Bear Lake Campsite
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Munising and Rapid River/Manistique Ranger Districts of the Hiawatha National Forest offer a variety of camping experiences. Many are located on inland lakes in a rustic forest environment with no drinking water. The rustic environment offers a wonderfully serene and peaceful setting for your next camping experience. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors will be able to enjoy swimming, berry picking, and fishing at the designated campsites located on the Hiawatha National Forest. Licenses are required for fishing in Michigan waters. There is a carry - in boat launch at the day use area on the south end of the lake. This is intended to prevent the overfishing of this excellent brook trout fishery, which is maintained by annual stocking. Swimming is marginal with a thin layer of sand covering a mucky bottom.
Facilities
There is NO drinking water available at these sites. There are NO toilets. Lake Name: Bear Lake Number of Sites: 1 Maximum Number of People per Sites: 8 Toilets: No Boat Access: Carry in ONLY Boat Access to the South of the site. There is a Boat Launch on the East side of the lake down FR 2633. Lake Size (acres): 21 Natural Features The Bear Lake campsite is situated on the gorgeous 21- acre Bear Lake, high upon a hill overlooking the lake. The site is surrounded by spectacular paper birch, aspen and oak tree species.
Nearby Attractions
There are a number of horse, bike, and hiking trails within minutes of several of the sites. In over a mile from these campsites, visitors can expect to find: bait shops, general and grocery stores, gas, a pay phone, trailheads, a fishing pier, biking, and kayak/canoe rentals. Groceries, gasoline, fishing and camping supplies, ice and deli are available five miles northeast on County Road 437 in the Thunder Lake Area. Contact Info For local information, please call (906) 474-6442 or call (906) 387-2512 for general information.
What the agency tells you
Pack-In, Pack-out policy
There is a 14-day stay limit.
No drinking water provided.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Campsite must be occupied the first night.
Campsite cannot be left unattended for more than 24 hours.
You are welcome to collect firewood from the area surrounding your campsite. Just remember that any firewood that you collect must be DEAD AND DOWN
Click here for more information on the Hiawatha 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 24 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- None. Pack out what you bring in
- “…drinking water available at these sites. There are NO toilets. Lake Name: Bear Lake Number of Sites: 1 Maximum…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…in a rustic forest environment with no drinking water. The rustic environment offers a wonderfully serene…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Fishing
- Night sky · 85th darkest of 192 in MI
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $8 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
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BEAR LAKE CAMPSITE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 180 ft | $8 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Carr Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 0.7 mi
Jackpine Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 1.4 mi
Lyman Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 1.6 mi
Gooseneck Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.3 mi
Camp Seven Lake CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 2.6 mi
Leg Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 4.1 miFrom Cooks (about 12 miles west of Manistique or 24 miles east of Rapid River on US-2): drive north 4.4 miles on County Road 442 to CR 437.
- Turn left (north) on CR 437 and drive 8.7 miles to FR 2217.
- Turn left (northwest) on FR 2217 and drive 2.4 miles to FR 2696.
- Turn left (south) on 2696 and drive 0.5 mile to the campsite
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Manistique, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 7°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Bear Lake Campsite is in Michigan’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Jack Bergman (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →