Author of Chaos to Clarity
Several weeks ago the hubby and I ran over to Willow River for a day hike. We liked it so much that we decided to go back there to camp a month later. Located a few miles east of Hudson on I94, the park is only a 30-minute drive for us from Minneapolis; so about 50 minutes from the south suburbs. At some point maybe the number of different landscapes available within a short drive of the cities will stop being amazing to me (but hopefully not)!
Like most state parks, Wisconsin parks require a vehicle pass. It is $10 per day for out-of-state plates, and we were there for three days, so we decided on the annual pass for $35 (WI plates cost $7/day or $25/year). The campsite fee for everyone is $15/night.
There are four campgrounds in the park: 100, 200, 300, and group camps. My advice is, unless you like baking in the sun and being fully visible to all campers, hikers, and passing cars (in the style of prairie dogs), avoid the 100 and 200 campgrounds. They are on the prairie and have zero shade or privacy:
However, the sites in the 300 campground are wooded and private. Our site was pretty typical of the 300:
The other advantages of the 300 camp are that it has easy access to the all of the trails, and it is where the showers are. The showers are quite clean and unscary, but be warned: the only water temp available is cold (maybe unless you also get up at 5:30 AM to beat everyone else there, which I, for one, do not do!).
I was pretty impressed with the group campsites, and would definitely consider them for camping excursions with friends (especially because alcohol is legal at WI State Parks, as opposed to MN. Which is good for me because I require a New Glarus Belgian Red any time I’m in Wisconsin!). They are nice and big, but are also situated so that sub-groups within a group can have a little privacy, too. This is group site D (I also particularly liked C, but A & B are fine, too):
There are presently only about 13 miles of trails in the park, but that number can be deceptive. Since most of the trails kind of lead into each other, we hiked 5-8 miles/day without getting bored. The trails are well-groomed, and are pretty easy, with only some gentle hills. Like other WI State Parks we’ve visited (Kinnickinnic and Copper Falls), we found that it would pay to bring a compass as well as the trail map on hikes. There seems to be a penchant for forks in the trail that aren’t on the map, combined with confusing trail markings, in Wisconsin parks. I got a little lost on a solo hike on Friday night and had to make my own trail down to the road before I could figure out where the heck I was!
The trails cover all sorts of landscapes including hardwood and evergreen forests, prairie, and rocky river bluffs:
Of course, the crown jewels of the park are the falls:
There is a parking lot for the falls; but it should be noted that accessibility from the lot is not easy; the trail down to the falls is paved, but it is not tiered, so it is extremely steep. For those with bad knees/hips it might actually be easier to hike in on the Willow Falls (blue) Trail than to walk in from the lot.
From the falls you can hike up to the top of the river bluff (lots of stairs!) on the Burkhardt (pink) trail and catch some pretty sweet views:
Willow River’s other big attraction is the large and pristine beach/picnic area:
There are no pets allowed in the beach/picnic area or on the nearby nature trail, and we had our dog with us, so we didn’t spend much time there, but it seemed really nice!
All in all we had a great experience at Willow River: beautiful scenery, nice campground and good facilities. Maybe best of all, the drive home was only half an hour! If you live in the Twin Cities Metro (or even if you don’t!), this place is worth checking out.
Have you ever been to Willow River State Park? If so what is your favorite part of the park? What about other local State Parks? Which are your favorites? What are you favorite local parks that may not be state parks? What do you enjoy most about our local parks? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Related posts:
- Sunset over the Mississippi River: Spring Lake Park Reserve; Rosemount, MN
- Geocaching Permitted in Minnesota State Parks!
- Apple Valley, MN Park Improvement Bond Referendum
- Hiking at Ritter Farm Park
- MnGCA/Dakota County Parks International CITO Day: Thompson County Park; West St. Paul, MN
Dakota Complaints Map
Dakota Inmate Dashboard
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June 28th, 2012 at 7:21 am
[...] everyone! My friend Bill is taking a little paternity leave from his popular blog, Lazy Lightning. I have the honor of today’s guest post about Willow River State Park; please check it out! Thanks! Like this:LikeBe the first to like this. This entry was posted in Nature and tagged [...]
June 28th, 2012 at 8:18 am
Alissa,
Great post! I am not sure if I like the post or the pictures better. I will never camp again in my life, but you almost have me convinced to try it again.
I think we should address the elephant in the room though. You can’t drink alcohol in MN State parks? What is that about? MN has some of the most idiotic laws I have ever heard of.
June 28th, 2012 at 8:50 am
Beer and wine was legal in MN State Parks two years ago. Liquor (i.e., the hard stuff) is not. I will verify.
OK, now that that is out of the way, great post! I have always wanted to check out Willow River, but didn’t know if it was worth it. It certainly looks like it. THANKS!
June 28th, 2012 at 8:57 am
OK, clarification: MN is only partially lame. Anything under 3.2% alcohol is allowed. Unfortunately, most (all?) good beer is over 3.2%.
