From the last dock on Kabetogama Lake there is nothing but water and islands, and Voyageurs National Park at International Falls keeps almost every campsite out there. Rainy Lake is the same idea on the town side. You boat all day among those bays and come back to shore to sleep.
Every stay inside the park needs a Park Service reservation or permit, and all but two primitive sites on the Kab-Ash trail need a boat. The van sleeps at Woodenfrog State Forest Campground on Kabetogama or at Ash River State Forest Campground. Book that pad first, then go out on the lake.
A day on Kabetogama is dock to dock, cutting through channels with the far shore always a treeline. The lakes can stay iced over into mid-May and start freezing again in November, so summer is the season a boat actually gets you into the park.
From Ely, past the Iron Range, you put a canoe in at Fall Lake, and the Boundary Waters start past the last dock. Fall Lake Campground and Fenske Lake Campground in Superior National Forest are the drive-in overnights, a different booking from a wilderness canoe permit. They reopened after the summer 2026 wildfires, so check the forest's alerts before a fall night, as of September 2026.
Inland from the border lakes, the Mississippi begins at Itasca State Park as a stream you can walk across on stepping stones. Wilderness Drive loops through the pines in the same park. Drive-in campgrounds are in those woods, so the crossing and the overnight share a park. Minnesota's DNR does not publish length limits, so check with the park if you are sizing up to an RV.
Lock the DNR site before the van. Reservations open 120 days ahead on the state system, for drive-in sites that run late spring through mid-autumn, some year-round. A vehicle permit is required at state parks.
Zippel Bay on Lake of the Woods
Zippel Bay State Park puts a mile of white sand on Lake of the Woods, a body of water big enough to make its own weather and throw three-foot waves. The beach is the reason you drive this far. Drive-in campsites and a group camp are behind the marina and a stone jetty, far north of Bemidji and near the Canadian border.
Whitewater and the Root River bluffs
Limestone walls hang over a spring-fed trout stream at Whitewater State Park, and a sandy swimming beach is in the same ravine. Trout fishing runs on the Whitewater River and Trout Run Creek. The campground is in the park, so the bluff day and the overnight are one stop.
Great River Bluffs State Park looks down the Mississippi from King's Bluff, with goat prairie on the rim. That is the overnight, on a flyway for eagles and hawks.
Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park is the underground day, with stalactites and an underground pool in a cave that holds 48 degrees. Sleep at the park after the walk.
Lanesboro is the town for the Root River State Trail, a paved rail-grade ride from Fountain to Houston. The trail is the day, so sleep at Whitewater, Great River Bluffs, or Forestville, whichever is closest to that day's stop.
Blue Mounds State Park at Luverne
At Luverne a Sioux quartzite cliff comes straight up out of the prairie, 100 feet of pink rock with bison grazing under it. Prairie grass and wildflowers run to the base of the wall. The campground is on that grass.
Pipestone National Monument is a day with no camping. Indigenous people have quarried the red pipestone here for more than 3,000 years, breaking through more than 6 feet of quartzite to reach the layer used for ceremonial pipes.
From Duluth the trip is the North Shore toward Grand Marais, with Grand Portage beyond, and St. Cloud is the Brainerd lakes weekend. Minneapolis covers the west metro parks, Saint Paul the St. Croix valley, Lakeville the south metro and Lake Pepin, and Mankato the Minnesota River valley.