Best Cabin Camping near St. Croix Falls, WI

I have stayed here twice once in one of the rental cabins, and second tent camping. The campground is very quiet and never seems to be to busy. The tent sites are a little to exposed for me (I prefer to be in the woods) but they were all clean along with the facilities too. The beach is wonderful along with the section of river and hiking areas. Definitely worth a trip

The camper cabins at Wild River are located just above the St. Croix River. Our cabin seemed to be at a trailhead to the river, which we took advantage of. The camper cabins had electricity and heat, no plumbing. Excellent fire ring for cooking. The park itself has many trails.

We camped at William O’Brien State Park November 1-4, 2022. We were taking advantage of some unseasonably warm days, and we are so glad we did. This park is beautiful! The trails are well kept and cover woodlands, grasslands, and wetlands. There is a huge beaver lodge that can be seen from one of the trails, and we saw a smaller one from a different trail. We saw an abundance birds while we were there.

We stayed in a camper cabin (‘Vasa’) and enjoyed it. The cabins are one room plus an enclosed porch. Furnishings are bunk beds and a table with benches. The cabin was heated and had electricity. You cannot cook indoors. There is a fire pit and picnic table outside. There are three cabins on a little cul de sac by the Savanna campground. There are two vault toilets near the cabins. The water source was off for the season, but water was available at the park office.

Camper Cabin (Eastern Bluebird)🏡🐦

Perfect little cabin nestled in the southern half of the park! Screened in porch, heated with electricity, and two double bunk beds!

We stayed here in mid April, I believe we stayed at CC #6. The site was beautiful, the cabin well kept. My only complaint about the site is how close the cabins are together, but the fact that the decks face into the woods and ravine is very peaceful and makes up for it. The cabins are nearby a trail that you can wander through the woods down to the river which is nice. We definitely used the heat at night to stay warm but had the windows open at night, it was perfect weather, this is a great place for spring and fall camping. (Never been during the summer months.)

I stayed in the Copas cabin and had a great time! campsite was private and lots of hiking trails. River and lake access as well for fishing, boating and kayaking.

We have stayed in cabins and in our trailer. The pontoons they offer for rent are beautiful!! The lake is nice. Good luck catching fish though. Bill the manager is a great guy! Definitely ex military veteran!

We O'Brian has some of the best groomed trails that I have been on. With many miles of hiking and a few backpack sites, this is a great family location near Scandia Minnesota to bring a family with budding new excited campers. Great amenities, toilets and even camper cabins.

I visited William O'Brien in the middle of February with two college roommates. As you can imagine, this meant snow was everywhere in the heart of winter in Minnesota. We decided to take a night trek through the park. The moon was very bright that night so visibility was excellent. We walked some trail through a frozen marsh landscape and happened upon a railroad that passed above our trail with a beautiful tunnel-overpass. We walked along the tracks after that in the brisk air and had a few run ins with white tail deer further in the brush.

The cabin we stayed in felt very welcoming. Unknown at the time I booked it, the cabin offered Wi-Fi access that ended up not working for us anyway, so that at least allowed for a bit more of a rustic experience in the end. I plan on going back to experience the park with more time on my hands in the future.

This is a nice, quiet campground with activities nearby. The sites are decently private and there is nice bathrooms/showers. We camped here while our friends used a camper cabin and they loved it too. The waterpark is a blast and we were able to find discount passes online.

Have stayed here many times in all seasons. Not an over crowded park with lots of room to roam. Horses are welcome here with their own special campground area and miles of trails to ride. Hiking trails cover open grasslands, hardwood forest and valley waterways. Lots of wildlife and a great place for birders. Paved bike trails trailer and tent camping as well as camper cabins. Especially beautiful in autumn with the colorful leaves.

must be a vet or sponsored by one. I’ve been going here for years. They have a small bar, small trail, fishing dock, swimming beach, boat dock, boat rental, kayak rental, golf cart rental, game room, parks, showers and bathrooms, pavilion.

I’ll say, one of the best parts of this park is all the interpretative kiosks. Love learning about the forestry and history of state parks!  Also many options for trails which is great. A lot of wildlife here, I heard a ton of coyotes and geese, a woodpecker, and a beaver under the bridge in the evening chomping away at peeling logs... totally scared me at first but he was just doing his job and I tried not to bother him! 

