Anvil Lake Campground
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 36 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 1917 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
If you are looking for a campground with a family atmosphere or a base camp to explore area trails, try Anvil Lake Campground off State Highway 70, just minutes east of Eagle River, within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. The campground is in a beautiful setting, among tall maples, pines and hemlocks, perched above Anvil Lake. In addition to its scenic landscape, the campground offers access to a variety of hiking and biking trails. Keep reading
Recreation
The lake provides visitors with ample opportunities for boating, fishing, and swimming. Anglers can expect a catch of walleye, northern pike, bass, and pan fish. The lake is open to all types of boating, motorized and non-motorized. Numerous trails exist in the area, with Anvil National Recreation Trail leaving from the campground itself. From the Anvil National Recreation Trail, visitors are able to connect to the Nicolet North Trail, Hidden Lakes Trail, Franklin Lake Interpretive Trail, and the Luna White Deer Trail system. In total, this campground is connected to approximately 40 miles of hiking trail, most of which is open to mountain biking. Although the campground is not open during the winter months, the Anvil National Recreation Trail is groomed as both a classic and skate cross country ski trail. It is well known among the ski community as it was once the site of USA Olympic training. A variety of wildlife make its home in the area and visitors are encouraged to keep watch. So, if you like to swim, boat, fish, hike, picnic or enjoy being close to town, then the Anvil Lake Recreation Area is the place for you, conveniently located just 10 minutes east of Eagle River.
Facilities
The campground offers 18 single family campsites, available for tent or RV camping. The campground offers both first-come, first-served campsites (8 sites) as well as sites which can be reserved in advance (10 sites). Sites are equipped with picnic tables and fire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets as well as drinking water are provided at the campground.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a stand of large sugar maple, hemlock and white pine trees, at an elevation of 1,740 feet. A historic stone and log picnic shelter, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, is located at the picnic area. The adjacent 377-acre Anvil Lake is crystal clear and is a popular swimming site as the campground boasts a large sandy beach area.
Nearby Attractions
The City of Eagle River is located about 9 miles west of the campground. A varitey of services are offered there.
What the agency tells you
Hookups are not available
Click here for more information on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest
Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Use is restricted to hardened area.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 19 · 3 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 7 of 19
- Accessible sites
- 16
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and fire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets as well as drinking water are provided at the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Accessible vault toilets as well as drinking water are provided at the campground. Natural Features…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 44th darkest of 70 in WI
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 17 of the 19 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 19 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 19 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Anvil CG | 1 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 107 ft | 431 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 10 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 65 ft | 481 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 11 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 105 ft | 428 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 12 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 91 ft | 326 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 13 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 60 ft | 273 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 14 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 77 ft | 239 ft | $15 | |
| Anvil CG | 15 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 60 ft | 236 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 16 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 75 ft | 142 ft | $15 | |
| Anvil CG | 17 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 75 ft | 161 ft | $15 | |
| Anvil CG | 18 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 148 ft | 266 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 2 | type not stated | 40 ft | yes | 499 ft | $15 | |
| Anvil CG | 3 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 80 ft | 415 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 4 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 80 ft | 495 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 5 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 76 ft | 410 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 6 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 76 ft | 486 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 7 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 58 ft | 408 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 8 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 58 ft | 457 ft | $15 |
| Anvil CG | 9 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 62 ft | 418 ft | $15 |
| S&P | Single S&P | type not stated | 25 ft | yes | $15 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Franklin Lake2.7 miFranklin Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 3.6 miSevenmile Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 4.1 miLuna - White Deer Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 5.4 miKentuck Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 5.5 miDrive approximately 9 miles east from Eagle River on State Highway 70 to the campground entrance on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Eagle River, WI
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 2°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Anvil Lake Campground is in Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Tom Tiffany (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →