State Parks Review Ep. 6 MN/SD

This week we are exploring two more state parks as part of our ongoing series for highlighting and ranking Min-da-win-ia state parks and their campgrounds!  
The first park we'll talk about today is Minneopa State Park in Mankato, MN, home to a stunning double waterfall as well as an expansive buffalo preserve, and the second park is Hartford Beach State Park in Corona, SD with numerous activity options and, in the words of Ab: "The cleanest, most well-maintained facilities I have EVER seen in a state park!"

Minneopa State Park:
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/park.html?id=spk00235

Reservations: 
https://reservemn.usedirect.com/MinnesotaWeb/

Hartford Beach State Park:
https://gfp.sd.gov/parks/detail/hartford-beach-state-park/

Reservations:
https://reservations.gooutdoorssouthdakota.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Camp Mindowinia, where we're reviving the vintage camping vibe in the Midwest. There is so much to see and do in the Midwest, and we want to share it with everyone. So on this show, we'll be talking about all things camping as we explore the states of our name. Glad to have you back at camp, everyone. I'm Liv and I'm here with my longtime camping buddy and sister Ab. Hi everybody! And today we have another State Parks Review episode.

unknown 0:37

Woohoo!

SPEAKER_00 0:38

So we have been doing these now for both of our seasons. We are getting to put to use our combined decades, multiple decades, worth of mileage driving to all of these state parks and camping at them in the past. Yes. So that we can share them with you. Yeah. And we are thrilled to be doing this. So in our state parks review episodes, in case you haven't heard one before, we discussed two state parks. They can either be in the same state or different states, and they're obviously in Mindowinia states, you know, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. And then we uh we each take one and then we talk about all of the know before you go details, how much it costs to stay there, and just maybe some other pertinent information that somebody who has actually been to the park can share with you so that you're not just looking at the two-dimensional listing on the state park's websites. Yes. And then we uh at the end break down several categories about staying here, and then we give those a rating. So the categories that we rate are as follows scenic quality and or activities, the sites, this is like whether they're shaded, what kind of hookups they have, if they have privacy, you know, how nice they are, and then facilities, and that's like the dump station, the boat ramps, anything like that. Oh, bathrooms, all of the facilities you would use there, and then a total rating for the park. And it kind of varies how we how we do this. I think we're gonna do a scale of one to five, and we can do points, so you can do halves and quarters. Perfect. Okay. So today I will be outlining Minniopa State Park in Mankato, Minnesota. And I will be doing Hartford Beach State Park in Corona, South Dakota. So Minniopa State Park is the third oldest state park in Minnesota, which I thought was interesting. Cool. And I even looked up the order of them and I don't recall which one one came first. I think Itasca is the oldest. And then I don't know the second oldest, and this is the third. Uh, it was opened in 1905. Minneopa State Park is best known for their double waterfall on Minneopa Creek, which really looks more like a river. Um, but I guess it's technically a creek. And the the waterfall is the first tier is like seven, seven to ten feet tall. And then the second fall is 40 feet. Whoa. So yeah, it's quite an impressive waterfall. Yeah. Um now there's something interesting about the state park is that it's divided into two portions. One portion is where the ranger station is and the falls. And then to get to the campsites, we had to like drive like across a highway through kind of a not like a neighborhood, but next to a neighborhood, and then you get to the rest of the park. Yes, I've been there. It's very odd how it's laid out. It is it's a little odd. Oh, another thing that I wrote in my notes is that Miniopa is the Dakota word for waterfalling twice. Oh cool, because two waterfalls. Yeah. Fun. So there are trails to like so you go in by the ranger station, and there's a you park and there's a picnicking area, and then there's a trail that goes down, and you can see each level of the waterfall, and then it goes all the way down to the creek bed, and then you can walk along it down there as well. And um, I believe that if the water's high enough, you could like swim in it. When we were there, the water was pretty