I saw the post where someone asked "what is car camping" and it got me thinking; I like car camping. Drive up, sleep in the tent, have a shower in the morning and still feel like camping. Nothing wrong with that in my book. Here are some of my favorite non BWCA locations and why.

1. Tettegouche State Park (MN): The campground is relativly private (the cart in sites are AWESOME) and I really enjoy hiking the Baptism River from the source to the High Falls. Something that you can not do with a pack (too dangerous). Sitting on Shovel Point and watching the stars is a favorite past time as well.

2. Blue Mounds State Park (MN): Near the SD boarder. I love the prairie as much as I like the N. Woods. Blue mounds has really nice trails and some expansive opens areas. Awesome place to chill with friends.

3. Interstate State Park (WI): Swiming in St. Croix is pretty cool, but the hiking around that area is awesome. Usually over crowded but if you get off the beaten path it can be somewhat remote feeling. Good root beer (home made stuff) at the restaurants in Taylors Falls caps off a good day.

Devil's Lake near Baraboo, WI

I like the campground at Kawishiwi Lake.

There are lots of great state parks in Wisconsin - we camp at many of them - but we particularly enjoy Governor Dodge in Dodgeville and Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek (Door County).

quote Mort: "Devil's Lake near Baraboo, WI"

i practically lived there during the summers. always biked to it. a friends parents had a cabin on the south shore.

Love Cascade River State Park. Car camping in the mountains of Silverton Colorado is another fun experience.

Whitewater State Park in SE MN. Car camped there years ago with the wife and kids. Nice sites, trout streams, and hiking to the high bluffs for fantastic views. The geology of this area is Very Unique.

I prefer to do dispersed car camping. I have done this in both Superior National Forest and Nemadji State Forest. The only traditional state park campsites I have used were at Savanna and Frontenac in Minnesota. The trade-off between amenities, rules, and privacy is too great for me. Backpack camping at George Crosby Manitou is nice however. Some river sites are just over a mile away. If you forget something it isn’t too bad to just go back and get it.

quote AndySG: "Whitewater State Park in SE MN. Car camped there years ago with the wife and kids. Nice sites, trout streams, and hiking to the high bluffs for fantastic views. The geography of this area is Very Unique."

...and nary a mosquito.

Another vote here for Nemadji State Forest, great area for dispersed camping. Stayed at the campground there one time and it was a little too much for us - the motorhome generators running at 11pm was way too annoying.

Maplewood State Park near Pelican Rapids, MN. Off the beaten track a bit in west central MN. Prairie/hardwoods transition zone, 10000 acres to explore, several clean, clear lakes with sand bottom including Lida L which has great multispecies fishing. Loons and eagles just like the north country and cell phones barely worked as of 2008.

I mentioned it in the other thread...Another vote for Penninsula State Park in Door County, WI. So much to do for kids of all ages.

For a more rustic locale we like Luna/Whitedeer near Eagle River, WI = 2 small lakes with no motors allowed (go figure someone who likes the Bdub would like that) and the campsites are spaced far enough apart for a little bit of privacy. Only drawback is no flush toilets if that is what the wife and kids are looking for.

Temperance River State Park is nice. Farther north than most people will go, camp close to the big lake.

any of the smaller state parks along the Missouri River in SD. Good fishing from shore (usually) and if you look up the state parks maps of the camps and look at google earth you can pick a site that is away from people and secluded. If you don't go on a holiday some of the parks are darn near empty.

Elkmont campground in Great Smoky Mountains NP. I visit each year the first week of November. The crowds are mostly gone, the weather has usually been nice and there's still quite a bit of color in the leaves. I can get a nice spot right on the bank of the river and I have close access to some great hiking trails. One of these days I'll bring my fly rod.

Our favorite is Many Glacier Campround on the east side of Glacier National Park but Uncompahgre National Forest Campground near Ouray, Colorado is pretty special as well.

