myre-big island state park

After reading some of the reviews maybe this is why they wouldn't let me look at the campground.I just got back from a 200 mile round trip motorcycle ride. My intention was to go here and look at the campground and camp there this weekend. I have done a "short tour" at Private, County, and other State parks without any problems. This girl was not letting me in unless I paid 20.00 for 5 minutes on a motorcycle. I have an annual permit for my pickup. I think she actually enjoyed it. Needless to say I won't go here again. Too bad first impressions are very important. I actually don't even like Albert Lea now.

We had originally planned to go on a canoe trip with a group and it was canceled due to the high rivers from a previous week of heavy rain. We went on this site and mn's dnr state parks site and decided to try this place out. We liked how the restrooms/showers at the white fox campground had good seals to keep the critters out. The camping site we stay at was nice and our tent was on a small hill & we were glad that area wasn't flooded. We went canoeing and they have a great deal about $15/person for 4 hours. Plenty of time. We were tourists as we canoed around the borders of the lake to view some of the cabins/houses nearby and it was amazing to see how high the water was in relation to these homes. There is an option to kayak if you don't want to canoe. We also went on a walk. This park has about 17 miles of hiking which is great! There were so many different kinds of birds and people with amazingly huge cameras to bird watch. It was fascinating. For firewood we had brought our own fire starters from a previous camping trip. However the wood the park provides costs $6 but it won't catch right away because it's maple and when it does it will be a huge fire that will last for 5-10 mins. This sucked considering we wanted to be like campers and not cheat by having lighter fluid or similar. By the second night our new neighbors arrived and in 2 mins they had a blazing fire. I begged my fiancé to go find out. They basically brought their own approved firewood and tiki oil (or similar) and their fire lasted for such a long time and they only needed to add more wood if needed. Next time we will cheat, buy our own and an assist!The insects here were also interesting, we saw fireflies!!! At night their light were so cute flashing all around us. I have only seen/heard of these things in movies. There were other bugs including lots of spiders. I hate spiders but nature is where they live. So do not leave your car doors or tent open and bags on the picnic table and you'll be fine. Also at night the raccoons are sneaky. We left some empty paper bags outside and they came right up and made lots of noise grabbing it and looking inside. We did not have any food left for them, but just keep your cooler locked up, inside your car or tent because they will raid it. At the other camping area called big island campground the restrooms have a billion spiders inside and outside all over. It's not as well kept but they do have toilet paper with air dryers. I do not remember if there were showers but in the men's restroom my fiancé called me in to show me a huge black and white spider almost the size of a tarantula. Ick! Just a warning. There are about 7-8 miles of biking trails and one that leads to the town of Albert Lea. We did not bring our bike but others did. We are checking out all the state parks in MN and others for camping, this was a good park and it's on our list to come back in the future.

We stopped here for one night in our fifth wheel when driving home from Mt. Rushmore. The spots are big, with plenty of distance from your neighbors. The campground looked clean and well tended. Unfortunately it stormed all night the night we were there, so we were not able to enjoy the park or walk around. Mosquitoes were horrible when we did go out at all. It is easy to get to off of I-35, so that was a plus. My biggest complaint is the cost. It was $26 dollars for the site, which was electric only. That was not bad, but they charged $7 fee to book online, then charged a five dollar fee for a parking pass (did not know about the parking fee until we arrived). So a total of $38 for an electric only spot? If you are just passing through the area for one night you might as well pay a little extra elsewhere for full hook-ups.

We camped in the Big Island campground at this park. We loved all the trees! And since we experienced thunder storms with high winds during our stay, we appreciated the shelter from the wind that all the trees provided. The campsite was very nice, with a 16x16 tent pad, which fit our tent nicely. There are two things that keep me from giving this park a higher rating. 1) The restrooms in the Big Island campground are very old and need some updating, 2) We are unable to bring in firewood...I understand that. However, the firewood that i purchased at the park was not good! I have camped for 50 years and have built hundreds of bonfires in my years...so I know how to do it. But for the life of me, I could not get their wood to burn. I had plenty of kindling that generated a nice sustained flame and heat that would have started most any wood...and I even cheated by using one of the firestarters they sell at the park office and could not get the wood to ignite enough to start a nice fire. The wood was directly from their storage shed the fist night and was kept dry during the rains for the second night. I should have returned it for another bundle, but was bound and determined to get a fire built. Firewood-1 Me-0

We camped on the big island and it was a beautiful campgrounds. We had a fairly private site with a lot of trees. The hiking trails were very easy and they were nice by the lake. I would rate it 5 stars if they updated the showers. They were fine, but very old and very small. That certainly wouldn't keep me from coming back.

