By:
Submission
Gull Lake Recreation Area offers something for everyone with boating, hiking, fishing and swimming at Minnesota's famous Gull Lake, the largest of the 10 lakes on the Gull Chain of Lakes. Visitors have the opportunity to see and hear an abundance of watchable wildlife like bald eagles, white-tailed deer, river otters, a variety of songbirds, and the legendary call of the loon.
Anglers will delight in the large population of fish including stocked walleye, northern pike, bass and a variety of panfish. Boaters can access crystal clear waters throughout the chain of lakes and enjoy the peaceful sunsets overlooking the woods. Hit the self-guided interpretive trail for a short hike with wildlife watching, scenic overlooks, and geocaching opportunities.
The campground is known for its well-spaced wooded sites, each with 50 or 30 amp electric hookups service, picnic tables and campfire rings, and a centrally located showerhouse. A boat ramp and swimming beach on the lake, canoe access and fishing platforms on the river, and playgrounds are also perks of the park.
The campground sits on the Gull River at the outlet of Gull Lake. The area was formed by a receding glacier that moved southward from Canada and carved the landscape. Gull Lake is one of the six Mississippi Headwaters Projects of the Mississippi River Watershed operated by The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Gull Lake is located minutes from 520 holes of golf, the 100-mile Paul Bunyan Trail, amusement parks, and numerous shopping opportunities in Brainerd, Baxter, and Nisswa.
From the intersection MN 210 and MN 371 in Baxter, drive north 5.8 miles. Turn left on Cty Rd 125 (Gull Lake Dam Road). Follow the signs for approximately 3 miles. Turn left into the campground when you see the playground.
Overall a really nice well maintained and clean campground. We enjoyed our stay for the most part. Staff and volunteers are wonderful. Sites are huge. On the downfall we hated our site aside from the large size. We had a street lamp directly in front of our site #9. It lit up our entire campsite at night. All we wanted was a nice dark campfire but felt like we were city camping in our backyard at home. I get these are here for safety reasons but there are so many lamps. Maybe even a little dimmer after 10 would be nice. No water spigots or Porta potties near the campsites. I didn't realize checkout was noon. Wish check in/out was a little later like state parks. Fishing wasn't great but we did drive around to others areas.
Camped for a long weekend during beautiful fall colors. Campground was well maintained and I always felt safe. The only thing was some campsites are pretty exposed to the road or close to neighbors but would recommend!
Nice area for many activities! There is a swimming beach, boat ramp, park, campground, trails, and probably more. Fun to see the big fish at the dam. Trails are scenic, with lots of wildlife. Older park equipment, but still fun for younger kids.
Lovely quiet campground, clean and well maintained. I almost gave 5 stars, the only issue is that it's not super big-rig friendly (it's not impossible, just some of the sites have trees too close to the campsites, you'll see a lot of them have bumper-height scars, especially at the edge by the road, we didn't hit ours but it took us about 5 tries to back in playing dodg'em with the trees and had to go in crooked so our slideout wouldnt hit a shrubby tree). If you have a smaller camper you probably wouldn't have a problem, and there are several sites we noted would be easier for future visits (I hesitate to write them here since it could make them harder to get... 7, 11, 17, 25, and then 22 is the only pull-through). Also, if you come in from East Gull Lake Drive, there is a point right before you get to the recreation area where you think "this can't be right, I must have messed up!" (because the road gets narrow and looks like it's just going to some private cottages and there will be nowhere to turn around) and then there's a narrow one-lane bridge. I really recommend coming in on Gull Lake Dam Rd if it works for your route at all.
Another review mentioned how diligent the rangers are about quiet hours, the reviewer was writing it as a criticism but I read that and thought "that sounds perfect!". We did find it to be totally quiet after 10pm, if anyone who has anything to do with running this campground ever reads this, please keep up the good work!! We also observed that the volunteer hosts were extremely on top of cleaning up sites after people left.
For activities, there is a playground, fishing near the dam (with a fish cleaning station), a place to put in canoes/kayaks and the park rangers hosted a few activities like nature bingo and a hike. We were in the area for a family reunion, so we didn't participate in them but it was nice they had them and also that they told us about them when they checked us in. There is also a day-use area of the park, which we didn't visit, but according to the pamphlet it has a boat ramp, swimming beach, another playground, picnic area, volleyball, basketball and horseshoes.
In the campground is a clean shower house with flush toilets and then vault toilets in 2 smaller buildings that were not stinky. There are several water bottle fillers, which I've never seen in a campground before and we did take advantage of them.
We would definitely stay here again if we were in the area!
