MEYRE-BIG ISLAND SP - Hayward, MN

MEYRE-BIG ISLAND STATE PARK

RUN BY: Minnesota State Parks

LOCATION: near Hayward, MN by intersection of I35 & I90

UTILITIES: none 

COST: $20

OUR RATING (1-5): I-4

NOTES:  Pamela and I have a great division of labor.  I'm happy driving and can go for hours, if needed. Pamela is the consummate navigator. When we're thinking about stopping for the night she'll start looking for unique, out-of-the-way places and comes up with places like this.  Our rule of thumb is "avoid interstates". In this case we were forced onto I-35 for about 30 miles. Pamela noticed this small state park. It turned out to be a treasure. Kudos to the Minnesota State Park system!  We stayed on the island.  It is not hard to find, but I did include a map.  If we had not needed to keep pushing westward this would have been a great place to spend a few days, if not longer. 

Environment:  The campground was heavily forested.  It was young growth but, as you can see in the picture, the provides shade, privacy and beauty.  In the picture above you can't tell that the picture below is what we saw out our door.  

Amenities:  There are bath-houses but I didn't check to see if they are pit or flush toilets.  There was communal water nearby.  Our neighbor, who had the water in front of his place, offered to run a hose to us. The park has trails and nature areas. We did not see a camp store in the park.

Phone Service:  I don't think we had a signal here. 

Location:  This park is just a few miles from the intersection of I-90 ad I-35.  

Camping Population:  The campers we met were planning to max out the stay limit, mostly for fishing.  

Sites: The sites were quite private and relatively level.  

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RATING KEY: category - score

Categories: I - established campgrounds where one might spend a vacation or several days

II - boondocking, dry camping where there are no designated sites and no amenities but

one might choose to stay for more than a night.

III - over-night areas

You must remember that we are scoring 1 thru 5 according to things which are important to us: the environment, cost, amenities, location, safety, camping population, site, phone service