I stayed at the backpacking site: SPRING. It’s just a short hike (bout 400 meters)  from the river access where there is a vaulted toilet snd water year-round. The site had a bench overlooking the river and a rugged stair for water access. Also had a little personal rustic toilet just a trail behind the site. Nice and wooded campsite, soft dirt, and fairly spacious! In wet months, I bet it's pretty muddy. The only drawback is that the trail it’s situated on is the hiking club trail and heavily trafficked. I stayed in winter, where you could see through the trees and all that tho. Maybe in summer, it’s more secluded? But still, something to keep in mind.

Took a peek at the campground- some of the most spaced out and wooded sites I’ve seen yet. I like that they made it in separated loops, to avoid through traffic distracting your stay. Love the visitors center, great overlook, and interesting information. By the trail center, which is also very cozy and rents, skis and snowshoes and has a great inside fireplace, there is an interpretative walk about white pines- great for kids to imagine those huge trees! They do a great job aiding the imagination as you walk along the short trail.

Camper cabins here are up on a bluff- didn’t stay there but totes want to! Nicely situated.

Everything that I checked out here was very well managed and they clearly put a lot of time and care into making this park functional, interesting, and accessible. I loved my little backpack site but can’t wait to come back to camp in the summer or rent a cabin! The river is gorgeous, even as it was frozen in winter!

This park has a ton of camping available, particularly if you don't need electricity and have a smaller rig because then you can get into more of the campground loops. (There is electricity here, but there are many more sites without.) 

The sites in the Old Logging Campground were close together but many had vegetation between them offering some privacy. Site 207 was especially tucked in but it's a tight spot, so probably best for a van or tent. 

The park itself has a lot to offer being right on the St. Croix River, plus there are hiking trails, a paved bike path, a fire tower you can climb, an old CCC camp area you can tour, and more. Also, canoe and kayak rentals are available. And this is all within the state park boundary since, at 34,000 acres, the park is the largest in the Minnesota state park system. 

Some of the loops have old bathhouses that desperately need to be replaced, but they are in the process of doing so, which means some loops have great new bathrooms and showers. (If you stay in the upper 200s, sites, you'll have one of these new bathrooms right away, but more are being built.) Cell service was incredibly spotty on Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Depending on where you're at, you'll get a low signal, but often it was only enough for texting-- don't think about using the web or social media or getting any work done while you're here. 

Overall, we enjoyed our weekend at this park and would come back for another getaway if we had the chance and it wasn't a workday.

Just a wonderful campground, close to the city, with large secluded sites. This is our go-to when we need a quick one or two night getaway.

For whatever reason I always thought of William O’brien as more of a day trip park, but it actually has really nice campgrounds! There is the Riverway campground, which is more shaded and conveniently located next to the river trail(not paved, but flat and lots of people with strollers). I would avoid booking at this site if it has been a wet season, on a previous day visit the river trail was completely underwater so I’m assuming that several sites were as well.

If you book at the savanna campground you don’t have to worry so much about an overflowing river! This is also where the small rentable cabins are, and staying in one of them is definitely something I am interested in doing. This is also the campground that seemed to have an overwhelming amount of jumbo RVs since the pull-ins are pretty straight- especially the 79-96 loop. So be aware of that if you are a tent camper looking for peace and quiet and not generators. The last two loops are definitely the nicest as far as tent site quality- they are also non-electric so you don’t need to worry about RV noise.

I can’t speak on the bathrooms since the campground has portapotties set up. 

Great sites at Riverway: 1, 5, 9, 13, 47, 49, 50, 53, 59 

Great sites at Savanna: 82, 108, 114, 117, 118, 123, 125,

Being from Alberta my campground standards are high but I also prefer a neat and simple campsite. When Rice Creek Campground opens up again in April I'd highly recommend going there if all you want is a simple camping experience to get away from the city grind. I had my tent, fire and books to read and was the happiest camper in the world. I went there no joke because my driver from tow truck red deer recommended it and I stopped while in the area. So glad I did!

The tent area in William O'Brien State Park has access to water and bathrooms. Canoe rentals are available for the family or bring your own!

The trail on the lower section of the park follows the river and Lake Alice. Along the way you’ll pass a huge boulder that looks very out of place, it was actually left from the ice age. It is a relatively flat trail that is about 2 miles. If it hot, stay on the lower end of the park as it is mostly shady. The stop section of the park also has many hiking options and is very hilly and sunny.

We took a 30 minute drive north of the cities for a quick get away, and were rewarded with a very nice campground!

The check in staff was friendly, helpful and efficient. She gave us the info we needed for wood and other campgrounds in the area.

Our site was clear, flat and grassy, and had an established fire pit. Other loops had grills and hook ups for pop-up campers and RVs.

