Camping 109
40 RV Sites, 1 Cabin
Camping 109 is a quiet, family-run campground on the eastern shore of Big Stone Lake in Big Stone City, South Dakota—40 full hookup sites positioned next to a boat launch on one of the state's most northeasterly bodies of water, at a point where the South Dakota-Minnesota border runs directly through the lake and the Whetstone River enters from the north. The campground's lakefront simplicity, clean facilities, and direct boat access make it an unpretentious and practical choice for anglers, paddlers, and families who want lake access without resort-scale pricing or crowds.
Forty sites with full hookups in both pull-through and back-in configurations offer 30 and 50-amp electric service, water, sewer, and WiFi, each with a picnic table and fire ring. A playground, laundry room, dump station, and amenities block with clean restrooms and showers round out the infrastructure. The boat launch is immediately adjacent to the campground, eliminating the drive to a public ramp that many lake campgrounds require, and the lake itself provides the primary recreation draw for the cabins and campsites that the property maintains.
Big Stone Lake straddles the South Dakota-Minnesota state line in the Minnesota River watershed, occupying the northernmost point of the Coteau des Prairies—the elevated plateau that divides the Missouri River and Red River drainage systems across the northern Great Plains. The lake's 26 miles of length give it enough water to provide meaningful boating recreation in a region where large natural lakes are not abundant, and the fishing for walleye, northern pike, perch, and bass sustains the local angling community through the open-water season. Big Stone Lake State Park, about five miles north on the Minnesota side, provides the public boat launch, camping, and shoreline access infrastructure that makes the lake a destination for visitors from both states.
Big Stone City is a small community of under 500 people at the lake's southern end, providing the basic commercial services that a summer lake destination requires without the development pressure that has transformed many comparable lake towns. Ortonville, Minnesota, four and a half miles east across the state line, provides a somewhat larger commercial center and the Brown County Museum, which interprets the history of the upper Minnesota River valley and the glacial geology that carved Big Stone Lake from the Quaternary ice sheet. Wine and craft beverage tasting options in the area provide an additional local draw for the summer evening after a day on the water.
Camping 109 operates through the South Dakota lake season, typically from spring ice-out through fall, with fishing season demand concentrated in the spring walleye runs and the fall feeding activity that precede ice-up. The campground's small scale and family management give it the personal character that larger commercial properties lose, and the adjacent boat launch means that early morning fishing departures require nothing more complicated than backing a trailer down a ramp from a campsite. The North Dakota border is a short drive north, and the vastness of the northern Great Plains landscape surrounding the lake makes Big Stone one of those genuinely out-of-the-way destinations where the primary reward is the absence of the crowds that accumulate at more accessible recreation sites.
from $35/night
