Looking for the best horse camping near Winona? Equestrian camping is an adventurous and unique way to experience the city. With our help, you'll find the best Minnesota equestrian campsites from scenic to easily accessible.
$35 / night
$35 / night
Central Assembly Area is moderate in size; it is a primitive campground designed to furnish only the camper's basic needs, vault toilets, and hand-pumped water. There are fire rings, picnic tables, picket lines, and manure bunkers in the campground.
There are no designated campsites in this campground, and campers can set up as they wish, keeping in line with these rules:
Portable pens must be 50 feet from the road to minimize damage to the grass and not be around trees.
Horses cannot be tied to trees.
Keep the size of your campsite reasonable. To allow for other campers to use only the amount of space you need.
All camping is first-come, first-serve. Do not block off space for friends who will be arriving later.
Clean up your campsite when you leave. Take all garbage with you and put all hay and manure in the bunkers provided.
This is a popular camping area and on busy weekends can accommodate about 20 camping units.
Quiet hours are between 10:00 p.m.–8:00 a.m. (this includes no generator use). Please be considerate of others around you.Zumbro Bottoms offers access to 44 miles of horseback riding trails. The trails have been marked with brown signs showing appropriate uses.
$14 - $16 / night
West Assembly Area is the largest of the three campgrounds at Zumbro Bottoms; it is a primitive campground designed to furnish only the camper's basic needs, vault toilets, and hand-pumped water. Other than two accessible sites, there are no designated campsites in this campground.
There are fire rings, picnic tables, picket lines, and manure bunkers in the campground. There is a lot of open space, and campers can set up as they wish, keeping in line with these rules:
Portable pens must be 75 feet from the road to minimize damage to the grass and not be around trees.
Horses cannot be tied to trees.
Keep the size of your campsite reasonable. To allow for other campers to use only the amount of space you need.
All camping is first-come, first-serve. Do not block off space for friends who will be arriving later.
Clean up your campsite when you leave. Put all garbage in the dumpster and all hay and manure in the bunkers provided.
This is a popular camping area and on busy weekends can accommodate 100 + camping units.
Quiet hours are between 10:00 p.m.–8:00 a.m. (this includes no generator use). Please be considerate of others around you.Highlights: Zumbro Bottoms offers access to 44 miles of horseback riding trails. The trails have been marked with brown signs showing appropriate uses.
$22 / night
Scout
WiFi intermittent At far end of campgrounds. Very clean showers and bathroom near office
GuideReally nice campground. Well maintained and level sites. Had a river to walk along and playground and animals for kids to enjoy. Staff were really nice and helpful. They had (free) loaner electric cords and water hoses for the sites that had a longer distance to go to the box/spigot. The state park was just down the road with great hiking.
RangerStayed here multiple times throughout the years, not much to it. Put toilets, usually slow except during hunting season. Camp sites are decent but primative.
RangerSmall campground, usually no one here except during hunting season. Not much to this place.
Guide
Nice place but it is a campground not an rv park, 30 & 50 amp service but no water hookup (fill when you come in) and dump tanks when leaving,
Traveler
Nice big tent sites down by the river. Walking trails were nice but recommend pants as the grass was long in spots. Plenty of wildlife and could not hear the cars from the highway.
Guide
Stayed here one night in early may and hiked the big spring trail. Site #42 was private with partial shade and a very nice and level gravel tent pad. The site was plenty big with plenty of room for activities. The shower facilities were very clean, same story for the latrines.
ScoutWe stayed here for the month of august, and this place is awesome! Beautiful spaces of various size, a river runs next to it and they have duck races. Dog park, small general store, backs up to a national park, close to town, immaculately maintained, volley ball court, lots of shade trees, easy access, and Andy(owner/operator) is the nicest person you’ll ever want to meet. For those so inclined there’s church service on Sunday in an old (cool looking!) barn! Fire pits at every spot. There is WiFi there, but little to no phone service unless you have a cell booster. 5/5 will definitely be back!
TravelerWe had a fabulous experience at BJ's this weekend. Mark, Sheri and the staff are good people who work hard to make sure you have a great time. The food is excellent and comes out SO FAST; bravo to the kitchen staff! Bartenders are very attentive; Tasha took excellent care of us! The campsites are well kept and spacious. There are no picnic tables in the sites, but we got along just fine without. We can't wait to go back!
ScoutWell maintained trails, lovely hosts & amenities. Not like any other campground.
GuideNice park for everyone’s type from tents, cabins and all size RV’s. Electric only at the camp sites but have water and dump station on site. Clean bathrooms and showers. Best value I’ve seen for fire wood. Has many walking trails that you can take your dog on and just a couple that you can’t.
TravelerOverall a nice place. It was very wet, standing water in the grass from lots of rain. Spot 105. Not much room between sites there and had to back turn around and back down the road to park. Memorial wknd, they had a very nice pot luck lunch and pork chops on a stick, all free and great food. Shower house is a quaint old farm house, it was very nice. General store and firewood. Dump station was in odd spot, if it were busy it wouldn't be good. Overall a nice time.
GuideFor a campground that’s not too far out of the way, you feel so secluded and hidden away in the woods. Its quiet and really easy to get some solitude.
LegendThis is a pretty great campground with mostly large, private sites. Not all sites are level and there’s little to no cell coverage. The tours of the cave and historic Forestville are extra costs and are only available Thursday - Saturday
GuideWe stayed here for a week in June to start our trip around the country and it was a great place to start our camping experience! The owner/host does a great job and is extremely helpful. Plenty to do in the area... we floated down the root river for about 3 hours and had a great time. The campground had everything we needed including a great little trout stream on the edge of the property, a hayride, movie for the family in the old red barn, and a church service in that same barn on Sunday. We will look forward to camping there again in the future!!
