ABOVE: Cedar Hanson Campground Host Monica Pavich goes over the rules and expectations of the grounds, highlighting the deposit box for payments.

TRIMONT – Even with the rains and heat waves of the last few weeks, the Martin County campgrounds are staying the course.

There are two main campgrounds in county parks. Cedar Hanson Park in Trimont has six docks, two boat launches, and two swimming areas. It has 37 electric and water campsites and 24 primitive campsites. Perch Lake Park in Truman has 14 electric and water campsites, and multiple areas scattered throughout the park for primitive camping.

A third smaller camping option exists at Great Lake Park but only has spots for primitive camping. Martin County Engineer Kevin Peyman said Cedar Hanson is the most popular, with 80 percent of county campers using it. Cedar Hanson Campground Host Monica Pavich said there are a few reasons for this popularity.

“Because it’s peaceful,” she said. “It’s a first come, first serve basis. We don’t reserve sites. Usually, there’s always a site or two available. It’s usually pretty quiet. The lake is pretty nice because we have been catching quite a bit of fish out here lately. It’s a nice swimming lake with the swimming areas.”

In addition, Peyman said Cedar Hanson is a campground that brings people back multiple times.

“Some groups have been coming for years and years,” he said. “You try to accommodate their history and if they want to group camp and get some campers together we try to work with them. There’s a lot of repeat customers, people that come out all the time, be used to using the park and continue to use it.”

The biggest addition in the last few years has been to Cedar Hanson, erecting a shower bathroom building. Even so, Peyman said a lot of what’s currently at Cedar Hanson has been new developments.

“It hasn’t been that long ago with even the electric or the wall of the water hookups,” he said. “It used to be all primitive. Adding all of the sites and then adding the bathroom building is probably the biggest thing.”

And they aren’t looking to stop either. Peyman said they are looking to further development and add permanent sites along with sewage pumps. For now, things will stay as they are because the focus is on paying off the bathroom building. Peyman said the building has added a beneficial option to both primitive and non-primitive campers.

“It’s nicer for some campers if they’re primitive camping and don’t have their own facilities,” he said. “Even some, if they’re using a camper, would still rather have a spot like that. It opens up avenues that people want to use the park, even just for day users to have a nicer bathroom where you can have running water and wash your hands.”

June’s weather has included several storms and a weekend heatwave. Despite that, Peyman said they’re having a decent season.

“Last year we had a pretty rough year because we had the flooding,” he said. “The campgrounds were closed and a lot of the electrical spots were underwater for a portion of the summer. We’re pretty normal this year. I don’t think we’ve had much flooding or issues. We had a little bit of a late start because there were soft spots early, but we’ve had some good weekends.”

They’re anticipating full occupancy for the July 4th weekend, one of their busiest times of the season.

Looking forward, Peyman said they’re planning to keep occupying their niche in the campground scene.

“Part of the reasons we don’t pick long-term reservations is we want to keep the parks available for day use or for campers that want to come over the weekend. We don’t want to turn it into more of a commercialized campground where not everyone can use it. Keep the peace and quiet so more people can use them.”

For more information, visit https://www.co.martin.mn.us/community/parks/.