Chester Woods Park

I travelled here with a 35’ 5th wheel, long bed pickup and parked in the site #41, an E only, BI site for $26 a night. This is a lovely campground. The roads are asphalt and the sites are gravel. This one had a bit of a downhill slope by the road and had asphalt on part of the space. I had to use boards under one side to get level. There was a huge space behind the rig which was nice. Lots of shade. Not too close to neighbors either. It is a quiet park. The road into the campground was okay to navigate. The angle of the site off the road made it a little difficult to back into. Other sites would be easier (34, 37, 8.) The bathhouse was very nice – epoxy on the floors and walls like newer garages, well lit. Wifi was ok, lots of OTA stations, 3 bars LTE Verizon connection. The lake had lots of algae in it and there are several hiking trails around. It was an easy drive into Rochester for my annual physical at Mayo Clinic. I would definitely stay here again.

This is a gorgeous park. Campsites are larger and spread out nicely. Most sites have electric. Water and dump at park. Bathroom house is nice and clean. Campground is clean and well taken care of. Good antenna tv stations. Good cell service with Verizon. Reservations can be made online. 15 minutes from Mayo Clinic. Also nice place close to highway for stopping one night on your was through the area. Would recommend to friends. Will come back, next time I go to Mayo.

This is a lovely little campground where most of the campsites are decently spaced (but not all). As others have mentioned, the campsite pads are not typically level ( a few sites are). We used all of our blocks and noticed several rigs with wheels raised. Site 46 was a bit tricky for us to back our 34' fifth wheel into due to a large rock and trees opposing the site entrance. Site 46 is near enough to a water spigot to connect about 40' of hose to in order to fill, which is a plus. It also has nice spacing between neighbors.

This is a very quiet campground that was nearly empty on weekdays but filled quickly and completely on our weekend here in mid-May. If you're coming to secure a space without reservations, that's likely doable on weekdays - but I wouldn't try on a weekend. Reserved spaces have a card noting it is reserved on the power pedestal - camp hosts change these everyday. Camphosts were friendly and were noted to be working hard. Firewood is for sale - only firewood purchased at the campground can be used at the campground.

The park is gorgeous. Grassy trails covering miles with lovely views and rolling hills. There is a swimming beach for humans and another for dogs. Many boaters were out on the weekend fishing. There were also kayakers.

The dump station was a bit tight to maneuver in to on the way out, but very doable.

We had 4 bars of Verizon LTE - very usable. Our Starlink suffered several dropouts an hour due to tree coverage blockages.

We called the number listed as we were in the road. Phone number was invalid. Called the county and was told to just show up, sites were available. Arrived and got a good site, it was the ADA site as it was not taken. They gave us Wi-Fi password so we could register. Price is 30 a night plus a 5 dollar transaction fee. There is train noise. If coming from Egypt’s, be a way re of a RR overpass at 13’6”.

No attendant at the gate. Cruised the grounds to find reservations were posted on power pedestal. Chose an open site. Sites are far between and the one we chose was reasonably level. Nice privacy. Camp host appeared the next morning and was most accommodating though COVID questionable. Enjoyed our stay and would stay again should travels warrant. Nice dump arranged for exit access.

Chester Woods is a gem 10 miles outside of Rochester, Minnesota. I am writing this in the middle of a 10 day stay.

The sites are well spreadout, mostly gravel, with lots of grass around the pads, picnic tables and fire rings. Firewood is available for sale.

The park is electric hookup only. There is fresh water and a dump station at the entry/exit to the camping area of the park.

Chester Woods has a lake with canoe rentals, fishing and a swim beach. Lots of group picnic areas. A short but nice trail system. Lots and lots of trees!

The wifi is adequate. Bathrooms and showers are well maintained. Interesting point on the showers is that they seem to have a single temperature, that fluctuates between kind of warm and warm.

I wrote earlier in the middle of a 10 day stay. I have a few more items to share. The campground has been quite empty during the week and on Friday night it filled to capacity.

The wifi remains in and out. I think the strenght varies around the campground. If you are working, have a Verizon hotspot backup.

Avoid space 43. It has quite a slope to the passenger side. After the weekend I moved to 41, which is wide and more level. Happy camper!

If you want to be near Rochester, this is a fabulous campground. The sites do not have water, and it would be helpful to have had that hookup for a longer stay like ours. But we knew that, so we can't complain about it. The water spigots are accessible and there are several. The park is clean and well-kept, and there are lots of paved and unpaved trails for walking or biking. Some sites are level and others are not, but at #35 we were able to get our trailer level. It was difficult backing in because of railroad ties on the opposite side of the road. For most of our stay, we had lots of space around us because there was no one in the spot that is super close to us. But on the weekend the campground filled up so we were in close proximity to the nextdoor trailer.

The weather was very stormy here in early June, and we had an emergency announcement over the loudspeaker about the impending storm. We didn't enjoy sitting outside because of the bugs. Every Wednesday morning there is an emergency siren test, so don't be surprised.

My husband enjoyed paddleboarding on the lake, and there were a lot of fishermen (and women) around.

When the folks came to the spot beside us, they came with a crowd. With only about 15' between the trailers, they also had 4 cars, a tent, and we're not sure how many people. The campground went from lovely during the week to claustrophobic as all the spots were taken, many by large groups.

We had very mixed feelings about this campground. On the one hand, it featured nice electric sites with plenty of greenery and lovely trails throughout the park. On the other hand, the site we reserved was comically unlevel, as were several others. We had absolutely zero chance of getting level in our first site, and the second site we tried was just as bad. We finally found a site that, by using all of our leveling blocks, we could level in, but it was a bit much. There are plenty of sites that are ok, but it's a crap-shoot, and the online reservation system provides no information about the levelness of the sites. In fact the online photo of our first site was completely misleading. If we were to stay at the campground again, we'd try calling and getting advice from someone there.

This lovely park is just minutes east of Rochester MN. Electric Hookups avail. Dump station and potable water in the park. Great shade trees, campground hosts were great, they have a beach on a man made reservoir, nice walking trails, kayaks for rent. Bathhouse in the campground could use some deep cleaning/refreshing. Firewood available for purchase. Weekends fill up with local/regional campers. As mentioned earlier sites require a little extra to level but worth it.