I had gotten a book earlier in the year called "Take a hike Twin Cities" and this park was one of the featured hikes. My hike started in the Big island area of the park around that and along the lake into the main area. The hike was about 8 miles long and I got lost for awhile out there. It's pretty easy to get turned around without a compass of some sort. I saw some deer and a lot of different types of birds. I came on a Friday and I literally encountered no one on the trails. When I came in August the wild flowers had started to really bloom so the fields were quite stunning and beautiful. I got bit by a weird little black spider on the arm here and totally had a red bump on my arm for about the next 4 weeks. It was a nice hike on a warm day and totally worth coming back for hiking. Also as far as I saw the campgrounds looked really nice.

We stayed on big island side of park. Tree coverage was extensive. We drove around the myre park side. Those camps are more open, prairie like. Overall we had a nice trip here but it was overly simple in what they had to do and we won't go back. Trails were very, very plain. Just hiking in prairies with some overlooks to lakes. Park was well kept. Good for people that like privacy and low key camps.

Stayed here with another family in sites 13 and 14 on the Big Island. Beautiful fall colors with great walking trails. Didn't get to explore the bike trail because of the cold and rain..will be back next summer for more.

Camped here at White Fox Campground 8/10/13- 8/13/13. Was a nice campground. Some sites were kind of close together but ours was very spacious (#61e). We liked the rustic gravel roads compared to paved roads at the campgrounds. Everybody was respectful of quiet time and it was very quiet at night. The shower/ bathrooms at White Fox are very clean and modern. There was a sewer backup during a rainstorm so these bathrooms and showers were out of commision for the second half of our trip. Slight inconvienence as the shower house at Big Island Campground are very old and dirty. What's a camping trip without using the pit toilets right? We saw raccoons at night while at Big Island Campground so beware! White Fox Campground is defintely the nicer campground although some sites have fun sun.Lots of wildlife but the lake seems barren. Very, very murky. I'm sure there are fish in there somewhere, we just didnt find any. There also didn't appear to be any swimming areas. There are kayak and canoes for rental. $10/4hours or $20/all day. Lots of nice bike and hiking trails.On another note: We've never extended a camping trip but we did while camping here. It was just such a nice relaxing atmosphere that we HAD to stay one more night. Even with the shower house being out of commision our camping experience wasn't spoiled. It was August and so we were one of only 6 camp groups in this entire campground.

I stayed here over the weekend in the group camp part of the park and it was great. It was a family get together and we had that part of the park to ourselves. Nice big building with kitchen facilities and dining area for us to use and another craft and arts building that had tables and benches that you could hang out in to get out of the sun or get away from the mosquitoes.

We stayed at this campground on July 12, 2013 on our way back from the Black Hills. The place could be nice if they actually maintained it in some way. The foliage is way overgrown. Our camper was severely scratched up just trying to get to our site. When we got to our site, we had an extremely difficult time getting our camper parked. The trees on both sides of the road were in the way. We finally had to have our kids hold back the branches on some trees while we backed in. We hoped that was the worst of it but then came the BUGS! Wow, I know Minnesota is known for their insects, but I have camped my entire life and have NEVER seen swarms like this. We could not leave the camper after dark. When my daughter and I took the dogs out at 10:00 PM we had to cover our mouths and nose to avoid being suffocated by the bugs. We learned that the hard way. They need to fumigate that place or clean up some of the foliage. We will never go there again, and I honestly do not see how anyone could enjoy that place.

We camped at an electric site in September 2012 at the Big Island campground. Nice sized sites. Not dense woods in between. Site was right off the lake. Very pretty park. Great bird watching. Facilities were flush toilets. Excellent facilities with private clean awesome showers at the White Fox campground. We drove to White Fox for showers. Best facilities. We drove into Albert Lea for the farmer's mkt on sat. Cute town. Very pleasant. We loved our time and will be back.