Banning State Park — Hotel in Finlayson Township

As far as State Parks go, this one is OK. It has the cleanest bathrooms of any state park campground I've visited, but it's fairly small and lacks points of interest. There are only a few points of access to the river views - which are great - but they are not marked so you have to just guess and sort of wander around until you find them. There is a "self guided" tour of the old rock quarry, which means there are spots along the trail with markers and if you took tour paper along with you, you could read about the things people used to do there when it was a quarry. Most of the stops really didn't hold much visual interest for me. There are a few abandoned buildings that are interesting, but they are also full of graffiti. That's not the park's fault, but it takes away from the experience. Adding to that is the meandering trails with relatively poor sinage. Since many if the trails cross other trails and there is no sign that says "this way to X", you can easily end up on the wrong trail if it's overcast. Also, again not faulting the park, but this was the most moquitos I've encountered in this area. Because this was a quarry, the ground doesn't drain very well - leaving all kinds of great breeding puddles for mosquitos. Overall, I had a good time. This has most of what you might expect near the north shore. I don't think I'll go back, but I think it's worth a trip to see it once. Just remember lots of bug spray and a compass...

The park has a bunch of different things you can do. Fishing, kayaking, what have you. The old quarry offers some really great scenery, as well as some cool opportunities to explore and climb around a bit.

There is a campsite here, although I'm not sure on the price.

Typically speaking whenever I go, it's usually myself and maybe one or two other people for the whole park, and let me tell you, it's large. I still haven't walked the full length of the trail.

If you're I to history, there is some interesting information plaques in the park that explain what the quarry was, what it was for, what it looked like, etc. There's even still a lot of foundations from the old buildings with hand forged hardware lying around if that's your thing.

They also do ice climbing in the winter which is neat.

I advise going on a breezy day, bring snacks or what ever strikes your fancy, and bug spray. This park seems to be a little bugger than some, I'm sure the river contributes to that.

All in all, I'd recommend at least checking...

This is one of our go-to parks for a day trip to hike. It's beautiful year round with many trail options - bonus that there is a waterfall and remnants of structures left from the days of quarrying. We camped for the first time and were not prepared for the park having no running water - no well water, no bathroom water, no showers. The nearest water source was almost 3 miles roundtrip. I was not prepared with more than one way to store water, thinking my site was near a well and it would be a non-issue. The park was not transparent, nor did they offer a pre-approval notice to be aware of the water problem. The campground was fully booked at the 120 days in advance, yet the campground was less than 25% occupied all weekend. There were bad storms that came through and no shelter available to run to, as the bathroom building was locked due to the no water issue. All around, an unusual experience for a MN State Park. I plan to camp there again in the future and hope to adjust my rating to...