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U.S. Forest Service · Manistee National Forest · MI

Bowman Bridge Campground and River Access

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.
Get directionsWhat it costs, and the rules
Right now
Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
Season
May 3 – October 10Open May 3 through October 10
Drawn from the record · 730 ft · 59% tree cover · Pere Marquette River within reach · Bortle 4 sky
730 ftElevation
145 ftWater · Pere Marquette River
3.7 miW of Baldwin, MI
59%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 171st darkest of 192 in MI
Open May 3 through October 10Today

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

The section of the river from Gleason's Landing to Bowman Bridge flows through a long stretch of federal ownership. This is one of the most popular stretches of river, and Bowman Bridge River Access can be very busy during summer weekends. The bottom of the river in this stretch is mostly sand, with a few interspersed gravel beds. The water from Gleason's to Bowman Bridge is up to 5-feet deep in some parts. Located up the hill from Bowman Bridge Boat Landing, the campground also has a connector trail for the North Country National Scenic Trail. A tornado went through the area several years ago. Keep reading

Visitors to the site can see the beginning stages of natural recovery from the tornado swath. There will be plantings within the campground in the future to facilitate recovery from the tornado. Brochure with Map : This brochure is set to print on 11 x 17 paper, landscape (wide) orientation. To print on 8 1/2 x 11 paper set the print area to "shrink to printable area", this will make the text on the page smaller. Flickr Photo Album

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
River
Source: Stated in the agency description

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 16, 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
Directions
Every line of the receipt · 4

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.
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 this campground addsits own record
Extra vehicleSee the note

“Camping (per night) Single Site: $30.00 Double Site: $60.00 Group Site: $110.00 Day Use (per vehicle) Per Day: $7.00 Extra Vehicle: $10.00” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record

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 · 5
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
What this campground adds: The U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record and notices for this campground, quoted verbatim. An extra-vehicle charge is set locally and appears on no national schedule, so it’s never assumed. · Aug 24, 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

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate
Coordinate43.88778, -85.94000

Where it is

Source: 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

Overnight28°Widespread Frost
Saturday55°Widespread Frost then Sunny
Saturday Night36°Clear
Sunday61°Sunny

NWS forecast for Baldwin, MI

Source: National Weather Service, GRR forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 37°F, day 60°F.

Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 37°F. Bring the bag rated for it.

90°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: HESPERIA 4 WNW, MI (USC00203769), 22 miles away and 50 ft higher
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

John Moolenaar, official portrait

Bowman Bridge Campground and River Access is in Michigan’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, John Moolenaar (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it out of season. The season it publishes is the bar below.
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.26 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 192 rated federal campgrounds in Michigan · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
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 town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026