Kintla Lake in Glacier NP. A couple hrs on gravel to get there and it's at the end of the road. Only about 12 primitive sites available. Beautiful scenery and good paddling. Supposedly good cutthroat fishing, but they ignored my line. TW

In Ontario, I've gotta go with the campground at Pukaskwa NP. Great options for exploring the rugged coast of Lake Superior by canoe or on foot.

In Minnesota, it's hard to beat the beautiful pine forest and sugar sand beach at Norway Beach NF campground on Cass Lake. Excellent place for swimming and relaxing with the family.

Split Rock Lighthouse SP also has a beautiful cart-in campground along the big lake. The lakeside campsites are in high demand during the summer and fall.

Cascade River State Park is a favorite of our family. We also love Forestville ST Park, Temperance River SP, Whitewater SP., Beaver Creek SP, and Judge CR Magney SP.

Snake is from Beaver Creek, and the falls is from Cascade River SP

Back in the day it was Teal Lake south of Walden,Colorado in Routt National Forest. It was a trail going in next to a trout lake at like 9000 feet. It was awesome!! Tent camping only. They ruined it by making an actual "campground" there. This is still a neat area, just not the old rustic place it used to be.
SunCatcher

Aspenglen campground in Rocky Mountain National Park

quote Woodtick: "In Ontario, I've gotta go with the campground at Pukaskwa NP. Great options for exploring the rugged coast of Lake Superior by canoe or on foot.


In Minnesota, it's hard to beat the beautiful pine forest and sugar sand beach at Norway Beach NF campground on Cass Lake. Excellent place for swimming and relaxing with the family.

Split Rock Lighthouse SP also has a beautiful cart-in campground along the big lake. The lakeside campsites are in high demand during the summer and fall."

I have been meaning to get up to Pukaskwa for several years now, the North Shore just gets better as you enter Canada.

yellow river state forest in n.e. Iowa,has trout streams,scenic overlooks,hiking,backpacking and hoseback riding trails,very beautiful area

Our neighborhood goes to Bear Lake Campground up Hwy 65 just south of Togo every year about blueberry time. It's not five star, but the company can't be beat. Close to home!

We like canoe camping. The BWCA is the best, but there are other good canoe camping experiences. Next I would rate The Wisconsin River, The Buffalo River in Arkansas, and The Jack's Fork in Missouri. Nevertheless, there are many good car camping spots.

My favorites are as follows: Fisheating Creek in Florida

Hunting Island S.P., S.C.

Ft. DeSoto County Park in St. Petersburg, FL

quote kanoes: "

quote Mort: "Devil's Lake near Baraboo, WI"

i practically lived there during the summers. always biked to it. a friends parents had a cabin on the south shore. "

I like Mirror Lake State Park, north of Baraboo. Smaller lake, less tourist crowds.

quote alpine525: "There are lots of great state parks in Wisconsin - we camp at many of them - but we particularly enjoy Governor Dodge in Dodgeville and Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek (Door County)."

Been to both of these many times, great state parks. Everybody should visit Peninsula once in their lifetime, the best state park in Wisconsin I've visited so far and I've been to about half of them.

rr, I'm with you on Hunting Island State Park. The last few years I've been doing some fall trips to the beach campgrounds of South Carolina (stopping in the smokies along the way). Pretty cool to sleep with the sound of the surf and wake up to a sunrise over the ocean.

I travel to the border of Canada and Maine every summer to Coobscook Bay (an inlet on the Bay of Fundy). It's a breeding ground for humpback and finback whales. The scenery is unbelievable, and has some of the highest tides in the world. All the campsites are very secluded and give you lots of privacy. There are hot showers (which there is never a wait for), and even the pit toilets are extremely well maintained. From your campsite you will be guaranteed to see eagles and seals. One time I saw a nurse shark meandering in the shallows not even thirty feet from my campsite (the water is crystal clear). Of course there are moose and bear. As for eating; well, your in the lobster capital of the world.



