Here are 10 of the campsites that have made me say, “Wow, this is really choice.’’ For details on finding other campsites, see Camping like a king.

Iowa: In Iowa, sites can be reserved three months in advance at 877-427-2757, www.reserveiaparks.com. The reservation fee is $4 if made online and $6 if made by phone, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.

These days, their dwellings might look the same whether they’re herding yaks on the steppes of Kyrgyzstan or exploring tidepools along the Oregon coast. The round, cloth-sided hut called a yurt — or ger, in Mongolia — originated in Central Asia but now can be found in state parks across North America.

You've got everything you need to have fun, except a roof. In Grand Marais, the municipal campground is right on Lake Superior and next to the city's indoor pool and hot tub. In Lanesboro, the campsites of Sylvan Park are right off the Root River State Trail, and campers can buy morning pastries across the pond at the Saturday farmers' market. In the Brainerd area, the Crow Wing State Forest campground on Pelican Lake has one of the state's best beaches.

Is it a Jacuzzi or a latrine? A four-course breakfast or a fire ring?

The answer is not so obvious. If the choice also includes starry skies, silence and snow-laden pines, many folks would take a camper cabin over a fancy inn, even if they have to use vault toilets and cook over a fire.

Near Willmar, a lobe of the last glacier came to a grinding halt 12,000 years ago, dumping massive blocks of ice that made big dents in the ground.

Now, they're lakes, popping up like mirages at the edge of soybean fields, behind screens of ash and cottonwoods. Farther north, they're hidden amid rocky meadows and rolling hillocks full of glacial rubble.