The old mine pits at Cuyuna flooded turquoise, rock walls dropping into still water. Singletrack now cuts the spoil piles between those walls, and you spend the day on that dirt. Then you take Crow Wing State Park, Chippewa Lookout on the bluff where the Crow Wing River meets the Mississippi, and the Old Crow Wing townsite signed in the woods below camp.
The two parks are one weekend out of St. Cloud. Sleep at one and give the other a morning.
Camp at Portsmouth Campground if the trails are the point, electric pads in the trees and every drive-in site a back-in. There is no dump or fill station in the park, so plan the dump stop somewhere else on the drive. Portsmouth camping shuts down in late October.
Camp at Crow Wing if the confluence is the point, and ride Cuyuna as the day. Crow Wing's loop is wooded and back-in, with electric sites and a 45-foot cap. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, St. Cloud RV rentals are the longer rigs, and they still have to fit that cap. The campground closes in early November.
Summer weekends on these parks go first, so reserve the electric site before the van. Mille Lacs Kathio is the other lake night when the weekend is about open water.
Mille Lacs Kathio State Park
The fire tower at Mille Lacs Kathio looks across Lake Mille Lacs, enough water that the far shore fades. You come for that view, then sleep in the Petaga Campground electric loop, wooded drive-in sites with a 60-foot length limit. Rustic sites take a van too, farther from the shower building, if the electric loop is gone. As of September 2026, the Interpretive Center is closed for building construction through the rest of 2026, with programs still running outdoors.
Charles A. Lindbergh State Park at Little Falls
You sleep in the woods along the Mississippi at Charles A. Lindbergh State Park, an electric loop at Little Falls. The pads take vehicles up to 50 feet, and Little Falls is the grocery-and-fuel town. The Mississippi headwaters at Itasca State Park are a separate trip, on the Minnesota campervan page.
Ann Lake in Sand Dunes State Forest
Ann Lake Campground in Sand Dunes State Forest is a primitive loop on the lake, fire rings, picnic tables, vault toilets, and drinking water, with no hookups. Individual sites are first-come, same-day pay from May through November. It is the close night out of St. Cloud when you arrive without a state park reservation, or when you get in late, and the van has to run without electric.
If you want a paved day, the Lake Wobegon Trail is a 65-mile paved rail-trail out of Waite Park through Albany and Sauk Centre. There is no overnight on the trail, so you ride and come back to camp.
Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge's Prairie's Edge Wildlife Drive is a slow loop for the birds from April through November.