Just looking for a spot to chill out & do a little camping, not looking for a major excursion. North shore is great and all, but what is nearest the cities if I should just get a wild hair and want to grab gear and go .. . . say, no more planning and travel time than elapses between supper and sundown? I have looked at the DNR website and they mention a place called Minnesota Valley State Park out in Jordan that sounds great on their site, but was hoping to get the voice of experience or at least Minnesota locals for alternatives.


What is the deal with down by the river? I have in my walks around Fort Snelling, Mississippi Gorge Park and Minnehaha, seen evidence of people camping down by the river, but of course the Fort Snelling State Park says they don't "have" camping. Anyway, just curious about the non-campground camping I have seen evidence of.

I have the camping itch pretty bad right now and leave less of a foot print than the most fastidious boyscout.

Look up William obrian or obrien state park. Nice campgrounds near taylors falls.

My son and his fiancee' go camping at the Kruger Campground/State Park (part of the Richard J. Dorer/Whitewater Park State Forest), every year on Fathers Day weekend. While I've never been there (I did enough 'camping' while I was in the Army), my son, along with several school friends (think class of '00), have camped/spent time there and I've heard nothing but good things about the place. Besides, if it was screwed up, my son wouldn't go back, no matter what.

http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.as ... HGM046-071

http://www.hikercentral.com/campgrounds/116608.html

Edited by me to fix a typo.

Sweet, "hike in" and the more secluded the better. Please keep ideas coming, I have a lot of summer stretching out yet.

Depends what you want.

Among the closest to the cities, Cleary Lake park reserve in Lakeville has nice views but is heavily built up and has too many people and too many rules.

The Nerstrand-Big Woods state park is an hour's drive from downtown Minneapolis and offers both water+electric sites and what they call "rustic" sites that are still drive-in but lack water and electric. The rustic sites are more isolated. It's inexpensive. There are hiking trails through roughly two square miles of hardwood forest, and a picturesque waterfall. The downside is the lack of much else going on in the way of attractions. The park is underutilized and is hardly ever anywhere near capacity except on holiday weekends.

On the more rustic side, there is a wilderness area along the Cannon River between Northfield and Faribault that has a number of hike-in access points. It's relatively unimproved and appeals to canoeists and hikers. Reasonable camping locations are a couple miles' walk in, IIRC.

Further out, I believe Whitewater has been mentioned; on its edge is the commercially run Lazy D Campground which is right on the river and has spaces for tent camping and RVs. They have a swimming pool and are generally cleaner and better run that the state operations. Frontenac is in the same general area and has excellent views from the tops of the river bluffs.

I camped at the MN Valley Quarry campground several times when the kids were young. It's heavily wooded and very quiet. They do have walk in sites. Not much to do except hike and fish. If you like hiking and sitting around the campfire, it's great. It has a spring for drinking water, but it's currently closed. You have to go to the trail center (half mile drive or shorter walk) for water.

I hiked there about 2 weeks ago and there were few bugs - I imagine that's changed now.

Actually that's in Savage.

We like William O'Brien. We also camped at Baker Park Preserve...it was ok. Check out Afton State Park too.

Whitewater is a great park, but for weekend camping you need to get reservations well ahead of time. Supposedly it's the most popular state park in MN. Never been to the Lazy D, but I hear it nice. Also, in the nearby town of Elba there's an old fire tower that you can climb the view is amazing. Of course, you have to climb the hill (~450 ft) first...

Just got back from Afton yesterday ... tried to post up some pics, but they don't seem to want to . . . oh, pixels, too many. . . . Anyway it was a great time. I am looking forward to checking out some of these other places. I am loving the new camping hammock. What a brilliant idea!

Ack, can't seem to post pics still.

Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park is southeast of Rochester. It has nice wooded camping as well as a cave to tour. If you like biking, the Root River trail system is not far away in Lanesboro.

Some good trout fishing around there too.

Lake Elmo Park Preserve. You won't even know your in the metro.

I've heard good things about the Frontenac park also, I believe it is down beyond Hastings. We haven't had the chance to try it yet though. Supposedly some sites are up on a bluff/cliff overlooking the river and it makes for good views.

Cant go wrong with Afton or St Croix Bluffs regional park (5 miles south of Afton). Both are great at offering various levels of seclusion. Oh, and if you go to St. Croix, I routinely launch my boat there - might be 'coerced' into taking a fellow gunny for a spin.

There are a few sites around the cities that are worthwhile, the one I know of for sure (in the metro) is the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Area campground down near the Jordan/Chaska area. Haven't been there myself, but from what I've seen, it's close to the cities and yet pretty isolated from the surrounding suburbs.

As for some of the further-reaching parks, Tettagouche and Whitewater are two that I have been to in recent past. Of the two, I preferred Tettagouche on the North Shore. We made our reservations in January for the 4th of July weekend and sites were already hard to come by.