: Gravel and pretty level. Reservations: Yes. On Rec.gov, any sites which are available for the 4 days out are listed as first come first serve. We had a few to choose from upon arrival. Looks like first come first serve sites with reservation dates falling within the 4 day first come first serve window have a reservation card hanging. Therefore, we knew how many days the first come first serve sites were available, as we drove by the sites and read their card. Campground Noise: Quiet Road Noise: Absolutely none.
  Through Traffic in campground: No problem Electric Hookup: Some sites Sewer Hookup: No Dump Station: No Potable Water Available: Yes, there is a spigot in each loop. Generators: Allowed Bathroom: Pit toilets, clean to perfection Showers: No Pull Throughs: I only saw back in sites. Cell Service (AT&T): Spotty internet , 1 bar.
  Setting: In a wooded deciduous forest.
  Weather: Very nice.
  Bugs: Hungry mosquitoes. Solar: Minimal to none.
  Host: EXCELLENT. This host provides exceptionally clean sites and bathrooms, expresses kindness and helpfulness, and drove by our site after we arrived at sunset, to make sure we were fine. Super guy. Rig size: Large rigs are fine. Carefully check rec.gov info for each site. But, no worries.
  Sites: Lots of great sites. Ours, 17, does not have direct access to the water. Some sites do, which would be handy for canoes. (Sorry, I’m not here long enough to investigate more thoroughly.)

• 

  Jill G.

  Traveler

  

  Aug. 13, 2023

  Lake Jeanette Campground & Backcountry Sites

  Beautiful lake view right from our tent.

  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.

• M

  Michael B.

  Traveler

  

  Aug. 9, 2023

  Sherwood Forest Campground

  Lake Front campground.

  Got there after sunset met the host and easily found our campsite. The next morning we awoke to a wonderful view of the lake. Friendly people all around and would highly recommend this campground.

• J

  James W.

  Scout

  

  Jul. 16, 2023

  Fisherman's Point City Campground

  Beautiful campground

  Campground was well kept, not much noise, lots of spaces that have water access. The bathrooms and showers were neat and clean. Easy to checkin online either on-site or before you get there. Very few bugs of any kind.