I can't say enough good things about this place....

Love Norway Beach off of Cass Lake

Lake Bemidji State park if you camp in the last two loops. I love their bogwalk and the ladyslippers that grow along Hwy 34

Crow Wing State Park

Wild River State Park for one close to home.

Too many others to mention

The Porky's in the U P. Great day hikes.

quote gbusk: "

quote Woodtick: "In Ontario, I've gotta go with the campground at Pukaskwa NP. Great options for exploring the rugged coast of Lake Superior by canoe or on foot.



In Minnesota, it's hard to beat the beautiful pine forest and sugar sand beach at Norway Beach NF campground on Cass Lake. Excellent place for swimming and relaxing with the family.


Split Rock Lighthouse SP also has a beautiful cart-in campground along the big lake. The lakeside campsites are in high demand during the summer and fall."

I have been meaning to get up to Pukaskwa for several years now, the North Shore just gets better as you enter Canada."

You've gotta go! Like you said, it just keeps getting better the further up the coast you drive.
Near Pulpwood Harbor

Near Pulpwood Harbor

North Beach





Halfway Lake




From our campsite

BlueWingOlive. This is an area of the country I've never been. How beautiful! There are so many places to see.

Rarely car camp right next to the car, but love walk-in or cart-in sites with water nearby. In Minnesota:

- Tettegouche
- Split Rock Lighthouse
- Carly
- Three Rivers Parks (Carver, Cleary)

So many neat getaways in the USA.
Nice tip on Elkmount. Thanks, ottoparts. I've avoided the GSNP since 1st time visit due to campers & rv'ers with the obnoxious generators. Only 6 hrs drive from home so may try GSNP again in Nov.

South Pike Bay

Fall Lake Camp Ground

Scenic State Park

Brule River State Forest in Wisconsin.
You get:

the Brule River,


Amnicon Falls,


and Lake Superior.

All the little seldom used gems in the national forest system and the "dispersed camping" sites in the large state forest system here.

This guy was really ticked that I had strung a tarp on one of his trees. He chewed a hole in the corner before we chased him off.

quote The Lorax: "All the little seldom used gems in the national forest system and the "dispersed camping" sites in the large state forest system here."

Ditto! I generally plan to camp in the closest National Forest when traveling by car and it's time to stop for the night. And I often backpack through the Forests. I love the dispersed backcountry camps best.

Does camper locations count? I pull it with my car, or do I need a new thread :)

Wow, there are so many great places. I feel sad that I'll never be able to camp them all....boo.

For family car camping, we like site 6 at Blue Mounds State Park west of Madison. Other places that I like have already been mentioned here, except for canoe camping on the Namekagon River in north western WI.

If you drive southwest from Laramie, Wyoming, on Hwy 130, you ascend into the Medicine Bow Mountains, through the alpine core known as the Snowy Range. A USFS campground there, named Sugarloaf, is the highest drive-in campground in Wyoming (nearly 11,000 feet), and lies amid a good-sized chunk of timberline/tundra terrain with easy foot access to dozens of alpine lakes, snowfields, and ice-fractured summits.

Just make sure you spend a couple of nights camped at somewhat lower elevations to get a bit acclimated to the altitude before you camp up there...and bring warm clothes. The campground is usually open by the first week of July.

I like Death Valley National Park, CA. because you don't ever have to put the rain fly on your tent.

quote Zulu: "


I like Death Valley National Park, CA. because you don't ever have to put the rain fly on your tent."

Yeah but I was there last year and the whole damn tent almost blew away. Beautiful place though despite the wind.

quote Itchy Menace: "

quote Zulu: "


Yeah but I was there last year and the whole damn tent almost blew away. Beautiful place though despite the wind."

That happened to me too Itchy. About 10:00pm I was in the tent and it was dead calm. Then out of nowhere the wind started blowing about 50mph into the Valley. My tent held but many others didn't and I ended up with all kinds of gear that blew into my campsite!