GuideThe are 8 sites. There is no water or electricity. One pit toilet for the site. 5 miles from Rushford MN. Access to Root River trail close by.
TravelerCampsites are flat and grassy. They back up to each other so good for groups camping together. Has horse tie ups and great trails
TravelerBathrooms are close to camp. Camp sites are close to eachother, but there is tons of camping to get away!
GuideThis was a nice campground with private sites. We were in site 70e and was very private and close the the showers. Lots of great hiking and forestville is very charming but tours were not running due to COVID. There was no AT&T cell coverage.
TravelerThe campground is very clean and nice.
The bathrooms and showers we pristine clean and close and easy to walk to.
The beach was great and clean.
Fishing was great.
Would definitely come back
TravelerI’m probably a little biased. My parents started coming to this park to ride horses in the 70s. We spent at least 3wks every year here when I was a kid trail riding, hiking, even tubing down the Root River (there’s no commercial tubing available and you have to get up and walk through rocky shallow spots, so it isn’t ideal for this, but tell my 10yr old self that).
I stayed here recently in the “people campground.” I hiked 12mi in one day and had a great time. The campsite itself was great—privacy and no loud neighbors. I always make sure to stay in spots without electric if possible to escape the culture and noise that accompanies RV camping. Site #4 isn’t very level, but it backs up to the river and the access trail out of the campground. Forestville never disappoints me—I even randomly ran into my own uncle while hiking!
Legend
5/30/20-5/31/20
We went camping on a whim and headed to the state forest since dispersed camping is open. We backpacked to the quarry and found a large open area, perfect for multiple tents. The sandstone bluffs were in the background. There are multiple handmade rock fire pits, some rock chairs, tables and lots of space.
There are many hiking trails, including a trail that goes on top of the bluff with views of the forest and of Wisconsin and the Mississippi River. There is also hiking within this unit and a horse campground. The bugs weren’t too bad, no ticks, no critters and no road noise. It was very quiet and peaceful. I’d highly recommend this section of RJD forest.
ScoutSome girlfriends and I wanted to stay at the camp for the weekend and have a place to social distance ourselves. We rented the horse camp sites and we couldn't have been happier. The sites have water and electric. There are high ties for the horses. The sites have a nice gravel pad with a picnic table and fire ring at each site. There is also a dump station that we were able to use before we left on Sunday. None of us had been at this campground before and love trying new places. We are endurance riders so we are used to early nights and up at dawn for riding. This camp was so nice and quiet! We had a nice fire after dinner listening to the water and birds. There were families with children, couples of all ages and well behaved dogs everywhere! The owner Andy as so gracious answering our many emails and questions. He went the extra mile at every turn. We can't thank him and his employee(who's name I sadly can't remember) we're just absolute delights! We will absolutely be back. And we will always check here first to see if their horse sites are open before checking the state camp. It's a very short road ride to the park trails and the campground and their amenities are first rate. I can't wait to return!!!
ScoutI arrived midweek around 8:00 PM and the office was closed. I was tent camping on motorcycle and easily found my site way back on the property. Andy came out to my site in the morning to say hi and ask if anything was needed. He definitley cares about the people staying here. With the gravel roads and very soft grass site, it was easy to manuver a large bike. Out in the tent sites there was very little light, which made star gazing amazing. If it wasn't for the store and well done shower room I would have thought I was in the wilderness especially in the tent area. Great place for quiet midweek, not sure what the weekend is like. The only reason it is not 5 stars is from my site I had to walk out to the field for wifi reception. With no Verizon cell service, not sure if others did, I needed to comunicate with family.
John Carpentier Coon Rapids, MN
GuideSites are decent size, drove in and got a site, no reservation.
LegendWe tent camped here and loved it. We were able to do a lot of trail exploring and had a great time on the “scenic” cave tour. The trails were well maintained but difficult to understand in some places as signage was lacking.
There is a primitive loop with pit toilets, a tent loop with no electricity but access to showers and flush toilets, and a trailer loop with all accommodations.
There are great cold water trout streams that are shallow enough to wade in and play in if the weather is warmer. Hiking trails of varying skill levels but all in mostly wooded areas. Forestville townsite is closed during the week but you can wander around the outside of the buildings and site. No gates or posted restrictions.
LegendThis was an interesting little campground sandwiched between the road and the Trempealeau River. The backstory on the park is that the gentleman who originally owned the land had asked that when he died that it be preserved as a wildlife area. His death came much sooner than anyone thought, and the family worked with the county to donate the land to the county as a park. There are about six tent only sites set back near the river, with three of them in close proximity to each other (I think it is used as a group camping area). When I was there the sites were poorly maintained and only had two fire pits and tables for all six sites combined. There are 25ish RV type sites with either just electric or electric and water. Some of these sites are set up back to back in an open field, which is not very appealing. The grass had been let to grow very long before the recent cutting, so it was like walking through freshly mown hay. There is a horse arena (very muddy when I was there), and it looks like you can camp with your horses on the edge of the RV area. The showers were really nice and fairly new.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Winona, MN?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Winona, MN is Forestville Mystery Cave State Park Campground with a 4.3-star rating from 17 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Winona, MN?
TheDyrt.com has all 10 equestrian camping locations near Winona, MN, with real photos and reviews from campers.