Rock Lake Campground

This is a nice campground by a small lake. No reservations are allowed. First come, first served. The weekend I came all the other camps in the area were booked up for at least Saturday. I arrived on a Thursday and found all the lake side sites taken but many open spots in the woods. There were at least 5 sun exposed sites that could accommodate any sized rig. As soon as you claim a site you go to the kiosk and pay $15/night. You must stay on all the nights you claim. Sites accommodate up to 8 people and 2 vehicles but require a Minnesota State Park tag. There were lots of mosquitoes but spray (or a good breeze) should handle that. Every site has a picnic table and fire ring. No electric or water. No dump station. There is a short walk from the campground area to a decent beach and picnic area. The camp is 20 minutes from the Brainerd Baxter area. Almost all sites are back in.

I stayed here on a Monday night in June 2019. It's a nice campground, with a variety of sites along the lake with direct lake access, with more sites in wooded areas without lake access. There's 41 drive-in sites, and about eight of them were taken. Some of the sites will only accommodate a vehicle (car/truck/SUV), but many are long enough for trailers or fifth wheels. I saw some sites with fifth wheels parked, with room next to it for a truck. There are some sites which can support fifth wheels with parking across the campground road in the grass. About halfway into the campground, there's a loop that goes back to the entrance, which I think would be comfortable for a Class A RV to turn.

I took some photos of a handful of sites and put them on Google Street View.

Each site that I saw had a picnic table and fire pit with grill; the standard Minnesota setup. It's $14 a night, with payment envelopes that accept cash, checks, or you can write your credit card number on it. No human interaction here, though there's sometimes a campground host if you have issues. There's no hookups, i.e. no electricity. There is a water pump, but I didn't try it. There are permitted generator hours, and I saw two RVers running their generators. Most of the sites won't have good solar, but there's a handful of sites not along the lake but near a large open area with a good view of the southern sky.

There's a short hiking trail, but it's not that impressive. This campground also has a day use area, with a boat launch. Leashed dogs permitted.

The campground was quiet at night, and the campground faces east along the lake for wonderful sunrises. However, there's a huge antenna directly across the lake if that sort of thing bothers you. It flashes red all night, but not in a way that was irritating.

As of June 2019:
Verizon LTE: 52ms ping, 72mbps down, 6mbps up
AT&T LTE: 38ms ping, 19mbps down, 13mbps up
T-Mobile LTE: 79ms ping, 5mbps down, 4mbps up