Recommendations for seasonal sites at quiet campgrounds

This winter has killed me and the idea of escaping up north for a month or all of the summer is starting to be appealing, especially since we can work from home. While I would prefer a cabin for that long of stay, it seems like the pickings are slim for anything remotely affordable found on airbnb and vrbo. So I am willing to look at season lots and stay at my camper instead.

But I’m really not into the typical seasonal campground place where the campers are close, everyone is running around in golf carts all day, and it’s noisy. I’m more into the smaller rustic resorts where I can have some peace and privacy.

Any recommendations? Would ideally like to stick to MN, but would be willing to consider WI.

Any recommendations for how to find cabins to rent instead?

I don’t have a suggestion for a private campground. Check into a county park. Many of them have seasonal sites and limit ATV/UTV and golf carts. Hooking up to internet might be the problem.
I have a cabin in Central Wisconsin and use 2 County Park landings. During the week they are pretty quiet. Very busy on weekends. Just a thought.

Many of the good ones have waiting lists. I’m sure you can find something, but might not have tons of options.

What are your requirements? Do you want to be on a lake? Do you need internet?

For how to find and rent cabins, I find all mine on vrbo or air bnb we rent different lake cabins 3 or 4 times a summer for a week.

Check out the county one in Blackduck Mn Great campground and very quiet

There’s a little known campground just South of the Red Wing Airport on the WI side.

It’s behind the burned down Big Dog Daddy’s Restaurant in Hager City or Bay Town. The river is close, but not that close. The campers are tucked back behind the restaurant.

Also, there’s one across HWY 63 from the Mr Sippi. Can’t recall the name of it but the folks at the Mr. Sippi would know.

One of the guys’ wife in my BASS Club has a family resort up by Dent MN on Star lake. Awesome fishing up there and its a little family owned resort with some seasonal sites also. Not sure what they have available but if you want quiet this would be a great place.

http://www.sprucelodgeresort.com/

You are correct, most have waiting lists. The “COVID” years brought a heavy interest in seasonal camping and working remote. BUT you will find most camping pretty light Monday to Thursday. On Fridays you can see the cell service (Hotspot) start to dwindle at 10am. I wouldn’t let a fun seasonal campsite pass, the are to hard to find.

There are also many national sites on kinda remote areas just north of Duluth. Most are first come first serve sites. I have a friend that does that most of the summer. He has a list of ones with good cell service.

Good luck!
Shannon

Quiet is the rarest commodity in camping these days. It’s a complete s#itshow, even national park camping at campgrounds has become like staying at a week long Monsters of Metal festival with people bring construction generators to run outdoor big screen movies at night…

First off seasonal is going to be tough.

If you don’t mind moving… Lesser used State Parks can be great Sunday through Friday at noon. Several times we’ve had parks like Great River Bluffs and Banning almost all to ourselves on summer weekdays. Our usual routine now is to camp Sunday to Friday and come home for peace and quiet as all the weekend warriors are just leaving.

Check out Dent MN on star lake, It’s a very quiet place .

Some friends just bought and opened Nevis Campground and RV Park, I believe it’s a new site so they may have more availability.

Check out blind lake campground just north of aitkin. They might have some openings. Nice set up with 4 wheeling near by lake is a good pan fish lake.

The price of seasonal campsites can be pretty high depending on where and what you’re looking for.

We stayed at Buffalo Campground in Esko for a a couple months last year, it was really cool but not $800 a month cool.

An entire season would cost around $5,000 there.

For that kind of money you could pay for your own 5-10 acres in a hurry….and OWN it. Just something to keep in mind.

Rent a couple thousand square feet with neighbors 20′ away, or own hundreds of thousands of square feet without a soul in sight….

B-man wrote:

For that kind of money you could pay for your own 5-10 acres in a hurry….and OWN it. Just something to keep in mind.

Not really. Not with electric and septic and a well. And, not on a lake.

lindyrig79 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>B-man wrote:</div>
For that kind of money you could pay for your own 5-10 acres in a hurry….and OWN it. Just something to keep in mind.

Not really. Not with electric and septic and a well. And, not on a lake.

It all depends on what a guy needs/wants for amenities.

I can bring 10 gallons of generator gas, 10 gallons of water, and use an outside privy for the weekend. The boat landing is across the street, many more within 20 minutes.

Of course a well, sewer and power hookups would be nice, but I can most certainly live without them.

One day I’d love to own a cabin on a lake, but am more than content for now.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>lindyrig79 wrote:</div>

It all depends on what a guy needs/wants for amenities.

I can bring 10 gallons of generator gas, 10 gallons of water, and use an outside privy for the weekend. The boat landing is across the street, many more within 20 minutes.

Of course a well, sewer and power hookups would be nice, but I can most certainly live without them.

One day I’d love to own a cabin on a lake, but am more than content for now.

The OP is talking about spending a month or potentially all summer.

It all depends on what a guy needs/wants for amenities.

I can bring 10 gallons of generator gas, 10 gallons of water, and use an outside privy for the weekend. The boat landing is across the street, many more within 20 minutes.

Of course a well, sewer and power hookups would be nice, but I can most certainly live without them.

One day I’d love to own a cabin on a lake, but am more than content for now.

[/quote]

Did you end up buying that property from that older couple you were describing a while back @B-man?

B-man wrote:

The price of seasonal campsites can be pretty high depending on where and what you’re looking for.

We stayed at Buffalo Campground in Esko for a a couple months last year, it was really cool but not $800 a month cool.

An entire season would cost around $5,000 there.

For that kind of money you could pay for your own 5-10 acres in a hurry….and OWN it. Just something to keep in mind.

Rent a couple thousand square feet with neighbors 20′ away, or own hundreds of thousands of square feet without a soul in sight….

we had a permanent site at a campground out by new london. we left about 6 years ago and lot rent was $2100.00 plus electric and it was going up. not sure what they charge now. we where at one time good friends with the owners, there lots werent stacked on top of each other either. AND they didnt have the hard and fast rule of in and out a few weekends around the big holidays like memorial and labor day. they went by when water lines might freeze!
this really took time away from the cabin. mom has since turned the cabin and its expenses over to my brother and myself. every Jan we each put $1800.00 in the cabin account and takes care of ALL expenses for the year and a bit more.

its 186 miles from my front door to the cabin front door….i can buy alot of gas to go there over lot rent, plus i dont have neighbors i can see when the leaves are on the trees and dont have 20 boats on the lake!!

This is all fine and good input, but it has nothing to do with the OP topic.

He was asking about renting a cabin or staying in his camper for a month (or longer)

On the vrbo site you can work with cabin owners for longer stays. We have stayed in some really nice places on the water. We have done vermillion many times, crane, Ely area, white iron. Way better then any camp grounds I’ve ever stayed on.
We leave the camping trips to secluded spots on the river. I don’t like to have neighbors. When I go away I like to be alone with the family. And bring friends with if we want company. Most camp area I see now pack you in like sardines. The last place we stayed on vermillion our neighbors were 10 ft away. That’s not my style

I’d recommend googling areas and then more specifically smaller resorts. Some started to put in camper lots in unused land off the sought after lake shore. Typically not advertised, requires alot of googling, emails and phone calls. Can be the best of both worlds, access to resort amenities but quiet of the woods . Example shown, this particular resort has no openings

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