We are now staying in the Black Hills of South Dakota and will be heading towards Minn in another week and a half. We plan on camping in the Deluth/Two Harbors area.
Can anyone recommend campgrounds, and things to do and see while in Minn., especially in the Deluth area?
Thanks
Barb and Ray
2001 Chev. 3500 CC Duallie, D/A, 20.5 Pullrite Super 5th, Roll n Lock, StarBoards, Firestone Air Bags, TTT Mirrors, BrakeSmart.
2004 HitchHiker Discover America 33 1/2 CKQG, Disc Brakes, Mor/Ryde IS
Garmin Nuvi 350
I can tell where NOT to go:
We stayed at a place called "Indian Point Campground" in Duluth, but I would ONLY go there as a last resort. The site is in a nice area but
1) Campground does not offer much for kids to do.
2) The dumpsite is in a very odd location. You leave your site and basically go back around the campground to dump, then go around the area to exit. It's on the drivers side after you enter the campground.
3) They started to remodel and they were rather unorganized
4) The Check-in is NOT on site. It is located about a mile up the road. This may have changed since May 2008.
5) The sites were rather small and confinded
I have only stayed at this location in Duluth, but I hope this helps you in any choices you may have.
Enjoy Beautiful Minnesota!!!
Daryl and Sandy D.
2007 Jayco Jayflight 25RKS
Ford F150
Equal-i-zer Hitch - Prodigy Brake Controller
We spent a week in Duluth this past July and really enjoyed the area. There was so much to see and do, that we plan on returning when we get a chance
We stayed at Ogston's RV Park. They don't have a website, but this link will allow you to view the reviews at RVParkReviews.
We loved it there. Very peaceful and friendly place. Not much to do for children but it really fit the bill for us. It is about 8 miles out of downtown Duluth.
We are camped now at Burlington Bay Campground, a municipal park at Two Harbors. It's pretty nice. The sites are pretty close together, but there is open space behind our site, that gives us more room. The real high point of the park is the million dollar view, being right on the shore of Lake Superior. Duluth is 20 miles south and there are several state parks, including Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse are about 15 miles north.
The weather has been great! I would recommend reservations. Most campgrounds in these parts fill up, particularly on the weekends.
footslogger
2004 Country Coach Allure 33'
2003 Honda Element (and as many canoes as I can carry!)
Thanks folks for the recommendations. I wonder how busy some of these campgrounds will be by the end of Aug? We have yet to find many campgrounds that filled up, even in busy tourist areas.
We are in Custer South Dakota in a beautiful campground near Mt Rushmore, Crazy horse Monument and even the Sturgis Rally going on, and none of the campgrounds here have filled up.
We are hoping that as August ends and kids go back to school, we will not have too much trouble with campsites. I guess we've been lucky. In the six months we've been traveling, we've only been in two campgrounds that filled up on a week-end. One was on Memorial Day week-end the other was a small popular creek side park in Colorado.
I'm guessing Duluth must be a popular destination.
We are certainly looking forward to visiting Minn.
If the weather's good, figure that most public (state/COE/county/city) campgrounds that are near large cities will be full (or mostly so) on Friday & Saturday nights all the way through fall. Otherwise, shouldn't be a problem. Some states allow you to camp in reservable sites without a reservation, as long as no one has reserved the site for the time you're there, but others (like Illinois) won't. Not sure how MN does it.
Interesting that the Black Hills CGs aren't full during Sturgis. Yellowstone was sure busy when we were there in early July!!
I don't know what your route will be, but if you can swing up to the Park Rapids area you could visit Itasca State Park and the surrounding towns, a wonderful area full of lakes, deep woods and things to do. Park Rapids has many nice stores, if you like shopping. Bemidji has lots to do as well as being a major shopping center (ie Walmart, restaurants, etc). Bemidji State Park is right on Lake Bemidji and has a "bog walk," a boardwalk thru the bog forest, which is very neat.
You could then take Hwy. 2 eastbound all the way to Duluth, thru Grand Rapids, which is Judy Garland's birthplace (they have made her house a museum). This would take you thru the heart of the Chippewa National Forest.
In Duluth, we've only ever stayed at Jay Cooke State Park, which we would highly recommend if you like state park type camping. During the week you should have no problem getting a site, but if you show up on a weekend all of the first come sites may be taken. The state parks along the "North Shore" fill up very quickly each weekend. I'm not sure about the private cg's.
As for the Duluth area, in addition to the places mentioned above...
-There is a 360 degree rotating restaurant on top of the Radisson Hotel in downtown Duluth- you can't miss it, the entire hotel is round. The views are wonderful, the food is pretty good.
-The Glensheen Mansion is the historic home of the Congdon Family, and has been turned into a museum and is run by the University of Minnesota.
-The SS William A. Irvin Ore Boat Museum in the harbor offers tours and was interesting to see.
-Just across the harbor in Superior, Wisconsin is the Richard Bong WWII Museum, very interesting exhibits .
-Definitely do the North Shore drive up the coast on Hwy. 61
-A stop at Betty's Pies for pie and coffee
-Two Harbors is a cute little town and they have a lighthouse you can visit
-Along the North Shore drive there are many state parks with wonderful views and beautiful waterfalls. Gooseberry Falls SP has the easiest walk to the waterfalls. Split Rock Lighthouse is really neat- definitely take the tour, you get to see one of the old keeper's houses as it was furnished in the early 1900's.
-At Lutsen, you can visit Lutsen Mountain ski area, and take the gondola up to the top of the mountain for beautiful views of the mountains and Lake Superior.
We were @ Burlington Harbor Campground in Two Harbors last weekend for four days. Someone had cancelled or we wouldn't have gotten a spot there. I would say you can see Lake Superior from 80% of the campsights. Very nice campground and is about 1/4 mile on the north side of Two Harbors off 61. We asked about dining and found out about "Dixies" and was pleasantly pleased. It's 5 1/4 miles north on the black top that runs by the Holiday gas Station on the east end of Two Harbor's, I think there are two in that town. It's a bar and grill and run by the whole family, kids included. I forget the number of the road. We were told by a local that "Betty's" is over-rated! We didn't go there so don't know for sure. They have a great location, so it's handy. Burlington's doesn't have a web sight. We called, and they did call us back in a short amount of time.
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