The good, the bad, and the ugly....

[TrampleLad]

The good, the bad, and the ugly...
Plan on doing some camping over Labor Day weekend for my step-daughters birthday. Trying to get the skinny on where is good, not so good, and plain stay away from. Any ideas?

[IFallsRon]

If you don't have a reservation already, you're probably looking at ugly. We usually bail out on Labor Day and go the following weekend. There's a lot more opportunities.

[IFallsRon]

I'd start with state parks. Go to their Web site and click on General Availability. You can put in the dates you're looking for and you'll get a list of the parks and what they have remaining. As of today, there appears to be some non-electric sites available.

https://www.stayatmnparks.com/

Labor Day Weekend is usually a pretty good one for camping. You'll find a lot of older people and people with younger kids because school has started and the in-betweens are home with kid activities.

If you're willing to drive farther north and away from the North Shore or the parks on the freeway between the cities and Duluth, you'll have better luck. I've usually always found a spot at Bemidji State Park when all else fails. I can get there in three hours from St. Cloud.

There's some nice state and national forest campgrounds, too, but they're pretty much first-come so you take your chances unless you get to your destination early in the day. You can find a list here:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_forests/list.html

[This message has been edited by IFallsRon (edited 08-17-2004).]

[bdavid1157]

Senic State Park has lots of openings. The reason is road construction makes it a hassle to get there, but once you do it is a nice place. Has showers, flush bathrooms, and fishing that can be good at times. Another place to give a shot is Fall Lake Campground in Ely. The Forest service is making improvments and they are not using the on-line registration system this year. I called a week before the Blueberry Festival and they still had openings then. That is one of the busier weekends in Ely so if they had openings then, they might still have some for labor day too.

[echotrail]

Try National Forest campgrounds on the Echotrail at either Echo Lake or Lake Jeanette. North on Hwy 53 to Orr, MN. and East on #23 to Buyck, MN. Echo Lake campground is only 1 mile onto the Echotrail. Lake Jeanette is about 12 miles. Good water and latrines. No electric. I think the rate is $9 per night. Lots of hiking trails and wildlife. If you got a canoe or small boat, better yet.

[TrampleLad]

I'm afraid you're probably right, but will have to the best we can. It was my step-daughters choice on what to do and since it's her birthday....