Father Hennepin State Park — Attraction in Isle

An easy less-than-two-hour-drive from the Twin Cities. Good vibes from the start; friendly check-in at the park office (get a handful of 50 cent caramels), grab some ice, wood bundles or camping necessities.

Maple Grove camp site was very spacious with fair privacy provided by brush, and trees provided a mix of shade and good sun. Restrooms/showers small but appropriate for number of sites, and maintained through the day.

If tent camping I'd try to score a Lakeview site, but from our path at Maple Grove it's a brisk 60 seconds before you hit the water's edge, then go left to the beach, boat launch and fishing pier, or right to a smaller inlet/boat launch by the Lakeview sites that is way more kayak friendly (we dropped kayak in at the beach which was fine, but very choppy).

Lots of good walking paths, and if you bring a bicycle there is a paved Soo Line path I believe you can get some miles on.

A lot of campers brought their dogs, but oddly did not know before camping that their dog goes ape-crazy over other dogs (to be clear I like dogs).

Beach seemed great for swimming and people seem to drive in for the day to use the beach on Saturday.

Little to no mosquitos, but a lot of small, mostly benign flies (more annoying than anything), and likely a nearby hornets nest because some branches that hung over our RV awning teamed with hornets all day every day (seemed contained to our site). They were mostly just pesky and crawled and fought a lot on our awning and outdoor rug, but there was one sting to the neck, which, given the volume of hornets over that long weekend those numbers aren't bad.

For those who require cell service, I did not have any service at the site (iPhone 13 on T-Mobile), but my spouse had one bar come and go (Samsung on T-Mobile), and walking down to the water or the park office would get me a bar or two, plus the park office has wifi which we walked up to use once.

Will definitely be back, and will bring a bicycle, and will use the more tame Lakeview boat launch to...

This would have been 5 stars, but the campground hostess is a little scary and very unprofessional. The rangers said she's been here for a lot of seasons but I found her as rude-shining a huge flashlight in my face while screaming at me, not explaining who she was, edging on hysteria, not allowing me to speak, coming to our campsite after my friend and I were IN the tent and yelling because we we giggling as we got ready for bed. From outside my tent, she was yelling that we had been smoking and drinking alcohol and that it was illegal in this park and that if she heard any more laughing or talking, she would call the sheriff. At 71 years old, this felt like a bad 4H camp experience. On a Monday night, we were in an empty area of the park and had no close neighbors except for the hostess, so any laughing and talking was only bothering her. I am 71 and my friend is 60. In the morning, I apologized to the professional rangers for any disturbances we may have caused by listening to 70s music or laughing too loudly. The hostess is from Florida, parking her camper free in MN all summer for 20 years. I'm a frequent Minnesotan tent camper and, I can honestly say that she made that night of our trip miserable. There are so many great things about this park. Checking in was friendly and efficient, the Rangers were very professional and kind, the park and facilities are very clean and I will camp there again, but stay far away from the "hostess". My sister died just a few days before this trip and my friend was grieving for her brother, so we were hoping for healing and renewal. Even with her odd behavior, we managed to find special peace via the daily visits of the Albino deer. For three days, she kind of hung around our tent as though...

Friendly, welcoming, and helpful park staff. Memorial day weekend 2023.

Beautiful camping sites that are heavily shaded. Some of the Lakeview sites have electricity but are closer together, while the Maple Grove sites are more secluded and spaced further apart from each other but don't have electricity. None have water hookups but there are multiple water stations located throughout. And there's a dump station for campers and RVs

The park office has wood, ice, and miscellaneous camping items (sunblock, mosquito spray, rope, etc.) and is open to 7:30pm.

Bring leveling blocks for your travel trailers or RVs, many of the sites are unlevel.

Restrooms have showers and flushies, plus additional pit toilets. They were clean and well maintained.

Lake access and boat ramps, plus a fish cleaning shed.

There are hiking trails around the campgrounds along with bike access paths that connect to the nearby Soo Line trail. You can easily bike into nearby Isle or Wahkon via the Soo Line, both which have charming shops and places to eat.

You can't book sites earlier than 120 days out. The reservation fees do not include vehicle passes which you also must buy. You can buy those online or at the park office. It's cheaper to buy the yearly pass ($35) than day passes for more than three days. However the yearly vehicle pass is good for all MN state parks and forests.

Pets are allowed but...