Lake Bemidji State Park

At Lake Bemidji State Park you can enjoy swimming, boating, fishing, birdwatching, hiking, camping, biking, you name it. There's also not just one good season to visit it, it's pretty fun all year round.

We needed to be in Bemidji for the weekend and this was a great cheap(er) alternative to a private park. Unlike other MN state parks, they actually let us stay in a non electric site which was nice except for the fact that it was humid and hot in July. We were told by a local to not swim due to a recent outbreak of swimmer's itch, but we did walk the trail down to the bog.

Overall nothing fancy, but it wasnt unpleasant. Full over the weekend and everyone cleared out in our loop by Sunday evening.

Nice access road into park, close to the city and University. Located on beautiful Lake Bemidji, but no views of the lake from campsites. Typical of SP's. Roads through various camping loops are tight, but passible, sites cloe together and generally short and tight to enter.

Could be very crowded and noisey on weekends during the summer season. Little privacy inspite of lots of trees. Seems to be designed for the masses, but OK off season if you want to be close to Bemidji.

We have had a cabin on Lake Bemidji in the family for 106 years. Stayed in the Lake Bemidji State Park while we loaned the cabin to some guests. Funny to have summered right next to this park for over 60 years but never explored very thoroughly. Other reviews of the actual campsites are accurate - close, a little uneven, and tight access to many of them. However, the restrooms, showers and other facilities were absolutely flawless. This is a beautiful park with plenty of hiking trails, great beach ("swimmers itch" is a rare occurrence in late summer and can be fully avoided by a shower and/or brisk toweling after a swim,) a championship golf course in walking distance and plenty of fishing, boating, canoeing and "town" activities, if you are so inclined.

This campground is terrible. While most Minnesota State Park campgrounds are pretty serene, this is a parking lot with a few small trees in between sites. People tend to sprawl out, make noise at all hours of the night, leave dogs outside and unleashed, kids run around, loud TVs mounted on the exterior of RVs. I saw one RV hit another RV because their sites ran back into each other. Many sites require a reverse incline and aren't level; I had to disconnect my weight distribution hitch to back up into my site, something I've never had to do before.

Also, while most state parks let you reserve online and just show up to your spot, this is an old school state park campground where they require you to check-in at the front desk. There was a line when I arrived, so I went to my campsite (already reserved online) like I would do at any other state park, and I got scolded.

The campground has wi-fi, but it's unreliable and slow: 200kbps down, 30kbps up. Good Verizon and AT&T service. 30A electrical hookup at my campsite was fine.

Nice state park with spacious electric only sites. Park well kept with very clean bath house. Great trails with highlight being the Bog walk trail. Was there over Memorial Day weekend so park was full yet quiet during the parks quiet hours. Would stay there again for sure.

I don’t disagree with some previous negative reviews. Our neighbors rolled in, boisterous and with little attempt to respect the quiet of others, and immediately proceeded to discuss whether they should use one or two generators for the night.

But they were the exception.

I’ve been out west for a long time, so my favorite part of this park was the dense hardwood forest. Paper birch and oak galore. I haven’t felt dew on my feet in years it seems. And the cool nights, despite muggy days, were like an old friend after 101° days in the Dakotas.

Good beer and grocery stores can be had in the wonderfully named town of Bimidji which is a beautiful 10 minute drive away.

Having never been to other Minnesota state parks, I can’t comment on how this one compares, but site 95 was incredibly spacious, the Verizon was dumping torrential speed all over the place and to be sitting here enjoying coffee without worrying about some looming heat stroke of a day is absolutely ice cream with a cherry on top.

Price includes $7 / day entry fee to the state park ($35 / year for all MN state parks if you plan to stay longer or go to many parks.)

My husband and I used Bemidji State Park as a first time camping together spot yesterday. We tent camped, and had an electric site. I found the price was a bit expensive and my only complaint, really, especially since we had to pay and additional $12 dollars in addition to buy 2 bundles of wood to use there. The site was fairly clean, though lots of resident spiders and two very active ground squirrels, but overall it wasn't bad. I could see that where we pitched the tent would be in a flood zone as a culvert ran right to it from the road, since this was a lower spot in the campground. We were blessed with sunny, moderately warm weather and a cool night. Since it is so dry there were hardly any mosquitoes.
Bathrooms were very clean and well kept . I didn't use the showers but the park cleans them daily.
One other, not complaint, but inconvenience...no garbage cans dispersed through the sites but rather a couple of dumpsters out by the main drive .

We had a very enjoyable stay. The Bog Trail had blooming plants and was very enjoyable and there were many other trails to walk besides that one. We did not use the beach for swimming as we had a dog with us. The campground was about 40% filled with quiet campers, no noise violations. The camphosts were friendly, the showers were clean, the bathrooms were also clean. The pad for our trailer was level, no need for boards.

Really enjoyed this campground! Very woodsy and shaded, large sites and within walking distance to the playground or the beach for a swim. Nice (free) shower house. It got very crowded on the weekend at the end of august. Decent cell signal, enough to stream movies at night.