Minneopa State Park

Beautiful views, great bison viewing and waterfall. Busy with a lot of people, and there’s not many trails. Most of the people are around the waterfalls but there’s still a decent amount of traffic in the bison viewing area. There is a scenic overlook to the intact prairie a short drive up from the bison area with a historic mill on it. There are native prairie plants throughout the park, which is good to look for monarchs.

We stayed here in group camp 4. I recommend group site 1 (closest to vault toilets) and also 4, but it's the furthest away from the parking lot. They provide 2 wheeled carts. The firewood was $8/bundle and was claimed to be kiln dried, but some pieces were wet. The water fall was down to a trickle. Some trails by there were closed. We walked around the bision enclosure (took us about 2 hours), but driving through the area allowed you to get much closer to the Bison.

Went to see the bison first, and that was lucky because that part closes earlier than the rest of the park. It was cool to see them for a few minutes anyway. We went to the waterfall side next. The falls and creek were pretty low and mostly frozen, with just a trickle behind the ice. The trail rails could use some maintenance

It's a smaller park, but worth the visit if you're in the area. It has picnic tables, a covered spot to reserve for get togethers. It's beautiful, but not at its full potential when I was here due to the falls being at a trickle due to lack of rain. The hiking trails and the falls would be that much better if it was going at more than a trickle.

We camped here at the Red Fox Campground for a night. We booked online ($24 for the campsite and $7 reservation fee). Plus an additional $7 park entry fee. Campsites are good, but on the smaller side and not very private. Vault toilets are clean and well kept. They have a main restroom/shower area as well, which has hot water and is also pretty clean (pictured). The bison drive was an amazing experience. We went 2 days in a row, and the bison were in exactly the same spot 😅 you can drive up to seppman mill and then hike down. The hike follows the fenced perimeter of the bison drive and is about a 5 mile loop. You can also park right outside the bison drive entrance and walk on the outside of the fence. You CANNOT and should not exit your vehicle inside the fenced area. 1610 AM is the radio channel for the bison drive. You can tune in on your car radio. The bison drive and campsite are on one side of the park, and Minneopa falls on the other. Water levels were super low but that allowed for a good swimming opportunity. There's lots of good trails in the park too. We took the confluence trail (pictured) which is where minneopa creek meets the Minnesota River.