Campgrounds of the Midwest

Love camping and want a quick get away from the cities? Have time for a longer trip still within driving distance? This list provides curated recommendations to fit whatever kind of vacation you're looking for. The campgrounds are ordered by their distance from Minneapolis in term of miles, provided you take the fastest route available. For consistency's sake, all locations use Lynhurst Park as the starting point for miles away from Minneapolis.

In order to help you plan your trip, each campground will have a rating on a 4 star scale to indicate the difficulty of camping there, both in regards to getting to the campground, getting into the site itself, and the equipment needed to do so. One star (⭐️) will indicate the easiest and four stars (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) the most challenging. Since most campgrounds offer many wildly different types of sites with varying challenges, this rating will focus on the site type I would most recommend in terms of my prior experience at the campground. This rating has nothing to do with the quality of the site, only the difficulty in getting there.

There's no one way to enjoy camping or being outdoors. I didn't include a single southern campsite because I prefer to camp in forests rather than Minnesotan prairies or farmland so in general if you're camping north of Minneapolis I'd say you're off to a good start. I also recommend choosing a campground that includes some body of water, which shouldn't be hard given we're in Minnesota, as I find that it gives interest or uniqueness to the park. That being said, I made this list of recommendations to help you get started with planning your next (or first!) trip but ultimately it's up to you to decide what style of camping and what location you enjoy most. Happy camping!