outdoors

If you don't mind driving a bit further, you can usually get in anytime at Scenic State Park. One of my favorites and well worth the drive.

Our family just bought a nice new 6 person tent. Going to get the family into the outdoors! Already booked JayCooke for june. At 25$ a night, there is NO WAY you could stay in Duluth for that price!!!! Were getting excited.

Have been getting the itch the last few years to hit some of the parks. Whitewater park is very impressive, and close to the metro, one thing I noticed was the lack of Mosquitos, am told the soil is so alkiline and the skeeters cant breed in the water there.

brought tons of people I know into the parks last year. Many, including myself, visited all 72 parks!

Don't tell everybody! We wont be able to swipe the non-reservable spots as easily this year!

What this article fails to mention is that MN has the highest camping costs (save a few of MI's parks) in the Midwest. Futher, not all fees gathered in our state parks stay there. I think the MN DNR needs to look closely at the budgets allocated to the parks and reduce significantly, or fund in other ways. 20$ per site, per day may be less than taking the family to ValleyFair but it's still alot to ask. 4.50$ for a bundle of wood, not to mention the gas, food, park pass etc.. All said, my guess the average family of four spends 120-150$ for a weekend of camping in our State Parks. Camping within the parks is really going the way of pro sports - too big, too much money, too much fat.

We are a family of four. Camping for two nights: $40. We have to eat anyway, so bring normal food to eat (we have a stove in our pop-up). $18 for wood (high end), $20-40 for gas (40 was for a long trip- Jay Cooke). Total $80-100 for two days of camping. Our last trip to valley fair cost us $225. The last movie we went to was $75. A meal at a nice restaurant is $40-50. Granted $80-100 is not a small amount of money for some families (us included), but two days of real family time in the great outdoors? My kids choose the camping.

Let's go camping!

Thank you for providing some real world data to this discussion. As you state 80-100$ is pretty expensive for most families, especially when you consider you are simply camping. Also, don't forget about the price of a vehicle pass (25$ per year, per vehicle). Valleyfair is an admittedly poor comparison for certain. In terms of comparing to movies, meals, etc this too is a poor comparison.A s Minnesotans we have to ask ourselves how many times the average MN family could afford to camp in a StatePark given the 80-100$ cost per weekend? It seems a basic tenet of our StateParks are to keep them accessible for the average MN family. My point is simply we are quicky getting to a place where this is no longer possible, and that is unfortunate. Perhaps if the funds collected in SP's stayed there there wouldn't be a need to raise fees? Also, last year I camped in MT, ND, SD, IA, WI and MI (all of whom have cheaper camping prices than MN) and their parks are just as nice. That said, I would ask the MN DNR where the money is going?

The traffic on 494 through Bloomington was like rush hour traffic. Most vehicles with one person. 99% private vehicles. Where is the high price of gas? Where are people going? The world had gone bonkers!