Best RV Parks & Resorts near Menomonie, WI

Highland Ridge, WI - COE east of Minneapolis. (Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good (70 yr olds in 17’ trailer) Overall Rating: 4.5 Price 2023: $12/ night w senior pass Usage during visit: 60 - 70% during weekdays Site Privacy: GOOD - not a fence forest, but tremendous spacing makes up for it.
Site Spacing: VERY GOOD Site surface: Gravel and level Reservations: Yes. Can reserve on line at the cg Campground Noise: None Road Noise: None Through Traffic in campground: None Electric Hookup: Yes Sewer Hookup: No Dump Station: Yes Potable Water Available: Yes, at the bathrooms. Generators: Not needed. Bathroom: kept VERY clean. Shutdown for cleaning every morning at about 6 AM. Showers: Yes. Clean Pull Throughs: I think all are back ins. Cell Service (AT&T): Good Setting: Forest with no understory Weather: 80s Bugs: Not too bad.
Solar: Forest canopy would interfere , but not needed. Host: Yes. They are around and offer free beach passes. They are super. Rig size: Large RVs. Sites: All sites are very nice in loop 1 -24. I understand that Loop 28+ is less private.

 This park is on a smaller scale and less crowded than Devil’s Lake. There is a small beach that is in the process of renovation. The sites are large surrounded by trees and very private. The sites on the lake side are not electric and some of them are huge buddy sites, great for extended families. There are two shower houses in the campground located next to sites 29 or 72. If you are on the legs furthest from the lake it is a long walk to them, but all those sites have electric. There are two vault toilet locations and a total of 116 campsites all with a picnic table and fire ring. There is a very large playing field and a playground in the Family Campground and another playground past the beach near the fishing dock. This State Park has a large number of picnic shelters and picnic grounds with picnic tables. There are about 10 hiking trails. There is a boat launch and you can rent kayaks or canoes at the visitor center. Everything was kept clean and in good repair. Cell service for both AT&T and Verizon was strong enough to stream video. If you want to take a trip to town, there are about 5 no longer than a 10 mile distance. There was a large grocery store in Chippewa Falls. Only ice and firewood are available at the park.

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).

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.

For a County Park, Lake Elmo has an impressive list of amenities. Before we even get to the campsite let's mention the filtered swimming pond. This man made pond is a sandy bottom and surrounded by a nice sand beach. Large built in umbrellas are available for sun coverage and there is a concession stand and bathrooms with showers. And yes, as I mentioned the water is filtered! No gross goose poop or green algae to deal with! Next to the swim pond is a giant playground with fun for the big and little kids. Other amenities include archery, horse trails, paved and grass trails, camper spots, rustic spots and hike in camping spots. In winter the xc ski trails are lit for evening skiing. Or let's be honest early afternoon. It is Minnesota and the suns down by 4 In the Winter! They also have a newer Nordic center that's open all year round and includes a locker room with showers. The hike in camp spot we chose was on a small lake so it had a nice breeze and made it easy to bring a kayak or paddleboard and hop right in. There is also a boat launch for your larger toys! The trails in the park are quite impressive for its size. We enjoyed a 5 mile loop off the Nordic center and right past the camp spot. A picnic table and fire pit as well as nice flat tent pad were provided. If you're coming in from out of town then you're just a 5 minute drive from Woodbury and all the amenities you'd ever need but the park feels miles away from it all.

William O'Brien State Park has two different camp grounds (plus a couple of group camp grounds and two hike-/cart-in sites. We stayed at the Riverview campground. down the river bluffs from the main portion of the park, and as the name implies, on the shores of the St. Croix River. Our site was a non-electric site on the outside ring, with just a thin slip of woods and a hiking trail between us and the St. Croix river. On a hot summer day, the breeze off the river would be welcoming and cooling, but on an abnoramlly chilly spring day, the wind off the river was a bone-chilling constant. The campsite itself was situated about 500' from the shower/bathroom, and those facilities were clean, and in service, but otherwise unremarkable. There was not a lot of other tent campers at the campground, likely the cold temps kept some folks away, but the electric sites in the rest of the campground were filled with campers. We had the unfortunate experience of being across the road from the loudest group of campers in the campground, as a part of eight different families and their campers used the site across the road from us as their main gathering point. Quiet hours at the campground are from 10pm to 8am, and their festivities carried on until nearly 2am both nights. There was no effort from park staff to enforce quiet hours, which was a bummer.

With the exception of the loud neighbors, and unseasonable cold weather, this was a solid campground, and being near the river with quick access to the hiking trail was a plus.