Basically, the rules do not allow “intoxicating liquor” which is anything over 3.2%.
In practice, the park rangers could care less as long as you are not causing problems. They just don’t want a-hole drunks and young amateur drinkers getting bombed on cheap vodka.
June 28th, 2012 at 9:02 am
Lefty is right, you can’t drink alcohol in MN State Parks. It never has been. Mostly park rangers will look the other way, but not always. Stupid rule.
June 28th, 2012 at 9:12 am
My in-laws live a few miles east of Willow River and I’ve spent time in both the 100/200 campgrounds and the 300. You’re definitely right about which of those is better. I could be wrong, but I think the 100/200 are newer and were created to alleviate the pressure since there was so much demand for the existing 300 campgrounds.
Regardless, it’s a great park and because it’s over the border, I don’t run into a lot of Twin Cities people who are familiar with it. Great post!
June 28th, 2012 at 10:33 am
Best guest post yet !!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Alissa. We’ve spent time at this park as well. Also like Interstate Park (Wisconsin side) and Wild River. All of these parks are close to the Twin Cities which cuts down on gas consumption if pulling a camper trailer.
June 28th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Thanks very much, all! And thanks for the clarification on the drinkin’ rules. Yeah, IMO, 3.2 is basically “no drinking allowed”! = )
We’ve found that rangers in MN will typically look the other way when it comes to drinking just so long as you’re being quiet, respectful, and not too obvious (ie, no bottles & cans in sight, use a koozie or a cup). However, we’ve had some scares when we’ve been camping with larger groups of people.
June 28th, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Good post! I had no idea that 3.2+% alcohol was not allowed in MN state parks. I never had a problem with it, however my daughter was camping at Devils Lake State park in Wisconsin while in college and got a ticket from Wisc. ranger for under age drinking, she was 20 years and 10 months. silliness.
The Rib Mountain State Park outside of Wausau is nice, been a long time since i was there, but it wasnt crowded.
Also Whitewater in MN is great, but can be crowded.
June 29th, 2012 at 10:51 pm
We’ve been to Willow River twice and had two entirely different experiences. The first was just the wife and I before we had kids. We went in August and loved it. It wasn’t too busy, we liked our site, and in general we were pretty geeked about finding a nice park close to home.
The second time however was horrible. We brought the kids and dogs and absolutely hated it. Part of the problem was that we went around the fourth of July. The place was packed and our site sucked. We were right at a junction of two roads and close enough to a bathroom that we had cars driving past our site the entire time we were there. We also ran into a ranger who was a complete jerk. My wife and kids wanted to go to the beach, so we all suited up and headed down to the lake. We had the dogs, so I volunteered to stay back near the trail and let the wife and kids hit the water. There are signs up saying no dogs allowed in the beach area, so I stayed literally a few feet from the trail with the dogs. I was trying to be respectful for others and a responsible doggie owner. Then the ranger came over and gave me a written warning for being “in the beach area”. When questioning him how I was in the wrong since I had stayed Far away from everyone and nowhere near the beach, he commented that dogs need to stay within five feet of the trail and he estimated that I must have been close to ten feet away from the trail. Not believing that anyone could possibly be that rigid I questioned him more as to how he felt I was too far away from the trail. It was almost surreal to listen the words coming out of this dude’s mouth. He was writing me a warning because even though I was laying in the grass right next to the trail with my dogs leashed right next to me, he felt that they were stretched out too far away (exceeding the unposted five foot rule). I understand that rangers often deal with drunken turds and losers, but I was so put off by that guy that I wanted to leave right then and there. We stayed only because we didn’t want to wreck the trip for the kids.
Overall I would say if you go don’t bring your dogs as this place was not at all dog friendly. Also, don’t go around a holiday unless you want to suck car fumes all day long. The wife and I both commented that we could have had a better and more relaxing camping experience if we had just pitched a tent in our backyard. I love camping in Wisconsin, but after our last experience Willow River is pretty far down our list.
Great post though!
July 1st, 2012 at 10:06 am
Congrats to mulch on comment #400!
July 1st, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Mulch, how is that silliness? She was underage, end of story.
Wild River State park has very secluded campgrounds. Lots of space between sites and many, many trees filling that space.
July 2nd, 2012 at 12:16 pm
This looks like the perfect place to get my wife’s foot in the water with tent camping. Perhaps a little later in the year when the nights get a little chilly.
Being a very rare (hardly ever) Park camper, any tips? I.e. should I reserve, or just head on over. Any other gotya’s beside the random authority hungry park ranger?
July 2nd, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Mikeh,
I don’t recommend visiting any State Park without reservations during the busy season but check to see if they have any sites set aside for walk-up registration.
August 22nd, 2012 at 5:36 pm
Camping price is actually not $15 for everyone, it is $15 for WI residents and $17 for out of state, if you want electricity it is an extra $5. Just wanted to clear that up :)