Minnesota's first state park campground for off-roaders and their rigs opens this summer

Bob Timmons, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Mar 30, 2026

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MINNEAPOLIS — The first campground in the state park system catering to the off-road vehicle crowd will open this summer in northern Minnesota.

Years in development, Pyrite Campground opens June 12 in Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park, the Department of Natural Resources announced March 26.

While Pyrite will be open to all campers, the campground has 24 electrical sites designed for visitors pulling trailers loaded with all-terrain and related vehicles, said Jim DeVries, a project manager and park assistant manager. The sites are wider and longer than traditional sites.

The campground also will have showers and an ATV wash station to help prevent the spread of invasive species.

Pyrite’s creation isn’t news to a lot of off-roaders. Some have been calling DeVries for weeks, he said. Many, too, already are making reservations, which went live March 25.

“There is a lot of excitement about this park,” DeVries said.

The buzz stands to reason: An economic impact study found that tens of thousands of riders of off-highway vehicles (OHVs) injected about $36 million into three counties in the region in 2023. One of the counties, St. Louis, is home to Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park.

Many of those off-roading enthusiasts are from out of town, the study said. When they arrive, they already have vast trail networks to play in. The Prospectors Trail network covers 300-plus miles and links Ely, Babbitt, Embarrass, Tower and Soudan. A connecting path will give Pyrite campers easy access to Prospectors, DeVries said.

About 35 miles south in Gilbert, off-roaders have 1,200 acres to rumble around in the Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle State Recreation Area.

Back in Soudan, the new campground spreads over 400 acres on the south side of Hwy. 169. Legislation in 2020 allowed the state to remove the land from the state park and designate it as the Lake Vermilion State Recreation Area, DeVries said. The move was mandatory: OHV use is illegal in state parks.