Whitewater State Park offers two cabin accommodations. A handicap-accessible camper cabin with electricity and a space heater is available from April to October. Like all of Minnesota's camper cabins, it includes a picnic table, a fire ring, and an outdoor grill for cooking. The restroom is 500 feet away. In addition to the camper cabin, Whitewater State Park features a year-round group center consisting of eight cabins that accommodate up to 132 people. The center includes showers, a kitchen and a dining hall. The park protects a landscape consisting of hardwood forests that are brilliant in fall, towering limestone bluffs and trout streams. Both the spring-fed Whitewater River and Trout Run Creek offer excellent brown, brook, and rainbow trout during summer and fall. It wouldn't be Minnesota without mosquitoes, but the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources describes the park as having a "noticeable lack of mosquitoes."
Whitewater State Park
19041 Highway 74
Altura, MN 55910
507-932-3007
dnr.state.mn.us
Wild River State Park offers six camper cabins. Four of the cabins sleep up to six and the two ADA-accessible cabins sleep up to five. Like all camper cabins, the beds are simple bunks with mattresses. You need to bring your own sleeping bags or blankets. All the cabins are within 150 feet of a restroom and most are only 400 feet from the St. Croix River. The St. Croix marks a good section of the Minnesota border and is well-suited for canoeing. The river offers the best paddling during summer when the water is warm and levels are moderate. Most of the river is fast-moving with some minor rapids. The park also offers a guesthouse, which includes two bedrooms, a bathroom with a shower and a full kitchen. In winter, the guesthouse is heated by a furnace and a wood-burning fireplace. Minnesota's guesthouses are more expensive than the cabins; this one runs about $110 per night.
Wild River State Park
39797 Park Trail
Center City, MN 55012
651-583-2125
dnr.state.mn.us
Jay Cooke State Park straddles the borders between eastern Minnesota and the north shore region of Minnesota, which places it firmly in a coniferous forest. The park offers five year-round camper cabins. Two are ADA-accessible, but only in the summer. Most are 1,100 feet from the nearest bathroom. Jay Cooke State Park offers activities for all season. In the spring, the St. Louis River offers whitewater kayakers a raging river with difficult rapids and challenging drops over waterfalls. In the summer, take a bike ride on the paved 63-mile rails-to-trails section of the Willard Munger State Trail. The trail runs downhill from the park all the way into Duluth. If you have two cars, set up a shuttle from Carlson to Duluth. The bike ride is all downhill. In fall, take a hike or horseback ride among bright fall colors. In the winter, ski on the park's 52 kilometers of cross-country ski trails. Because the park is only 20 miles from downtown Duluth, you should visit the Duluth lift bridge. The bridge's history dates back to 1905 and connects the mainland to the beaches of park point. When a freighter, some 1,000 feet long, needs to enter harbor, the bridge lifts, shutting off all vehicle traffic until the boat passes.
Jay Cooke State Park
780 Highway 210
Carlton, MN 55718
218-384-4610
dnr.state.mn.us