low. It was like late August, I think. So things were kind of dry, but the waterfall was still very impressive. So after you've checked in with the ranger station, maybe parked in the picnicking area and gone down and experienced the waterfall, then you're gonna probably head over to your campsite. And on the way to the campsite, you notice something very cool about this park, and that is that they have a 300 plus acre bison enclosure where they have bison and you can actually drive through the enclosure. So when you first pull into the park, they have a sign that kind of outlines some information about the bison in the park. They also have a radio station you can turn to to hear a lot of information about the current herd, about the history of the herd, about bison in general. Um, like for example, they talked about how a very large percentage of bison in the United States have mixed genes with bovines. Really? Yes. So I thought that was amazing. So I'm not sure if these bison are like, you know, purebred bison or not. Maybe they are in like the badlands, but anyway, so they had a lot of information you could listen while you were driving through. Then you you turn left and you drive into the bison enclosure. It is closed at some times of the year. I believe it's closed in the winter time, and then they might close it if there's like been a lot of rain or something. Oh wow. So, but when the few times I've been there, it was open. The first time ever, we came over from the ranger station with the camper, and I'm like, here's the bison place. Let's just go through and look. And I don't know what made me think we should drive through with the camper before dropping off the camp. I it would who knows? I was not thinking. So no. We drive into the bison enclosure pulling a 20-foot trailer. Oh my gosh. I think people were not super happy about this. The road is narrow and you have to like like you don't have to pass people, but people pull over, and so then you, if you want to keep going, you've got to kind of pass them. And then it does do a nice big loop. But there is a part where you're driving two directions. Anyway, it ended up not being an incident. But don't take your camper through this. You really don't need to take your camper. You're not gonna be getting out anyway. So right, yeah. Lesson learned. Next time I'll drop my camper off first and then just drive through by vehicle. And then obviously, you don't get out of your vehicle, you don't want to try and touch or engage the bison. They are wild animals, they are really big and they could do a lot of damage to your vehicle or your person. That pretty much goes without saying, but you never know. There are always people who are doing their own thing. Oh, yeah. When you are in the bison enclosure, if you get past the bison, which I feel like I've kind of glazed over this, it was super cool to see the bison. There are tons of them, and they are like right next to the road. So the road goes through the middle of their enclosure, so that you know they're gonna be on one side or the other. And we just saw tons of them. We saw babies, we saw, I guess maybe they were adolescents. I don't know. They were smaller ones. Uh-huh. And um, yeah, they seemed, you know, happy. They they seemed like they were just, you know, living a good life. They didn't seem confined or anything, which always makes me happy. Yeah. Then after you drive through the bison area, you can like branch off and go up this little road to, you know, the top of this quite large hill. And they have a historic grain mill, I guess grist mill, it's called. Oh. And so it's not in operation, of course, anymore. It's called the Seppman Mill, and it operated from 1864 to 1890. And it was, I believe it was like the only wind-powered grist mill for uh like grinding wheat and grains in the area at the time. So it was kind of an anomaly in its day. Unfortunately, it was, I think, struck by lightning. And so yeah, and like maybe even that knocked off one of the windmill blades or something. And by the time the community had enough money to replace that, it had kind of become obsolete. And so they just moved away from it altogether. And now it's a historic site. That's cool. So you can still go and look at it. It's it's cool, it's like old stone, you know, an old stone structure. Yeah. So yeah, we enjoyed looking at that. And then when you're up there, you have a really great panoramic view of the bison enclosure. So you can look down on the bison up there. And then if you like for some reason were not able to see the bison from the road, while you're up on this kind of mini bluff, you could look down and see them from here. That's awesome. Yeah, we thought so