Camping in the Midwest

September 14, 2009 12:25 PM

Where should my boyfriend camp on his way to Washington, DC from St. Paul, MN?

My boyfriend is driving from St. Paul, MN to Washington DC for a 3-week construction job. He is planning on leaving Wednesday and arriving in DC no later than Friday. He'd like to spend one night camping in the mountains, and has some time to explore wherever he ends up. He's driving his Ford pickup truck with all of his tools and equipment in the back, so he doesn't want to sleep too far from the truck. He's taking I-94/90 west to I-76/70 west, but is willing to go a couple hours out of his way to check out something cool. Where along this route would be an interesting place to stop and camp?

posted by ahdeeda to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

Shenandoah national park along skyline drive. absolutely beautiful. and bonus, its on his way and pretty close to DC. i would say drive there in one day (shouldn't be more than 12 hours) and then stay wed night AND thursday night. skyline deive is so cool and thats an absolutely perfect time of year (and of the week) to visit.

-c
posted by chasles at 1:20 PM on September 14

My wife and I made that very trip this time last year when moving to D.C. except we stayed in hotels rather than camping. I don't have any good camping ideas other than to share the cities we stayed in for others to hopefully provide a great camping location.

Day 1 Minneapolis to South Bend Indiana.
Day 2 South Bend to Pittsburgh
Day 3 Pittsburgh to D.C. (very short driving day)

Also, Shenandoah, while awesome, is not on the way to D.C. via the route described. If he has an extra night certainly give it a try but know it would be a ways off the path.
posted by firetruckred at 2:21 PM on September 14

I like this website. It's about RV's but in the information on each campground you can see if camping is available.


RV parks
posted by notned at 2:58 PM on September 14

Day 1: instead of stopping at South Bend, IN, consider stopping a little earlier at Dunewood for the night. Right near Lake Michigan, beautiful beaches and dunes, etc. Part of the Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore. Nice, clean bathroom/shower facilities too.
posted by ViolaGrinder at 3:56 PM on September 14

HA! i'm special for sure. i totally read it as st louis.... not st paul. many apologies.
posted by chasles at 6:34 AM on September 16