The latest Minnesota camping trend: crops and livestock

Shelley and John Rasmussen were longtime Minnesota state park campers when COVID-inspired crowding nudged them to think about alternatives. Space and quiet, and even a place where their two dogs could chill, were in short supply.

“It was like, this isn’t even fun,” Shelley Rasmussen recalled.

So she searched for private camping locations and came upon an unusual listing: 40-acres of Minnesota farm fields and pasture billed as a place where “anyone can find their little piece of ‘peace.’ ”

The Spring Valley, Minn., couple took a leap, booking a site for their 15-foot Cherokee camper on a farm deep in bluff country. They set up on a campsite with an electric hook-up at the Ranch Retreat, amid cows and crops of soybeans or corn in the Mississippi River Valley between Winona and La Crosse, Wis.

They’ve been back about 10 times since, joining a national trend: campers pitching their tents, parking their RVs and making their s’mores on working farms.

Some farm campers like the idea of trying a new place. Some like to support farmers or learn about the life with all its sweaty work and earthy odors. Or, similar to the Rasmussens, they want quiet and what feels like a space of their own.

Hipcamp, an Airbnb-like platform for campsites, has seen a 47% increase in what it calls “farm stays” in the past two years, according to a spokesperson. There are 7,500 farm camps on the site, including more than 60 in Minnesota. Harvest Hosts, another popular platform, offers yearly membership packages for unlimited overnights.

Farms “are among the most popular locations on our platform,” Hipcamp’s Cassandra Prenn-Vasilakis said.

Visitors to Pearsons Century Farm in Grove City, Minn., about an hour southwest of St. Cloud, can buy eggs or grass-fed beef, or marvel at baby goats that scamper, owner Travis Schroeder said. He also gives tours and allows campers free reign to investigate the 80-acre homestead — within reason.

His property has been in his family for more than 100 years and, up until opening it to campers, Schroeder used it as a getaway.

More than half of Pearsons campers are RVers: Some are travelers en route to the metro from the South Dakota Badlands. Schroeder has had western visitors who used his place as a stopover on the way to their Lake Superior cabins. Still others stop because they want farm experiences.

“We don’t have a lot of repeat customers,” Schroeder said, “but people that do come back say they enjoy that there is nothing going on except what they are going to do. It is outdoor leisure to the max.”

Farm stays have also become a significant source of income for some farmers — especially those who sell “add-ons” such as farm-raised food and guided tours.

“I think camping-based agritourism and the rise of farm stays are a great way to support farmers and ranches while connecting people with the landscapes they care for,” Prenn-Vasilakis said.

Medicine Creek Farm spreads across nearly 160 acres in Finlayson, about an hour southwest of Duluth.

“We are an agricultural space but it feels like a wild space,” said farmer Heather Bernhardt of the hardwoods, wetlands and streams that are part of the landscape.

She and her husband, Jason Misik, began hosting campers in 2022, motivated partly to diversify their income. They raise beef and lamb and have a pig operation. They also sell eggs.

Visitors can stay in a remodeled vintage compact camper trailer, which sleeps two and can be reserved for $80 a night. There also is a renovated barn that people can sleep in.

The couple, along with their young son, Harvey, also saw an opening to share what they have learned as regenerative farmers. Campers have helped move livestock to new grazing areas, for instance, and in the process learned how healthy soil and grassland produces healthier livestock and food.

“I lure people here with cute pictures,” Bernhardt said with a laugh, “but it is a front for getting to do a deeper education about things I think are important. It is really rewarding to share it.”

Down in the Driftless Area, at Ranch Retreat, owner Jolene Danca began opening her 40 acres to campers in 2018. She said visitors regularly comment on the ability to isolate in a bucolic patch of quiet.

Danca has three campsites — two with electric — and also rents out a renovated barn. Some groups have booked all of it at once.

Her sons Riley, 18, and Logan, 16, help sell firewood and prep campsites. Danca hosts while holding down her day job as principal at an alternative learning center. They frequently interact with guests and the ranch gets a lot of repeat customers like the Rasmussens, who say the campsites are well-maintained and, at just $29 a night, less expensive than state parks.

“I try to make it very family-oriented,” Danca added. “People are more willing to support families that they see can take pride in things.”