Flandrau State Park

The chlorinated sand bottom pool gets 5 stars, but the campsites get 1 star due to rats. I settled on 2 stars.
We stayed at a different state park, but stopped by Flandrau on a Sunday afternoon to check out the campsites and take a dip in the pool. The pool is amazing and so lovely on a hot day. It’s free, you just need to make sure you have a state park parking pass. There’s lifeguards on duty and when they blow the whistle, get out of the pool and take your safety break!
The campsites are so bogus! Maybe the electric sites for RVs are better, but the tent sites are super small and right on top of each other — no trees or anything in between. It reminded me of music festival camping when they try to pack as many tents in as possible. There’s 3 walk-​in sites. We walked back to check them out and the path was covered with little (baby?!) rats. Just NO. Animals are going to be nearby when you’re in the woods, but they shouldn’t be so used to people that they walk over my flip flop. That almost happened… related I nearly shit my pants.
This brings me to my next complaint: the bathrooms. Holy mother of all — what is wrong with people?! The women’s outhouse had no toilet papper, so I attempted to go to the men’s. BIG MISTAKE. Remember the festival tent sites? Well, I’m thinking the whole campground must have felt that vibe too and partied like rockstars for the weekend. Drunk off your ass is surely the only way the entire men’s outhouse could be covered in human feces, right?! It smelled horrible (no surprise). It was so so so bad. Luckily we always bring emergency toilet paper so I was able to use the potty NOT covered in shit before I made my escape.
I really don’t think I’ll even go back for the pool. It was a bad experience.

beautiful for hiking

Flanrdrau is one of my favorite state parks. It’s an easy drive from the cities. The park itself is beautiful, with WPA era buildings, lots of shaded campsites and nice hiking trails. Unique to this park is a large sandy bottomed «swimming hole.» This is a man-​made swimming pool that looks just like a little lake. The kids love it and its great for a dip on a hot day.
Another feature of Flandrau is that it sits right in the town of New Ulm. This means you have ready access to all the Schell’s beer, air fried food, glockenspiel chiming goodness of my new favorite MN town, all within shouting distance of the park.
All of this goodness means you’ll want to reserve a spot early if you have specific dates of travel. Otherwise, they do hold some campsites back for walk-ins…but get there early! OK.