U.S. Forest Service · WI
Bear Lake Recreation Area
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 17 mi
Wildfire
Blackberry fire · 17 mi away · 3 acres · updated Oct 16, 2026
Wildfire
Bee fire · 18 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 11, 2026
Wildfire
Memory fire · 36 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 11, 2026
Wildfire
Strike fire · 44 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 14, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 16, 2026
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Season
- May 2 – November 30Open May 2 through November 30
1,390 ftElevation
1,129 ftWater · Halley Creek
17.6 miSE of Crandon, WI
70%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 49th darkest of 70 in WI
Open May 2 through November 30Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest has an abundance of outdoor recreation opportunities at the Bear Lake Recreation Area including camping, fishing, swimming, kayaking and canoeing. Only electric motors are allowed on Bear Lake providing a quiet and relaxing environment. The Rat River Recreational Trail is a good nearby hiking opportunity and popular with grouse hunters and fall color enthusiasts. The Bear Lake Campground sits on the southwest corner of 68-acre Bear Lake with some sites located along the wooded shore and ridge with outstanding views of the lake. The campground is a mix of hardwoods and pine. Keep reading
Bear Lake Campground has 27 sites. A majority of campsites can accommodate campers as long as 30 feet and longer. The campground also has five tent-only walk-in sites on a wooded peninsula jutting into the lake. Drinking water, vault toilets, swim beach, picnic area and a boat landing are also provided at this location. All roads are paved with blacktop. Bear Lake is in close proximity to the Rat River Recreation Trail. Trout fishing opportunities are also nearby on the Peshtigo and Rat Rivers.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…jutting into the lake. Drinking water, vault toilets, swim beach, picnic area and a boat landing are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…wooded peninsula jutting into the lake. Drinking water, vault toilets, swim beach, picnic area and a boat…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 17 km away
- Peak color
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (17 km) · Oct 13, 2026
Phone before you drive
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 17, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 9
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Individual campsite fee is $15, or $7.50 with the use of an Interagency pass (access or senior).
The interagency pass applies only to the fee for the campsite physically occupied by the pass holder, not to any additional fees or campsite(s) occupied by members of the pass holder's party.
There is a $5 day use pass for the boat landing beach.
This does not apply to registered campers.
The Forest also has an annual pass available for $30.
To learn more visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/cnnf/passes-permits/recreation .
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Bear Lake Campground (Chequamegon-Nicolet NF, WI)0.0 mi
Richardson Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 11 mi
Laura Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 13 miLaura and Gordon Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 13 mi
Ada Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 15 miAda Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 15 mi
Bear Lake Campground (Chequamegon-Nicolet NF, WI)0.0 miRichardson Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 11 miLaura Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 13 miLaura and Gordon Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 13 miAda Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 15 miAda Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 15 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Today54°Sunny
Tonight36°Clear
Sunday59°Sunny
Sunday Night36°Mostly Clear
NWS forecast for Laona, WI
Source: National Weather Service, GRB forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 52°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical November night 23°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
80°32°0°
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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.
Measured at: LAONA 6 SW, WI (USC00474582), 12 miles away and 305 ft higher
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Bear Lake Recreation Area 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it open right now.
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (17 km) · Oct 13, 2026
Reported by: USA National Phenology Network (Nature's Notebook), reported peak color · Oct 13, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Laona, WI, 7.3 mi ESE (a census designated place). Straight line.