If you’re looking for a good campsite last minute or are you really really really like the North Shore I want to be right on Lake superior this is a good campground for you. This campground is located in Grand Marais Minnesota right inside the city on the harbor. The RV sites with electric are pretty dang close together which is not my style camping but for most people at RVs they don’t mind that. The tent sites were sent away from the RV sites and we’re pretty secluded from each other which I really really really like.

A lot of people choose this park to park their RV for the summer and pay the summer fee for it. You can also get a daily rate which is not that bad. Check out the picture for info on the rates.

There’s a boat launch into Lake superior in the Grand Marais harbor right inside the city park which is amazing if you’re on a boat and want to go fish or just swim.

All in all this is a great park for families. They also have group camps if you’re interested in that but they were pretty centralized in the the park and were not secluded to anybody.

Inside the city limits you can grab yourself a worlds best donut And for an amazing cup of coffee check out Java Moose For dinner you could do a sit down at The Angry Trout right on the harbor and follow it up with a Voyager Brewing Company beer with amazing views of the sunset.

Cascade River is one of my favorite Minnesota State Parks. Located between Grand Marais and Duluth in Lutsen, Mn. There is a set of 5 small waterfalls and then Cascade Falls that are spectacular. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the waterfalls because this time so you will just have to take my word for it.

The picnic are was super cool as-well. There were little areas separated from each other that had a picnic table and fire ring that were like little campsites. No overnight camping though.

From the picnic area you could relax on the rocks on sunning Lake Superior’s shore and catch a sunrise or sunset. You can cast a line for lake trout or salmon from shore or just relax having a picnic.

There are a few hiking trails in the park and parking for some one the trails and the picnic area right off highway 61 a half a mile from the park office.

If you stay in the campground there is approved firewood available at the park office, along with ice and other goodies. You must have a park permit for this park. Daily permits are 7$ and annual permits that are good for all state parks and recreation areas in Minnesota are 35$. The annuals can be purchased in the park office or online. Daily park permits are only available in the park office at any state park or recreation area. Camping fees are the normal Minnesota Park fees.

This park is surrounded by a few other state parks you could spend visiting as well. Check this beauty out! IT’S TOTALLY WORTH YOUR TIME!!!

Wunderbar Eatery and Glampground is located in the breathtaking town of Grand Marais, Mn. It’s literally right off the main drag when you are coming into town making it kind of noisy with traffic sounds. The “glampground” is set up outside a cute little bar/restaurant that is a local hangout. There are five vintage campers, and two super cute lotus belle tents available year round. There are also tent and Rv sites available. Each camper is a different theme making it a bit more interesting. They sleep 2-5 people depending on how cozy you want to get.

There is a full service restaurant and bar that offers room service in a little red wagon right to your camper or tent. If you like music there is live music inside the restaurant by local artists. Along with your reservation you get a swag basket filled with local coupons, local treats, passes to the YMCA (so you can shower), and a complimentary drink to start your experience right.

When I visited I had chicken strips that were pretty stellar and a local brew. My husband had chili cheese fries that were nothing more than ordinary. The fries were pretty good but the chili did not taste homemade. All in all I thought the food wasn’t anything to write home about. The beer however was awesome! Local brews are my favorite!

The restaurant also has a banquet room and playroom with crafts and toys/games for the kids. This is pretty great for rainy days.

The town of Grand Marais is spectacular right on the shore of Lake Superior. There are amazing views of boats coming in and out of the harbor and you can even snag a few lake trout right in the harbor. The famous Worlds Best Doughnut shop is located here, and when they say world best THEY MEAN IT! I have literally never had a better doughnut.

If you travel up MN-61 you will pass Voyagers Brewing Company with rooftop seating and spectacular views of the harbor. One of my favorite places to be in the evening for the sunset! You will also find a ton of great places to eat that are a bit more “fancy” and a cute coffee shop with awesome drinks.

Aside from location ( being right next to the highway) this is one of the quirkiest campgrounds I’ve been to. With prices between 25$ for a tent site to anywhere from 100$-125$ for one of their vintage campers, this is the place to beat for pricing.

On our way back from Grand Marais, Mn I stopped and toured the campground at Temperance River State Park. This park is located just outside Schroeder, Mn which is 1.5 hours north of Duluth, Mn. It’s just off of highway 61 with spectacular views of Lake Superior.

There is an amazing foot bridge with amazing views of the Temperance River Lagoon that is also an awesome fishing spot for Salmon, Trout and all other kinda of fish.

This park has a great campground woth amazing views of Lake Superior right from your campsite. Campsites can be occupied by a maximum of 6 people and cost $15-$23/night for standard campsites and an additional 8$ for electric sites.

There is an upper and lower campground with showers, bathrooms and water at the upper campground. The lower campground has pit toilets and water spicket‘s. The lower campground also has cart in sites if that is an interest of yours. There are carts provided.

We ate at the picnic area in the lower campground and were able to get our feet wet in Lake Superior that was a bit cold this time of year. We found some awesome rocks and fished at the base of the waterfall in the Lagoon. We didn’t catch anything but we definitely were not fishing with the correct lures. Other people were reeling in the fish.

Temperance is also close to the famous Betty’s Pies, Castle Danger Brewery and a TON of other amazing food places.

This park is definitely on my list of parks to stay at in the future.

Burlington Bay City Campground is in Two Harbors, Mn only 30 minutes from historic Duluth , Mn. Some of the sites are very open and everyone can see your business but the views and access that you get of Lake Superior make up for that.

This is a city run campground with everything you need to enjoy your time on the North Shore. The campground is located inside to two harbors which makes it very accessible to walking to town and to the local brewery their Castle danger brewery. You can jump right into Lake Superior that’s connected to the campground and, some of the campsites are right on the shore of the lake which makes it amazing if you like to swim, kayak or paddle board.

You can stay at this campground for $36 a night for electric and water hook up 40$ a night for 30amp electric, water and, sewer and 40$ a night for 50amp electric, water and sewer. Primitive non electric sites are 28$ a night. Firewood is 6$ a bundle and extra tents on sites are only 10$. If you pull a boat or other trailer it’ll cost you 5$ dollars a night extra and an extra vehicle also cost you 5$ dollars a night.

This is a pretty cool campground because it’s broken up into sections so you don’t feel so crammed in there with everybody.

Penmarallter Campsite is located just outside the infamous Duluth, Mn and just before you get to Two Harbors, Mn. This is a very open campground that would be premier for RV camping. I probably would not pitch a tent unless I was in a bind.

There is electric hook up and water hook up.

Being located just about 30minutes outside of Duluth, Mn and just before Two Harbors, Mn its a very convenient campground to stay at.

Crow Wing State Park is a good choice if you are looking for something close to the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota. with this park being just under two hours away from the Twin Cities metro area it’s an easy choice for a nice weekend getaway. If you’re looking to stay for a long extended time it’s also a good choice as it offers electric and water. The electric sites are pretty open and close together so if you like to be secluded and not see other campers from your campsite I wouldn’t use this park. The electric sites are really on top of each other and don't feel like you are camping to me. The non-electric sites are pretty nice and secluded from each other which would make this park a park I would bring my tent to instead of my travel trailer. There is also a group camp That is separate from the main camping area.

The park office offers ice and firewood for sale. Firewood is 6$ a bundle at the park office. The only firewood you can use is the approved firewood in the local area or scrap lumber. See the Minnesota Firewood law.  Canoe rentals are offered at the park office for $15 for a half-day and $25 for a full day. There is also a water fill station and a dump station for your travel trailer or RV. This is a good park for hiking and exploring. 

If you wanna stay close to the Twin Cities metro area this is a good park for you!

If you’re looking for some unique camping look no further than the Upper Sioux Agency State Park outside of Granite Falls Minnesota. This park is one of three parks in Minnesota that is home to Tipi camping. Yes I said Tipi!! And not even a Tipi that you need to supply one that’s already set up for you with the wood platform and everything perfect for you to have an amazing experience!

We paid $55 a night and were able to stay at this awesome Tipi campsite. The only downside to the campsite that we stayed in was that it was right on the corner of the main road. Other than that we are absolutely in love with the campsite and the staff at the park. Each day the park rangers would come through and ask if you needed firewood charge you for it and bring it straight to your campsite. This is a pretty good option for buying firewood since the park office was a few miles away from the actual campsite.

It was a really nice shower and bathroom facility along with vault toilets just off the main road. The campground is pretty open but still secluded enough for us to feel like we were there alone. There was a river close to the campsite so that we could fish if we wanted to. And just a short walk or drive or bike ride you could get to the picnic area right off the river and have a really nice day or evening. There were also backpack in camp sites that were really secluded and pretty large. The only problem to those was they were close to the river and the mosquitoes are pretty bad.

This park also has equestrian camping and it’s really nice because it’s completely separate from the main campground.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do around the Park in the nearby towns however there was some cute little antique and thrift shops which was right up our alley.

We would definitely go back and stay in a tipi again!!! What a cool experience!!!

The winter was a long one last year and we were itching to take our new 30foot Jayco Eagle bunkhouse travel trailer out for its maiden voyage! We decided that my birthday weekend was the perfect opportunity to do just that. To be on the safe side, incase we had issues, we decided to stay close to home so we decided to hit up a new park, Nerstrand Big Woods State Park just outside Northfield, Minnesota. This park is only an hour from the twin cities and very convenient for a weekend getaway after work on friday.

We stayed In campsite 27 which was an electric campsite that was pretty open to all the other campsites. Most of the campsites there were really open and you could see and other peoples campsites so if that’s not your style of camping I wouldn’t go to Nerstrand big Woods. There is also water hook up at the park in that site and some of the other sites but that wasn’t listed when we booked the site.

The park office was just a short walk or a bike ride from the campsites and had a very nice gift shop and bathrooms there. There is also a really nice shower and bathroom building right next to the campground host site. Just off the campground was a really nice playground for the kids that utilized tree stumps and tree branches as the playground. There was a really large picnic area and picnic shelter also.

Along with electric sites there’s also just tent sites without electric if that’s your style camping.

Nerstrand Big Woods Is very well known for its beautiful waterfall that you can walk on and the trail leading to the waterfall was also a great hike.

All in all I think Nerstrand Big Woods was a good choice for a weekend getaway for a little family of four. And it gave us a lot to do because in The little city of Northfield there was a lot of little shops and cute little restaurants to eat at the shop at. Northfield is also home to the Malt-o-meal Museum and production. My husband and I are big craft brewery fans And we’re pretty stoked to find out that there were three breweries around the park. We visited Tanzenwald and Chapel brewery and tried flights at each one. Out of the two we thought Tanzenwald was the best for staff friendliness and prices. Each flight we got a 4 5ounce pours were only 4$. There was also a restaurant at that brewery with really good cheese curds.

We decided that Nerstrand Isn’t our favorite park but it’s a good option for us to be able to get away in short notice close to home with a lot of activities around for us to do.

If you’re looking for a county park close to the Twin Cities metro area with a beautiful lake, good fishing, swimming, recreation rentals like paddle boards kayaks and canoes that also has a campground with Camper Cabins attached, look no further than Baker Park Reserve. Baker Park reserve is just outside of Maple Plain Minnesota which is about 45 minutes from the Twin Cities metro area.

Lake Independence is attached to Baker Park reserve which is a beautiful lake for fishing, swimming, kayaking and, recreational boating. You can catch everything from Crappies, perch, sunfish, walleye and, musky on this lake. A lot of people come out and troll the lake for musky and also bring pontoons for swimming. You can jump right off the pontoon into the lake and have a great time with the family or just be alone on the boat and catch a ton of fish.

The lake can be busy especially on holiday weeks and weekends and The park and restricts how many boats around the lake and enforces no wake zone’s during the holiday I’m busy times. So check the leak before you go if you’re planning on doing or jet skiing or just cruising around on your boat.

The campground that’s attached to the park is pretty open and there are very many secluded sites if any at all. I took a few videos while driving through the campground to show you what the campground is like. There’s a campground office that offer snacks and sodas and ice and such. If you’re looking for a good getaway for the weekend that’s close this would be a good park for you.

Overall, I would give the campground a three out of five because it is so dang open and there isn’t much privacy. There is however, very nice shower buildings and a nice office. I would give the park a four out of five for usefulness and overall fun. There is a lot to do and it is close to the metro.

I am from a suburb of Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota and we wanted to go camping with my in-laws who have horses. We needed a park that was close and had equestrian camping so we decided to go to Lake Carlos State Park.

Lake Carlos State Park is roughly 2.5hours from the Twin Cities and is a beautiful getaway for a weekend trip. You can leave after work on a Friday and still have time to make it to the park, set up and still be able to cook dinner and enjoy a s’more or two.

We booked site H3 in the equestrian campground which was a VERY open site right off the main loop in the equestrian campground. It was very sunny and barely any shade for the horses. The site were in was electric and there were only three non-electric sites in the equestrian campground. The other sites were awesome for shade but were still super open to everyone.

There were great trails for hiking and horseback riding. They also allowed mountain biking on the trails.

The staff at the office were super friendly and they talked to us for about 15 minutes. Their store in the office was pretty great and they had everything from toys for the kids to s’mores stuff and stickers specific to the park. The firewood was pretty fast burning and cost 6$ a bundle so it was pretty spendy since we cook only over the fire.

The main campground was VERY busy and jammed packed. The sites were too close together and open for my comfort.

The beach was very dirty and there were army worms everywhere crawling on everything.

We took a little bike ride to the group camp which was an amazing area with a very nice shelter with electric.

All in all, this is a good park to go to if you are looking for a park close to the twin cities metro area.

We planned a huge family camping trip this year and the lovely Chippewa Loop campground in the Chippewa National Forest was the camp ground that we had the honor of staying at! We had three sites, 79, 80, and 81 with 17 people total. 9 Adults and 8 kids ranging from ages 7 to 1. The campground is right outside Cass Lake Minnesota that had a nice grocery store, a pretty weird liquor store, a family dollar, and a fishing pier if you didn’t have a boat. It was about a half an hour outside of Bemidji, Mn that has a lot of history from Minnesota and a great fireworks display over the lake on the Fourth of July. The City of Bemidji has a lot a little boutique shops if you are into shopping while on camping trips. It also had a cute little ice cream store that we took all the kids to across from the Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox statue and a nice park for the kids to play at right off of Lake Bemidji. If you’re into craft breweries Bemidji also has a brewery called Bemidji Brewing right in town. There’s also a Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and a dollar tree amongst other stores if you have that “I forgot list”.

Site number 80 was the best to put up a travel trailer, but it was also extremely close to site number 82 and practically joined site number 82. We ended up putting our Jayco Eagle 30 foot travel trailer in site number 81 because with everyone else tent camping and we were the only one with a travel trailer, we felt this site was the best to park our travel trailer in because it was the least level site and only had one small pad for a tent. Site number 79 and 81 were joined together by a path that made it easy for us to all eat in one site. We all pretty much congregated in site number 81. We put most of our tents, three to be exact, in site number 80 because it was the most level and open for tents. The site was capable of having two large cabin tents and a small 4 person tent comfortably. Site had a lot of good pine trees for hanging Hammocks but, like I said before, it was almost right on top of site number 82 so we decided to only put up the 3 tents and congregate across the road in site number 81 as to not disturb the other site occupants. It was pretty frustrating that that was the most level site because it was also the best one to park a travel trailer in and have an awning out and a picnic table but we couldn’t do it because we didnt want to disturb the other site with 17 people.

Site number 79 had a good drive pad but the tent pad was extremely un-level. we put up a single pole tipi in that site because the people in that site had cots and didn’t mind sleeping on an incline. When I say incline, I mean incline, the tent pad was not level at all which is kind of frustrating. Site number 79 was the least friendly for hammocks so we hung all her hammocks in site number 81.

Site number 81 is where we decided to put up the trailer but the trailer pad was super un- level. We ended up making a Walmart run to get two more packs of leveling blocks and we use three packs of leveling blocks to make it level with room to have our awning and out. Right behind the travel trailer was a sloped hill that went down to the fire pit and a tent pad that was also on a slight incline which we were up by eight person tent there but that person had a raised air mattress and didn’t mind sleeping on an incline. Attached to site number 81 was also the path to the showers that was right down the hill. It worked out great because the showers and the bathrooms were so close to our site but we felt like the trees were blocking everything from our site.

We took a lot of bike rides and got to see a lot of the other sites and they had a lot of good tent sites in some of the other loops and it seems like all of the electric sites were not as great as the tent sites. All of the electric sites seem to be un-level and not a great place to pitch a tent as well as having the camper.

The park itself was very beautiful had a lot of nature things like milk weed and monarch butterfly’s everywhere and a beautiful swimming beach that was about waist high (4 feet deep) for about 300 to 400 yards out from shore. The beach was great for swimming and kayaking and you could dock a boat on the sandy beach and eat lunch if you wanted to. We ended up catching 40 crawfish and doing a crawfish boil, which the kids absolutely loved. The picnic shelter was pretty awesome too, very shaded and on a rougher part of the beach. There was a really long bike path that went through all of the loops and the main road was super bike friendly as well.

In the visitor center there was a really cool area for the kids to go to play if it was too hot or rainy, or if you just wanted to be indoors for a little bit. They had a bike decorating event and we brought all the kids bikes and decorated them. There was a little gift shop and they also gave out free stickers which we ended putting on our camper as we do at every park we get a sticker from.

Each camp ground loop also had a campground host that sold firewood, three bundles for $10. The firewood was pretty bad and some of it was wet and it burned really really fast. But like every park in Minnesota you can’t bring your own firewood unless it’s kiln dried lumber or something like that within a certain number of miles of the place you are camping.

A few downsides to this park where there’s no official places to fill water up for your camper and no official place to dump your black and grey water tanks from your camper. You end up having to go to another park and pay to dump your camper. This could be a problem if you are staying for an extended time and use a lot of water. There also wasn’t a whole lot to do aside from biking and hiking and swimming like there was a leech lake recreation area we were at a few days prior to this trip. The restrooms and showers were pretty unkempt and dirty. Everyone but me and my sister had cold showers every time they went to take a shower.

All in all the park is very beautiful and I had some very good attributes like friendly staff, clean campsites and secluded campsites where you didn’t feel like you are right on top of the other site aside from site 80 and 82. It seemed like there were three or 4 sites together in groups and then a little ways away there were a few more clumped together.

I don’t know if we would actually come back to this park because the sites weren’t as big as they seemed in the pictures online and we felt cramped most of the time. There wasn’t a good space in the sites to put up games like corn hole or ladder ball which made it a bit boring at times to just stay at camp. We spent a lot of time at the beach.

While at Leech Lake Recreation Area we stayed in site number 33 which was the electric site with our 30 foot Jayco Eagle travel trailer. There was enough room in the site for a travel trailer truck and probably another tent or screen tent. The other sites were close but not too close. if another travel trailer or RV pulled in it would block our view from their fire ring. The pad was all dirt and you can only set up on the dirt and not on the grass around it. The trees around the site were perfect for hammocks, we hung three of our Kammok brand hammocks. Our only complaint about the site was that the fire pit was dug down into the ground making it kind of unsafe if you had children and the fires didn’t stay lit very well because there was no oxygen going underneath them, so you’re constantly fanning it which was annoying because we cook with cast-iron over the fire for every meal.

We were able to go and take a walk to the lake which is super short walk from pretty much any of the sites but really close from our site. The sunset over the lake were stunning and a loon hung around the dock while we fished.

We took a lot of bike rides around the campground looking at each site and going to the park which was absolutely amazing for the kids. They had basketball courts, a huge playground that was amazing quality, shuffleboard, volleyball, badminton, and a picnic shelter that you could rent out with the cooking area inside the picnic shelter. There are pit toilets and bathrooms close to the playground so that isn’t an issue with little ones. The playground area is a great place to hang out with adults and children.

We took a bike ride to the tent sites as well and found that there are pretty close together and right next to a main road that was kind of noisy. They would probably be good if you got all four at once with a group of people. The dump station for the RVs was right next to the tent sites to which would probably be annoying to see all the RVs on a busy day dumping at the same time.

The federal Dan was a magnificent sight but it was pretty hard to fish around that area without a boat going on the leech lake because of the fast-moving water. They’re also wasn’t an area to swim because it would be unsafe which is kind of a bummer but the playground made up for it.

The park is run by the Army Corps of Engineers volunteers and they were super friendly and kept everything clean and sanitary which was amazing. There was even Washers and dryer’s to do laundry for free and amazing shower facilities that they called comfort stations. Everything was borrow on the loan and bring back which included all of the equipment at the park like basketballs badminton shuffle board stuff and rakes shovels and stuff to clean up your campsite.

All in all this would be a park that we would definitely come back to you and spend a week and possibly have a group of people with kids because it’s a super cool friendly kid park.

For someone who likes to do it all Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area is the place to be!!!

From Rv Camping and tent camping to amazing secluded Yurts on a trout pond there are more than enough options to camp and stay.

The campground itself isn’t anything to rave about, and is mostly open and pretty close together but the yurts, those are a different story!

The yurts are set on a beautiful only mine pit that is stocked with all kinds of trout. The have a wood burning stove, bunk beds, table, chairs, bear locker, fire ring and picnic table. There is a pergola style shelter with a full roof for outdoor cooking.

The view of the trout pond is absolutely stunning and fishing isn’t bad either if you know how to fish trout. There is a shop in town that will deliver kayaks and pick them up when you are done for a small fee, like 50$ for the day?

The old mine pits around and in the park are pristine and literally crystal clear! You can see hundreds of feet down through crystal clear water making it an amazing place to canoe and kayak.

If you are into mountain biking, this is definitely the park for you! Some of the best mountain biking red dirt trails are located in this recreation area! Shops in town rent bikes too! The views from the trails are breathtaking!

Overall, one of my favorite places to hike, bike, camp and, paddle!