too. Now, when we were there, they were like, we were looking down. This was a different time from when I drove through with my camper. Um, they were down there and they like were, I want to say they were like clogging up the road, not clogging, but they were like sitting on the road at the bottom of the entrance to this bluff. And we were like, I wonder like how we'll get through when we get down there. But then they did eventually pick up and move along, so it wasn't a problem. But I'm not sure. Maybe in that radio station, they would give you kind of some tips on what to do if they're blocking the road. I'm not sure. I can't quite remember. Now for the camping. The campground is just a little bit up the hill from the bison preserve, and it's in a few loops. The spots were pretty nice. They uh the spots were unusual, okay? They were private but not shaded. I feel like so often we're on here and we're like, they're shaded but not private. These ones were the reverse. They were like, there's tons of like underbrush, maybe. Like you parlay is like that. Okay. Yeah. So it's like you can't really see into other campsites, but you don't have a lot of shade either. Yes. It's kind of that more like flat area. Yeah. Type of, you know, like prairie. Yeah, you're getting definitely into the prairie area here for sure, down on the kind of western side of Mankato. Yeah. So there are 61 drive-in sites in the park, and there are six electric sites, and those are 20, 30, and 50 amp, all of them are. So you'd be good no matter what you have. For the pricing, you have electric sites being $34 a night and non-electric being $24 a night. And then, of course, you do need a state parks pass to stay at the park, and that is $7 a day or $35 annually. And of course, the $35 annual permit will get you into all of the state parks in Minnesota. Check-in and check out at the park are 4 p.m. So check in at 4 p.m., check out at 4 p.m. It gives you a nice, it's like it works really well because I think a lot of people get to parks after work. Yeah. And so 4 p.m. is like a good time if you got off work early and then you drove someplace. 4 p.m. is like, that's when you're gonna get there probably anyway. Uh-huh. And then to leave at 4 p.m., you can like, you know, stay on Sunday and or whatever day you're leaving and, you know, explore the park a little more and have a leisurely pack up. So what are your ratings for the state park? All right. For scenic quality and activities, I am giving it a 4.5. And I would say just because the waterfalls really are gorgeous, um, but you do have to drive through kind of a separate community to get to the rest of the camp, camp, rest of the park. So that's the only reason I would take off that half a point from being a five. Yes. So yeah, the scenic quality and activities, the biceps and the waterfalls, they really are five worthy. But it's just weird that you have to drive. I mean, it's like a less than 10-minute drive, but probably more than a five-minute drive. When we were there just for a quick stop to get our stamp, I did think it was rather unusual. Yeah. I know. And I was kind of like, well, watch for signs. I don't really know where it is. No. Because like on the maps app, it only gives one location. Yeah. So you just kind of have to like follow the signage. And it was not difficult to find. It's just minorly inconvenient. It doesn't, it makes it so that the waterfall isn't obviously walkable from your campsite. Because it's a big highway you cross over. I would not want to walk across the I don't know if you cross over the big highway or if you're like more next to it, but still, you definitely are crossing roads that have traffic and you're close enough to Mankato that you've got like, you know, commuting traffic and stuff like that. Yeah. For the sites, I would give them somewhere between a three and a 3.5. So I'm going to do a 3.25. Uh-huh. They uh they are fairly private for not being shaded. They obviously don't have much in the way of hookups, which is pretty typical of state parks in Minnesota for sure. Um, and then the pri so the privacy was decent, but the shade was just not there. The convenience of foot of hookups was just not there. So that's why I am kind of downgrading them a little bit. Quite frankly, I would prefer shade to privacy. Yeah. Because, like, you know, if you need privacy for something, you can go in your RV or in your tent. Right. But, you know, the heat, especially in this kind of hot, sunny, prairie area, which there are a lot of trees around because you're by Mankato and by the river. You so you do have trees around. It's not like it's flat out prairie, but shade would just be really nice. Yes. So for my bias, I'm gonna give it a 3.25. I get that. All right. And then for facilities, I would give those a 2.5. They were very old and like, you know, 1970s probably. Right. And then the base thing is they were so dim. The women's restroom didn't have any windows at all. Oh my. Yeah, none. And now, like I've been to other parks where they don't have windows, but they have really good lighting inside. This did not have good lighting. They're like light boxes. Oh yeah. So it was like ambient lighting and no windows, no natural light at all. So, and I wouldn't say that they were especially well cared for. Oh, that's too bad. Yeah. If you are like happy to do kind of more of a roughing it situation where you're like, I don't really need to take a shower this weekend, you know, we're just gonna kind of rough it camping. That would be like perfectly fine then. Like it wouldn't really matter. Yeah. But you know, if you're there and you're relying on the bathhouse because there is no water in the sites, obviously. Yeah. Then it's nice for them to be a little bit nicer, have a little bit more to offer. Yeah. So in their current state, I'd give them a 2.5. Fortunately, this park has enough to offer in way of the waterfall and the bison and the grist mill that, like I said, I've been there multiple times. So it definitely is enough to go back. Yeah. And so that leads me to my total rating, and I'm gonna give it a 4.5. Nice. Yes, very solid, I would recommend. Yeah, it sounds like it. All right. Hartford Beach State Park in South Dakota has got to be the absolute cleanest, most well-maintained state park I think I've ever visited. Wow. I know that is high praise. Yes, especially since I've been to, you know, tons and tons of state parks in all of the states in the Mindwinia area. Yeah. But this one was just immaculate. So you start by driving in to this lovely park, and there's a little office that didn't have a person manning it, but there was like a little fee station pay box where you could pay with credit card or whatever. And then after that, you progress further into the park, and you can either go left down to the lake or right towards the camping and fish cleaning area. Okay. So if you go left down to the boat launch, there's a lovely boat launch, tons of parking, a very nice playground area, a very nice swimming beach, there's a canoe or me and kayak, I think, both rentals there, which you have to see the camp host about. There's a fishing dock, and there is a very well-maintained, clean bathroom with flush the toilets. Oh my gosh. On top of there's by the by the boat launch. Yeah, there's by the boat launch, like their beachy boat launch area. Yeah. So if you're going for the day, that area is amazing. Yeah. Then they also have like a little pavilion you can rent out that has a little stove in it, so you could use it, you know, more all seasony. They also had like a picnic area. It was gorgeous. That is so cool. Now I have a question about their boat launch. Is the boat launch like something that people like? Is it a paid boat launch? Like, do what are people who aren't staying there pay to put in, or is that the same thing? No, you just because you're paying the fee to get into the state park, then you get it as a park. Okay. Uh-huh. So that was lovely. Then from there, from that spot, if you're just visiting or even if you're staying there or whatever, you can then hike. So it's on Big Stone Lake, but then you can hike to this little Lake Wilcox. Okay, we did not hike because it was like 97% humidity. I'm not even joking. This is every single time you go. 51 degrees. And I know that it was hot that weekend. I Mitchell and I have the worst luck. So I work some weekends out of every month, and the ones that I don't work are always the hot ones. Yeah. I don't know how I get that luck with I just anyway. So we didn't hike to it because I'm like, I don't think I can make a mile in this heat. Yep. Anyway, I thought I was dying. Mitchell said I was fine. Anyway, so lovely beach area, positively gorgeous, like 10 out of 10. Then if you come back up, you go to the right, like from that first entrance or whatever, but it's straight from the boat launch. Okay. Because it comes like a T. You go to the right and you get into the campground. Now the campground is divided into two separate loops. Okay. You have the east campground and the west campground, which is nice and easy. They're not like this. Is the east campground on the west side? No, it's actually on the east. Wow. I know in Minnesota. It's always backwards. Yeah. Somebody's directionally challenged. Anyway, so the first one you come upon. Oh, before you get to the campgrounds, I forgot. There is like a state-of-the-art fish cleaning station.

unknown 18:54

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

It's gorgeous. It has like water and like the fish gut grinder and everything. And it's under like a pavilion. Beautiful. So your catch from the lake you can take on up and clean before taking it back to your camper and eating it.

unknown 19:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

So the first loop is the West Campground. That one was really nice, but the sites were kind of small. It was gorgeously shaded. I mean, tall, beautiful trees. It had its own playground, it had its own bathhouse, and a vault toilet. Those are all electric sites in that loop, and there are 32 of those. Wow. Yeah. But they are smaller. So I would say if you have a big rig, do not book in the West Camp Rand because you just won't fit. Okay. And I would assume that they won't let you anyway, but you know, just site length limits. Yes. I mean rig length. Yes. The bathroom there is older, but pristine. Absolutely perfectly pristine. Gorgeous. Nice. Then from there you move on to an area where you can park and then go hiking. And you get up on top of this nice, like bluffy hill, and you can look down and see the lake. And they've got some signs where you can read about different stuff for the area, as well as like a map to show you where all the paths go. Okay. And this is a little prairie-y and out in the open in the sun. But if you hike down some of the paths, which are all nice loops, and most of them seem to be like a miler-ish, you could hike down very easy. Yeah, very easy. Um, but very hilly. So kind of like intermediate intensity. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, up and down hills and whatever. Right. But they are nicely shaded for half the way and then kind of prairie grassiness for the other half the way. But oh my gosh, they were lovely. We did a part of one and then came back again because it was literally 90 or 91 degrees. And I was like, how do I keep booking these? But whatever. Then we got over into the east campground, and those had big, lovely sites, mostly shaded, and they were very lovely. There were, let's see, 89 sites on that side, and they all have electric. Every site has electric, and then they have water spigots throughout each campground for you to fill up your freshwater tank and whatever. And this one also had a playground and some cabins that you could rent in it. So, you know, if you're traveling with people who don't have a camper or whatever, or tent, that's an option.

unknown 21:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

And then again, another bathhouse that was just pristine. Like the grounds were so pristine. They were well, you know, mowed and trimmed, and the bathrooms were so clean. I ran into the camp host and I was like, I have to say, this is the most beautiful state park for like maintenance in the entire state. And he was like, Well, thank you. And I'm like, no, really, like it's gorgeous. Uh-huh. You guys are doing such a great job. Oh, yeah. So it was that's really cool. Absolutely. Absolutely lovely. That alone makes me want to visit there. Just knowing that it's clean and well kept. Yeah. I mean, you just it just makes the experience so much more pleasant and not stressful when things are like really well taken care of. I know. Yeah. And that's exactly how it felt. It was just so peaceful and perfect seeming because of that. That's nice. So off of the East Campground, if you hike down into the woods, you will get to the remains of a trading post that operated in the 16 or no the 1860s and 70s. Okay. And we again didn't go down there because I was like, uh-uh, not happening today, too hot. Okay. But anyway, you could hike down in there and see that, and there's historical markers and information as you go. Okay. As well as American Indian um burial mounds. Okay. I don't know where those were though. It was a little confusing. It seems like they were in multiple places throughout the park off of different trails. They had obviously removed remains at some point in time, and it was just the remains of the mounds were there. But you know, it's discouraged obviously to walk by them and whatever, except on the trail. So it was one of those things where you'd see it from the trail only.

unknown 23:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

They also had disc golf, which looked really nice, and it was kind of interspersed between the two campgrounds off the side of the road. Oh, nice. Okay. Yeah. And that looked lovely. We didn't have any of the discs with the other. Do they have the discs like you can check out at the office or is it a rental? This was unmanned. Okay. And didn't seem to have like hours posted, so I don't think so. I think it'd be a bring your own situation. Unless maybe you should ask the camp host about it. Maybe they have it there. But I didn't see a sign that said anything about it. And we didn't really have a desire to do it because I'm not very good at it. And okay. Yeah. So we were like, eh, we'll skip that for today. And then another thing I forgot to mention down by the beach was they did have a beach volleyball court. Okay. So, you know, you've got a couple of different options. You have your boating options, you have the disc golf, you have a bunch of bird watching. We saw tons of birds there. And they had a sign talking about the bird species they had there, which was really cool. And then, of course, you have the beach. So, you know, there's a bunch of different options of things to do there. Okay. So, oh, one more note about the campground is they just renovated their dump station. Okay. And it now has four dumping spots. Oh, that has got to be so nice on a Sunday, especially. I know. I was like, that has got to be phenomenal. Yeah. Yeah. And are they like spread out enough that you feel like four people could use them at the same time? Yes, they were. I mean, if you had a huge rig, you might take up two. But I mean, we're talking you'd have to have a really big rig for it to be a problem. Okay. For the most part, you should be able to. And the nice thing was, too, they had it separate. So they had black water washout water there. Then in between the sections, in a kind of separate area, so you wouldn't even be able to reach the septic area. They had um potable water too. Oh, that is nice. I hate it when they're too close and you're like, I do not trust this fresh water. Yep, no. These people did a fantastic job with setting that up. So you know the water is gonna be safe and good and whatever there.

unknown 25:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

One thing I do have to note is there is limited signal throughout the entire thing. So just bear that in mind. If you have to do any sort of work that it might be difficult to do there, unless you have something like Starlink or whatever, which we don't have. So I'm assuming that would work there. But the signal was not fantastic. And one more activity thing that I don't know how I spaced, but I did. They have horseshoe pits in the East Campground with a sign that said, um, talk to the camp host about renting the horseshoes for the pits. Nice. But if you had your own set, you could always bring that too. Yeah. And I feel like we've mentioned horseshoes a few times on episodes recently. And I'm like, we are on a campaign to bring back horseshoes. And do you know why? Why? Because they are part of the vintage camping vibe that we strive to keep alive here at Camp Mendoinia. I know. They're such a like 70s and 80s thing. They are, which is such a cool, fun, vintage-y thing. Yeah, they are very much nostalgic. Yeah. I have not played horseshoes in so many years. I'm not sure I remember the details. But the next time I see one of those, I'm gonna like look up the details and play it. Yeah, me too. It's awesome. All right. Are you ready to rate the different categories? I absolutely am. So for the scenic quality and activities, I am giving it a four. Okay. And this is why. In the west campground, you have views of the lake and everything. Uh-huh. In the east campground, you're well shaded and you have privacy and space, but you don't really have views of anything. Okay. So it's like, you know, beautiful because it's well maintained, but there aren't views. Right. So I would say overall, I'm gonna give it a four because for scenic quality and activities. For scenic quality and activities. Because there's plenty of activities, but scenic quality is sparse in the East Campground. Okay. Then for the sights, I'm gonna give them a four and a half because they were lovely. They had space, they had shade, you know, they had everything you want in a campground. Yeah. Then the facilities get a solid five. I'm telling you, Liv, I have never seen such clean bathrooms in a state park in my life. I was blown away. I was like, they take such pride in their work here. It's beautiful. I was like trying to think while you were talking about that, if I can think of a state park that has really outstanding bathhouses in Minnesota. Yeah. And the only one I can think of is like Temperance River. Have you been into bathhouses at Temperance River? Immaculate. Okay, would you say they're like on par? I would say they're on par. Okay. They're not like significantly better or something, right? No, I don't think I'd say significantly better, but they'd like those ones are. Temperance ones are really nice. These ones are that same level of immaculate. Like they're just sweet perfection. Okay. Yeah. Good to know. That, like I said before, is enough to make me want to visit. I know. Like it has beautiful clean bathhouses. I'm sold. I know. I know. I know. Mitchell and I are like, should we organize a family event here? Like, this is great. We would definitely go back and go back and go back again. Okay. So the total score for this park is going to be, I believe, my first ever five stars. Nice. I mean, it was amazing. Share button. I know we do. That would be fun. But yeah, it was incredible. So five stars. Just shout out to those camp posts. You guys are doing a great job. Wow. Very, very cool. Yeah. All right. Well, at very minimum, you have a fantastic South Dakota park that you have to go and check out right away. And I would say you have a fantastic Minnesota State Park to go and check out right away as well. Yeah. There is still time. You have a waning summer, but you have the whole fall to check these out. And we encourage you to get out there and try these fantastic parks. Yes. All right. And that is our show for today. Thanks for listening to the Camp Mindowinia Podcast. If you want to connect with us, head over to our Facebook group, Camp Mindowinia, or follow us on Instagram at Camp Mindowinia. Take us on Instagram in your camping posts for the chance to be featured on our page. And if you're enjoying the show, please follow us on your favorite podcasting platform, and we'd love it if you leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or a comment on Spotify. Join us next Monday for another episode. Bye, guys!