There is a gorgeous beach area with tables, a pavilion, changing rooms and a well equipped playground.

We walked a portion of the trails towards the golf course, on a paved path under a green canopy.

Plenty of bugs, so bring your spray!

Overall we really enjoyed our stay. Hiking club trail was over five miles of various landscapes from marshland to lakes to prairies. Trails were very wide making it perfect for trekking with someone else. Beach on property as well as canoe/kayak rentals. As for the campground, our site was spacious and worked great. My only complaint is that the sites are all very close to one another with very little foliage diving the sites. Our neighbors were extremely loud and were pretty rowdy all evening. Playing music and having guests come and go. Past 10pm they were still not very considerate of those around them. With the sites being so close together and not very private, we could pretty much hear every word they said all night. We camp/hike to relax and enjoy the outdoors so it becomes hard to do that when others are so loud. We would go back given its convenient proximity to the metro but we would hope for a quieter stay!

This campground is massive! Our campsite was on the farthest loop and was very private! We saw sooooo many deer some even walking right through campsites! You can hear coyotes, raccoons and very loud owls😂

We spent an entire day hiking and it was decent hiking along the river, some of the trails where a little confusing and trying to figure out where we at, but we made it just hiked a little further than we wanted to😂! This seems to be the hot spot for horses and if we go back I definitely want to do the horseback riding right outside the park! DRIVE to the visitors center from the campsites it’s a bit away!

Postives: Very private and remote, Lots of wildlife, friendly staff, okay hiking. The canoe rental place wasn’t open so we can’t comment of water activities!

Negatives: Only one shower house and we had to drive there, the primitive toilet smelled so bad it burned!! It needed to be emptied and wasn’t the entire time we were there. This isn’t a comment on this state park but because we where no where near a real bathroom and we have a toddler who wears a diaper/potty training there are no trash cans in the primitive toilet it could create a problem if you had a little one or if your a women😉

overall it was good camping trip, but if we did come back we would definitely camp closer to the shower house.

We stayed in campsite 29 in the drive in campsite over Labor Day weekend. The park was great - lots of hiking options, very clean (including the bathrooms), available water, right along the river. #29 definitely wouldn't be my first pick, but we booked late and it was one of the two left. No pad, which was fine (some of the sites do have pads, though). You could easily fit two tents in the site - it was a nice big area and looked kind of empty with just our one tent! The site isn't particularly private, since it was in the center of the loop, and if anyone ends up in the campsite behind you (#33), you're really pretty close - we lucked out and no one showed up until we were leaving. On the other hand, if people wanted to double camp, those two sites would be great together! It was a busy weekend, but people seemed to be pretty quiet after 10 pm. #30 looked like an awesome site and probably had the most privacy of the B lane. The restrooms were between A and B lanes (walkway between #24 & #26, #26 was pretty exposed to people walking back and forth) and was pretty busy - and not many people following the mask rule for the park. The campsites in general were pretty busy (Labor Day weekend probably contributed to that), there are a lot of sites, and it's close-ish to the cities, so if you're really looking to get away from people this probably isn't the ideal park. Lots of dogs, too. But, the sites were right next to the hiking paths and the park has a ton to see. We had a good time! We hiked past the Spring Creek campsite area and it looked really great, if you want to carry your stuff in.

2/22/20-2/23/20. BP11

Less than an hour from the cities, this is a perfect little camping getaway. If you are looking for a nice backpacking experience, Afton has this and more. We pulled a sled and hiked 1.4 miles to our campsite. The hike was very challenging and uphill. The campsites are nicely spaced and diverse. Some are more wooded and others in the open prairie. We selected campsite 11 as it had some nice trees and was down a ridge, very private. There is a vault toilet, solar well water (year-round) and a wood pile available right at the campground (pay later) - these amenities were closest to campsite 10 and 11.

The state park is gorgeous. There are rolling hills throughout and some of the hikes can be deemed as “difficult”. We opted to get off the beaten trail and snowshoed in the woods, following deer tracks. This is one nice thing about winter hikes as you are allowed to leave the trail. We went up and down ravines and got in a beautiful hike and workout. They offer xcountry skiing, snowshoeing and hiking in the winter. We hiked 19 miles in 2 days.

We camped here 2 years ago in the spring and really enjoyed campsite 1 and 2. They are wooded and private. Campsite 2 has a few great hammock spots. We snowshoed around and really enjoyed campsite 18 as well, as it overlooks the river. They also have a beach and swimming in the summer on the St Croix. Afton really has it all. I HIGHLY recommend this state park.