Places in Minnesota For Real Campers to Check Out

If you pull into a campsite and you have a generator in tow -- than what follows is definitely not for you.

Because for us 'real' campers, that generator noise pollution is not only not wanted, but it can actually ruin a camping trip. That's because 'real camper's go camping for entirely different reasons, and it's certainly not to have this loud, constant noise over-powering the sound of nature (or even just slightly distracting from it).

This 'true camping' involves things like:

• Learning to get by with what you can pack in a car
• Cooking everything on an open fire
• Spending time with family without technological distractions
• Exploring nature and seeing what you've never seen before
• Leaving the everyday world behind
• And actually doing this thing called relaxing.

Some campers might even say that real camping is what you can bring in yourself without using any type of motor vehicle.

My family and I lived in Colorado for almost a decade. We did a lot of camping there and fell in love with it. Sitting under the stars, in the mountains, with a campfire going, is one of the best, most relaxing things in the world.

So when we moved back to Minnesota, I wanted to check out what kind of camping was available. I've always known there is a lot, but my wife and I were much younger then and hadn't really discovered it.

Here are some places I found that I have put on my list of places to check out. Maybe it's something to add to your list.

• Split Rock
• Williams O'Brien State Park
• Jay Cooke State Park
• Itasca State Park
• Bear Head State Park
• George Crosby Manitou State Park