Bimijiwan Recreation Area
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $16From, per site
- Sites
- 1413 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Knutson Dam Campground is located on the northeastern shores of Cass Lake and the Mississippi River. Keep reading
Recreation
Cass Lake offers many recreational activities, including boating, water skiing and swimming. Anglers fish for walleye, northern pike, perch and trophy muskie. Boat ramps on the lake and river are located within the campground. Canoeists love Knutson Dam's location for its easy canoe access to the Mississippi River. Several canoe routes traverse the area waterways, including the Mississippi.
Facilities
The campground offers 11 single family campsites and two walk-to tent sites. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection.
Natural Features
The campground consists of a single loop among beautifully manicured lawns, shaded by a forest of oak, spruce and pine. Every site affords scenic lake views.
What the agency tells you
Fee includes one camping unit (camper, RV, pop-up, family tent) per site; additional units will be charged an additional fee
First-come, first-served sites may be available after the reservation season
Click here for more information on the Chippewa National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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.
Northern Minnesota is home to black bears. Campers must keep coolers and other bear attractants locked inside hard-sided campers or in vehicles when not attended, including overnight. Black bears are present and active within the campground area. Feeding any wildlife, including hanging bird feeders, is strictly prohibited. NEW FOR 2025: Chippewa National Forest Campground Food Storage Order
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection. Natural…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are provided, as are vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection. Natural Features The…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 64th darkest of 77 in MN
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 13 of the 14 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, $16 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
14 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 13 mapped sitesAll 14 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. 14 of the 14 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| KNUTSON DAM | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 98 ft | 88 ft | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 98 ft | 64 ft | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 003 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 104 ft | 55 ft | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 004 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 128 ft | 109 ft | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 68 ft | 125 ft | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 68 ft | 191 ft | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 93 ft | 109 ft | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 93 ft | 196 ft | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 115 ftCass Lake | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 184 ftCass Lake | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 159 ftCass Lake | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 59 ft | 116 ftCass Lake | $16 |
| KNUTSON DAM | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 59 ft | 89 ftCass Lake | $16 |
| S&P | Standard S&P | type not stated | 40 ft | $16 |
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
Chippewa LoopChippewa National Forest · 4.9 mi
Norway Beach LoopChippewa National Forest · 5.3 mi
Wanaki LoopChippewa National Forest · 5.3 miCass Lake Campground LoopChippewa National Forest · 5.4 mi
Cass Lake Loop7.3 miThe campground is located 6 miles east of Cass Lake on U.S. Highway 2, and 5 miles north on County Road 10.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cass Lake, MN
Typical weather
Typical October night 34°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -4°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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Bimijiwan Recreation Area is in Minnesota’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Pete Stauber (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →