Nice campground. The staff woman who checked us in was very friendly. Other than the mosquitoes... that was the only negative..but given it's Minnesota.. what can you do about that? Hiked the trail to the falls and that was nice too. The ranger came though many times so I liked that too. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
We enjoyed our midweek stay at this campground. Spacious sites with lots of shade. Each site seems to be separated with brush and trees. Our site Number 24e was slightly unlevel. Bugs weren't too bad: this time of year the little flies were pesty. The trash receptacle is located quite a distance away. The showers and restrooms were clean. They don't have a dump station. Expect to pay an extra $5 per day for a State vehicle permit. There are beautiful trails located in this park, including the quarry trail with a hike less than a mile to a small waterfall. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
Banning State Park is very nice. Our only complaint was the heavy amount of mosquitoes and woodticks. Some of the hiking trails were a little muddy, but other than that the trails were beautiful. Wonderful sites to see! The campsites were all fairly spaced and wooded. We stayed in campsite number 34. It was very nice and private. However, it was fairly close to swampy areas. We had a wonderful time and would go again. We camped here in a Tent.
This park was a nice suprise for us - it offered good activates, clean facilities, and nice campsites. Big Rigs need to be careful with low hanging branches near site 7 otherwise, you'll be ok. Sites 2, 4 & 6 are in an open area; rest are in a wooded setting. 28 is a nice non-elec site. 24, 22 & 20 were nice elec sites. (#24 was especially roomy) 10, 12 & 13 seemed a bit snug to us. Several very interesting hikes. Get the "Banning Quarry Self-Guided Trail" pamphlet at the Ranger Station and walk the Quarry Loop trail. Nice trail (old rail road bed) takes you past relics from the late 1800's when pink "Hinckley Standstone" was mined here and used for high-end building materials. Walking past the remains of the Cutting house, Power house, Rock Crusher, seeing the blast holes in the quarry, the unfinished rock, the tailings, and reading the pamphlet is almost spooky! Hundreds of people worked here and now...nothing but the ruins. Suggestion: Take the Spur Trail up from the quarry rather then face all the stairs at the North end of the Quarry Loop. Kettle River roars through "Hell's Gate" and there is a nice outlook called "Teacher's Outlook". Park is very well maintained. We told the ranger about a paper-wasp's nest across from our site... 30 minutes later a ranger pulls up in a truck, waves at us, sprays the nest, knocks it down from the tree and stomps on it, he waved again as he saw us all standing in our RV applauding him! Very friendly staff there. Some cell phone coverage; no Blackberry coverage. No highway noise however some minor noise at night from a rail road several miles away. We camped here in a Motorhome.