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MPR News Staff

Minnesota state parks opening all campsites to reservations

Campers in Minnesota's Afton State Park
Camping at Minnesota's state parks is about to get a little easier and more predictable thanks to a policy change announced Friday. Here, participants in a camping workshop tend to the business at hand at Afton State Park.
Jeffrey Thompson | MPR News 2010

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Hundreds of previously "first come, first served" state park campsites will become reservable starting next week, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said Friday.

Access to those additional sites will open not just for Memorial Day weekend but for the entire camping season at each park, the DNR said in a statement. Those sites typically make up 25 to 30 percent of the total sites at each campground.

"The change comes as the result of a pilot project in 2014 and 2015, when about 20 percent of Minnesota's state parks made all of their campsites reservable," the DNR added. The "positive response" from that experiment let officials to expand the move statewide.

The DNR said it will also start accepting same-day reservations with no reservation fee at most parks for travelers who show up spontaneously. Previously, campers had to reserve a site by midnight the night before arrival day.

"Making every site reservable in advance so that no one has to leave their plans to chance is just one of the customer service improvements at Minnesota state parks and trails this year," Erika Rivers, director of the DNR's parks and trails unit, said in a statement.

The agency plans to roll out access to the additional campsites in batches starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday for state parks in southern Minnesota and the Twin Cities metro area. The DNR on Wednesday opens access to additional sites in central and northwestern Minnesota and Thursday for parks in the northeast.

Campers can check the DNR reservations site for availability and to make reservations.