If you've ever tried to explain to a 9-year-old why this camping trip is going to be more fun than staying home, you know the negotiation is real. The good news: the Winona, MN area doesn't need much selling once kids arrive. The bluffs are big enough to feel like an actual adventure. The river is wild enough to be interesting. And the campground is set up to keep kids genuinely occupied from breakfast until the campfire dies down.
Here's the full picture of what 6–12-year-olds can do during a stay at Camp Everyday.
Hiking the Bluffs
This is the age range that hiking was made for. School-age kids have the legs for real elevation gain and the attention span to appreciate what they find at the top — and the bluffs around Winona are genuinely rewarding.
Garvin Heights City Park is the accessible first hike for families: manageable trail, serious views from 575 feet above the city and river. Most 6-year-olds can do it. Most 12-year-olds will want to race to the top.
John Latsch State Park, 12 miles north of camp on Highway 61, is our favorite for this age group. The trail climbs three summits named Faith, Hope, and Charity — and there's something about giving kids a named goal that turns a hike into a quest. From the tops, the river valley stretches out in both directions and kids who weren't interested in hiking suddenly are.
Pickwick Mill offers a flatter, creek-side option for groups with a wider age range or when someone needs an easier day. The historic mill at the end is a genuine point of curiosity.
Fishing and Wildlife
Kids who catch a fish become a different kind of kid. Our Kids Fishing Derby is one of the most popular events at Camp Everyday for exactly this reason — it's structured, it's fun, it's achievable, and the pride of landing something real is hard to replicate.
The Upper Mississippi backwaters are prime wildlife territory year-round. Bald eagles are a near-daily sighting along this stretch of the river — they've got a 6–7 foot wingspan and they're impossible to miss once you know what to look for. Great blue herons, white-tailed deer, river otters, and painted turtles are all common. A good pair of binoculars and a field guide will keep an eagle-eyed 10-year-old occupied for hours.
Swimming and Campground Games
The Camp Everyday pool gets heavy use from this age group, and for good reason — it's a social hub where kids meet other kids and form the kind of fast, fierce campground friendships that last the whole trip and sometimes years beyond it.
Beyond the pool: cornhole, bocce, frisbee, and open space. School-age kids are good at inventing games with whatever's available, and we've seen elaborate multi-campsite tournaments develop organically by day two of a long weekend. Let it happen.
Exploring Downtown Winona
Winona is a more interesting small city than most kids expect. The Watkins Heritage Museum is free to enter and does a surprisingly good job of making river town history engaging — the steamboat era, the lumber boom, and the immigrant stories that built the city. The stained glass trail is worth doing with curious kids: Winona has the highest concentration of antique stained glass windows in the United States, and some of them are large enough to stop you cold.
Sugar Loaf, the limestone pinnacle visible above downtown, is a goal-setting landmark for kids who want to be able to say they climbed something.
Farmers Market Adventure
One of our favorite tricks for this age: give each kid $5 and set them loose at the Winona Farmers Market. They can buy whatever they want — a scone, some berries, a jar of local hot sauce, homemade soap, whatever catches their eye. The exercise in independence and decision-making is worth more than whatever they pick. Saturday mornings, May through October, downtown riverfront.
Live Music Nights at Camp
We host live music at Camp Everyday throughout the summer — regional bluegrass, folk, and country artists who play genuine, full-length sets from the stage area. For kids who've never experienced live music in any format beyond a school concert, this lands differently than you'd expect. Something about music outdoors, under trees, after dark, with a fire nearby is formative in a way you don't need to explain.
Night Sky and Campfire
The bluffs east of Winona have minimal light pollution, and on clear nights the sky is properly dark in a way that's increasingly rare. Bring a star map app and let the kids find constellations. The campfire handles the rest: s'mores, ghost stories (calibrate appropriately), and the kind of slow, unstructured family time that's impossible to schedule but happens naturally around a fire.
Summer Scavenger Hunt
Our summer scavenger hunt event is designed specifically for this age group — nature-themed, competitive in a good way, and built to cover enough ground that kids get real exercise without realizing it. It's a highlight of the summer event calendar and a great way for kids who don't know each other at the start of the weekend to become a team by the end of it.
Before You Book
Check our events calendar before you finalize your dates. The Kids Fishing Derby, Scavenger Hunt, and live music weekends add a layer to any trip that basic campground time doesn't offer. Some weekends are significantly richer than others, and a little planning pays off.
Camp Everyday is 6 miles south of Winona — everything in this guide is within easy reach. School-age kids are our most enthusiastic audience. They arrive skeptical and leave asking when they can come back. We'll see you out there.
Plan Your Stay
Ready to experience the bluffs for yourself? Book your site at Camp Everyday Winona.
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