Jay Cooke State Park

I can't believe I haven't written a review before. Jay Cooke is a gem. As I say in most of my state park reviews, if you're looking for perfect there are plenty of $100+ RV parks with swimming pools, cable TV and daily bingo... but if you're looking for that you probably aren't looking at state park campgrounds. :--))
Jay Cooke is across the road from the famous swinging bridge over the St Louis River. It doesn't swing any more but when I was a kid it was awesome (and a bit scary).
Campground is clean, brand new shower building with hot water, clean bathrooms and a place to wash your dishes. dump station is great and free.
You are right outside Carlton which has a few bar/restaurants and gas stations with convenience items. Cloquet is only 10 minutes or so up the road with large grocery stores (and a Walmart), and Duluth is 20 minutes in the other direction with a ton of activities. however, there are enough hiking trails and photo spots in this park to keep you and the kids busy for days. The river is very wild in this park do to the geography.
Camp sites are nice, most of which have plenty of space. If you have a 'huge' rig you'll want to be careful on a few of the internal roads as the loop at the top can be a bit tight.
Stars at night - yep there's a few. :--)) We love late fall camping here, not as busy but still fantastic hikes.

CG is very difficult to get into! We have a 34' 5th Wheel and have been in many tight spots over ther years but that was the tightest. Sights 1 and 2 are the best if you have any size at all. They don't trim the trees on the loop roads.
Bathrooms are new and very nice and clean but its very close to main road and there are a lot of non campers using it. I would not camp there again unless we could get site 1 or 2! Very beautiful park with great hiking!

This is an amazing state park with lots of great hiking.

I stayed three nights in April 2017. The campground is huge, and though campsites can be hit or miss on foliage, many have decent privacy. If it's not booked up (i.e. not a weekend or holiday), I recommend winging it and showing up to scope out the spot you want.

To be honest, most state parks on the North Shore can get pretty miserable on nice holiday or weekend days due to the volume of people, and this is no exception. One of the nights I was there, screaming and running children were absolutely unbearable; parents seemed totally oblivious to other campers being present and failed to keep them inside their campsite. If you can visit during the week, it's much better.

I stayed at site 42e, which was very easy to back into and had working and properly wired 30A power. While it’s close to Highway 210, there’s virtually no traffic after dark. You can hear the river rapids from the campsite. The only downsides were that there’s an unofficial trail shortcut that comes right into the campsite that not everyone can resist, and it's next to the campground entrance so you hear everyone coming and going. I would stay at this campground again, but I’d probably opt for a spot further back because it’s more wooded.

The dump station was still closed for the season when I visited, and water was turned off everywhere except one place in the center of the campground, but a 75’ water hose reached the only open spigot just fine.

Cell Service at site 42e:
AT&T: 2 bars LTE, 46ms ping, 42mbps down, 4.57mbps up
T-Mobile: 2 bars LTE, 97ms ping, 64mbps down, 2.41mbps up
Verizon: no service, fading to 1x at times. Drive a little toward Carlton or hike about 10-15 minutes west for LTE.

As with all Minnesota State Parks, reserve online, even late on the same day. There’s no added reservation fee on top of the nightly fee if your reservation starts the same day. If you book for tomorrow or later, there is an added fee. A daily or annual state park permit is required.

We used the c/g for an overnite only and would have enjoyed it more if we had some time to walk around. The location has much potential for beautiful campsites along a rushing river. But no, the officials saw fit to put the c/g on the other side of the twisting steep road from the beautiful river.

Over the years I've driven hgwy 210 (access road) as a cutoff to a backroad to easily get through Duluth into Superior, WI. It has always beena beautiful steep twisting drive so I was looking forward to the SP for the first time. I was dissappointed.

C/G sites are tight, heavily treed, close together and I am sure buggy in warm weather. On a weekend, this c/g close to Duluth and the Twin Cities would be crowded and I am sure noisey with kids and parties.

A port in a storm or a mid-week visit to view some beautiful country around the SP would be appropriate..