A Comprehensive Guide to
Overnight Adventures
on Minnesota's Public Lands
Unlock more of Minnesota's
outdoor recreation landscape.
This package of resources is an attempt at a simple and holistic organization of information to increase public access to more camping experiences in our
public land inventory.
The 23 Ways to Camp on Minnesota Public Lands
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"Front country" access.
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Modern, developed amenities.
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Less technical equipment and expertise.
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$ Fee and reservable.
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Remote to wilderness backcountry.
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"Primitive" or "rustic" amenities.
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More technical equipment & expertise.
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Free and first come, first served.
Approach Method Overviews
CAR
1-5
PACK
6-12
BIKE
13-16
Paddle
17-23
A Spectrum of Way to Camp Experiences.
This guide uses two major variables to better organize all of our public land camping opportunities.
First, is the approach method; by car camping, backpack camping, bike camping or paddle camping.
Second is the land manager; typically a state or federal agency. City and county offerings are not covered here.
The resulting matrix from those two variables yields a variety of 23 camping experiences differentiated by usage rules, fee structure, reservability, mix of amenities and mix of equipment or expertise required to safely and comfortably access them.
A 'public land engagement continuum'.
Are you finding the state park car campgrounds fully booked with reservations? Let's give twenty two other Ways to Camp a try.
The goal of this project is to more understandably roadmap the complexity of so many public land camping experiences in Minnesota. If these resources save the weekend by locating an alternative campsite, awesome. If they encourage you to expand your attention and participation to recreating in more public land units, even better!
The One Map.
From the various government agency websites, park office phone and email requests and an artisinally crafted three ring binder of maps from one national forest ranger station -
here is the most complete and collected map of public land camping opportunities in Minnesota.
To specific destinations. To progress through the 23 Ways.
Take a deeper dive and plan your next public lands adventure.
About This Project
I’m Joe. I’m a major public lands geek and am admittedly obsessed with my home state of Minnesota. I’m an outdoor industry professional and I guide commercially, leading outings from bikes, boats and backpacks. I appreciate the incredible variety of motivations we have to engage with nature. And I enjoy helping others navigate complex environments, be they physical or conceptual.
Where do we go now?
When the Minnesota state park campground system became 100% reservable circa 2010, I had answered my recommendations to this question so many times that I organized my thoughts and put them on the internet. State Park visitation numbers are 5x that of the next most popular public land unit, and all State Parks combined account for only ~2% of our total public lands acreage. They really are the tip of the iceberg on a Minnesota “public land engagement continuum”.
This personal passion project serves the simple mission towards more people using more of our public land inventory. As an overview and a map of the full variety of camping venues in our greater outdoor recreation landscape, the most immediate benefits here are;
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Never skip a camping outing because of fully booked reservations. Fnd alternative venues here.
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Reduce the stress of first-come, first served campsites with a map of nearby contingencies.
"Where do we go next?", is a worthwhile question at any point in your lifetime of outdoor recreation. Besides inviting you to develop new hobbies and access more places to explore, our combined efforts to recreate throughout the 'public land engagement continuum';
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Increase participation in outdoor recreation that requires less infrastructure and is more compatible with natural area and wildlife habitat protection.
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Strengthen outdoor recreation’s stake in the management of multi-use mission lands like state and national forests.
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At best, drive demand for more public land and recreation development. At least, justify the existence of what we have and not lose it to competing land uses.
I hope that the resources on Minnesota Camp Guide one day support your participation in every one of the 23 Ways to Camp on Minnesota's public lands.
Happy trails!
Buy Me a Beer?
If you've had an amazing outing thanks in part to any resource on this project, please send a little thank you to support keeping it online for your future trip planning and for others. This is a totally independent piece of work. It has no business model. The occasional donations help pay to maintain the website and spend time developing more resources. And maybe buying a beer.
Cheers!