Where the Cannon River widens into Lake Byllesby near Cannon Falls, a paved trail leaves the county campground and follows the shore past a swimming beach and a boat launch. Back the rig onto a lakeside pad and put the awning out toward the reservoir. The whole family week can stay right there.
Nobody has to pack up to do anything. Mornings go to the beach or out from the launch, the bikes come off the rack after lunch, and the evening ends back at the pad with the water going still across the valley. The lakeside path also ties into the Mill Towns State Trail and the Cannon Valley Trail, so the stronger riders in the group can make a long day of the valley and roll back to the site for dinner.
Booking a Lake Byllesby site for a family rig
Every site sits on a 60-foot paved pad, and the rig and any car you bring both have to fit on it. Sites come with electric or water and electric at 30/50 amp, and there's a sanitary dump station in the park, so a family motorhome can run the whole week without leaving.
Lock the site before you pick a rig. Byllesby takes reservations online only, and the booking asks for the RV's length and holds it to that site's maximum, so the pad you land decides which listings actually work.
Couples who'd rather move every night than settle on one pad have a different trip from Lakeville. Lebanon Hills in Apple Valley, the bluff over Lake Pepin at Frontenac, and Hidden Falls in the hardwoods of Nerstrand Big Woods are the weekends on the Lakeville campervan page, sized for two.
Myre-Big Island and Albert Lea Lake, down I-35
South on I-35 near Albert Lea, Myre-Big Island State Park wraps around the marshy edges of Albert Lea Lake, and in the migration seasons the water fills with ducks and geese. The campsites sit back in the woods, shadier and quieter than the open reservoir at Byllesby, which makes the park either a second stop on a longer week or a trip of its own.
Reserve the site before the rig here too, and match the motorhome or trailer to the length the reservation lists for that site. Rice Lake State Park outside Owatonna sits along the same drive, a smaller park with canoe sites under the hardwoods on the lake, and it's the easier overnight when Albert Lea feels like too much road.
For rig trips elsewhere in the state, the Minnesota RV page runs from Itasca to the North Shore.