Ice camping (Metro area)

Does anybody know the regulations for overnight ice camping in the metro and surrounding areas? I’m looking for realistic public access spots within an hour of downtown Mpls where it would be legal to camp for 1-2 nights.

For example, is there anywhere legal on Minnetonka where a fellow could park and hand-pull a hub out to camp overnight?

What about the Mpls Chain of Lakes? Could I set up a small portable hub and spend the night on Harriet or Bde Maka Ska??

Medicine Lake? Waconia? etc?

I’m guessing it differs by municipality but I have no idea what might be legal. I’d love to find a nearby and convenient spot where one could pull up and spend a random night on the ice with no drama or visits by park police etc.

The city parks close at 10. This includes the frozen lakes. I’ve never had a problem staying past 10 up to midnight, never tried to stay overnight but those are the rules I guess. The parkway parking also closes in some spots.

Are you saying you want to put your hub on land and sleep overnight or are you saying sleep in your hub on the ice overnight? If it’s on the ice you can do that anywhere to my knowledge and I know for a fact you can on tonka. If you’re talking about sleeping in your hub on land overnight I’d have to give that one some thought but my guess is you’d run into problems

There are homeless encampments all over mpls, if it is illegal, it surely isnt being enforced.

Now, how safe it is might be another question

Lakes that have access points operated and maintained by the Three Rivers Park District close at 10pm. Like Medicine Lake. There is a gate and you cannot enter past 10pm. If you are in before that and try to leave after 10pm, the gate will open when you creep up close to it. I have fished a few of these lakes operated by them in the summer at night. I didn’t stay all night obviously, like you intend to in a portable fish house though.

If you have a trailer, you need an annual parking pass or a daily parking pass.

You can sleep in a portable on any water you can legally access. Just have to park where your vehicle can stay all night. I sleep in my portable all the time. Both on ice and land.

You can park at any DNR public access and go out and fish/camp all night if you wish.City or county access points may have restictions on the hours of use.Open water on Minnetonka I only fish at night-launch boat around sunset and load boat around sunrise.

Bearcat89 wrote:

You can sleep in a portable on any water you can legally access. Just have to park where your vehicle can stay all night. I sleep in my portable all the time. Both on ice and land.

True for 99% of MN lakes. There’s very few lakes you can’t sleep on, but the Minneapolis City lakes are some of them… no one allowed on the lake midnight until sunrise. There’s a NWR by me that has similar regulations.

Ice Fishing