Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Menomonie, WI

Stayed here on a east/west camping trip. Beautiful state park. Sites are shaded and large. Big enough that we were able to tie out 2 large dogs each on 30 ft leads. The park has a bicycle path that walkers can also use that’s along the river. Our site backed up to the bicycle path with the river behind us. Great place to walk. Staff and hosts very friendly and helpful. Don’t be alarmed when you drive by a school and housing area to get to it! The park also has an off leash dog park. I wasn’t able to check that out though but have wished state parks would consider adding. Bathrooms extremely clean with the best state park showers Ive ever used (and I mostly camp at state parks across the US). If I get back to this area I would definitely camp here again.

We are here for a show at the casino and thought it would be fun to bring the camper down and glamp for the weekend. It is just a parking lot but the sites are all pull through and there is plenty of room between sites and ours was perfectly level.

We have dogs so the fact that it’s all asphalt and rock is a bit of a bummer but we are close to the exercise area and they do love little walks. It also seems to be controlling some of the normal bad pet parent behavior we see at even parks. Like letting the dogs run with out leashes or tethering them all day to bark at everything.

The sites do not have fire rings but there are some community ones and it appears the other campers brought their own smokeless fire pits to use.

There is a shuttle to the casino and at 7pm folks seemed to clear out to head over. It was honestly one of the quietest campgrounds we’ve been to on a Friday night.

The bath house is newer and super clean- not a single creepy spider web in any corners.

On Verizon I have full bars so we haven’t tried the park WiFi but we’ve been able to use our chrome cast and two iPads off my cell phone with zero issues. Because it’s in a river valley the air tv single is terrible so we are glad to have the chrome cast with us- since the forecast called for a raining day.

Washington County, which manages campgrounds at both the Lake Elmo Park Reserve and St Croix Bluffs Regional Park, does a great job of maintaining campgrounds, trails, and bathroom facilities at both parks. St Croix Bluffs is right along the St. Croix river - in the summer you can hang out at the sandy beach on the river and in the fall there are many trails to enjoy fall color. 

There are multiple areas in the modern campground - one section is for larger rigs that has 50 amp service and water at each site, most sites in the other loops have 20 or 30 amp electric service, and there are a few non-electric tent-only sites as well. The park prohibits both pets and alcohol! There is both a volleyball court and nice play structure in the modern campground.

We camped over MEA break (mid October) at site #4 this year and liked how close it was to the bathroom building. There is a lot of open space behind the parking/tent pad on this site, which made it a perfect spot for the kids to run and play without running close to other camper's sites. Sites 1, 2, 4, and 6 have similar amounts of open space behind the campsites. 

In the past we've stayed here as part of a group in the group campsite. The group campsites at this park are some of the best I've stayed in - they include sand volleyball courts, a covered picnic shelter with electricity, a primitive toilet, and access to a large play structure nearby.

This place has two group sites the one we stayed at Birch Hollow, hosts up to 20 campers and the other one up to 50. We absolutely loved this place, it was clean and separated from the other campers. Our site has a large picnic shelter with 6 picnic tables two grills and it’s own volleyball place. We also had a portable toilet included which was amazingly clean! The fire pit had two charming log benches and a ton of room for extra chairs. Most important we had electric hook ups and drinking water right on the site. I liked this spot because there is so much space to spread out, we had 5 tents set up and room to spare. A few down sides are that the nearest bathroom were about 1/4 mile down the road and they were closed:( so we kept having to drive even further into the park where the other campers stayed to use those bathrooms and showers...which were very clean but still it would be nice to have more than one portable toilet or at least have the closest bathhouse open... for the group sites. Another downside is YOU CANT BRING ALCOHOL OR PETS! I love my pooch but sadly she had to stay home with a dog sitter, and I love my piña colada’s but I could not enjoy them either... The beach was very nice to swim in, but was a bit crowded no surprise In mid July. And the trails were nice also... however, apparently there had been some bear sightings when we went, be ware of the bears I guess. We didn’t spot any on the trail but we did get visited by raccoons both nights so be sure to clean and put away food AND garbage before calling it a night. Will be coming back soon!

Easy pull-through and back-in sites. We easily backed in to our site. There was a large open grassy area behind us that our two dogs enjoyed. Brand new fire rings/pits. Beautiful view of the bluffs. Walking distance to several restaurants. Don't miss the Nelson Creamery. Housed in an old historic building, I was expecting just an average ice cream/Wisconsin cheese store, but it was really lovely inside and it reminded me of something in France. There is a formal dining room area, wine cellar, and casual outdoor seating on a patio under vine covered canopy. Soups, sandwiches, pizzas, beer and wine available.

We only stayed for 2 nights, but the best part was the bathroom/shower house! There were 3-4 private shower/toilet/sink rooms with full locking doors. Everything is brand new and pristinely clean: white subway tile, white walls, white fixtures. Great water pressure and temperature. It reminded me of a fancy athletic club like Lifetime Fitness! 

There is also a laundry facility in the building (again, everything new and clean).

This is one of my favorite campgrounds in Southern Minnesota! It is only 1 1/2 hours away from the TwinCities which makes it an ideal getaway. The campsites are wooded and have enough distance between them that noise is minimal. I especially love the view of Lake Pepin and the nice little swimming beach. On our last stay, we were able to watch eagles from our campsite, which was amazing. They have recently added 3 small cabins to rent which would be a nice alternative to tent camping. If you do plan a camping trip to Hok-Si-La and you're driving in from the Twin Cities, be sure to take Wisconsin Highway 35 through Maiden Rock, Stockholm, Pepin, and other small towns. You can loop back into Minnesota through Wabasha. This adds about an extra half hour to your drive but it is definitely worth it!