Carp River Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 20All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Nestled in a quiet, rustic setting adjacent to the Carp Wild and Scenic River, Carp River Campground is an ideal place to get away and enjoy the outdoors. The surrounding Hiawatha National Forest provides visitors with countless recreational activities, and the scenery provides a beautiful backdrop for a traditional camping experience. Keep reading
Recreation
Divided into two major blocks of land and five districts, the forest is home to Grand Island National Recreation Area, Whitefish Scenic Byway, six lighthouses, five Wildernesses and Clear Lake Education Center. In addition to recreation opportunities, visitors will find a wide array of habitats, including trees like northern hardwoods, jackpine and other conifers, and a variety of inland wetland habitats. Fishing is a popular activity in the campground area, and brook, brown and rainbow trout can all be spotted in the Carp River. In addition to the fishing opportunities, hiking canoeing, kayaking, wildlife viewing and more are all available at or around the Carp River Campground.
Facilities
All campsites are wooded and shaded from the hot summer sun. Each site has a table and a fire ring, and drinking water and vault toilets are conveniently spaced throughout the campground.
Natural Features
Located in Michigan's wild and scenic Upper Peninsula, the Hiawatha National Forest is known as "the Great Lakes National Forest." The forest's dramatic shorelines lie nestled up to Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan. Outstanding lakeshores, lighthouses, islands and historic sites create a playground and place of respite, all within a day's drive from major urban and rural areas of Michigan and Wisconsin. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (906) 767-1111.
Nearby Attractions
Carp River Campground is located just eight miles from St. Ignace, which is known for its fine restaurants, museums and historic sites.
Charges & Cancellations
Please cancel seven days in advance if you need to cancel your reservation. Reservation sites cannot be traded for walk up sites.
What the agency tells you
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.
Reservation cannot be traded for walk up sites
Check OUT is at 12:00 PM Check IN is at 2:00 PM
Everything else this campground posts · 2
We do not have an office at this location. It has a self pay station. Reservations cannot be changed at this location.
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per tent site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged an $8 per night fee and collected at the campground if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at your site.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and a fire ring, and drinking water and vault toilets are conveniently spaced throughout the campground.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…site has a table and a fire ring, and drinking water and vault toilets are conveniently spaced…”
- Playground
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 124th darkest of 192 in MI
- Bortle 3
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 · 15
What you actually pay
“Extra vehicle will be charged an $8 per night fee and collected at the campground if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 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.
“Please cancel seven days in advance if you need to cancel your reservation. Reservation sites cannot be traded for walk up sites.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
20 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 20 mapped sitesAll 20 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. 20 of the 20 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| CARP RIVER | 001 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 108 ft | 272 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 108 ft | 260 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 003 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 169 ft | 116 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 90 ft | 172 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 005 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 90 ft | 148 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 141 ft | 13 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 007 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 106 ft | 146 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 008 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 159 ft | 95 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 009 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 172 ft | 84 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 010 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 160 ft | 155 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 110 ft | 197 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 012 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 110 ft | 93 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 90 ft | 148 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 014 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 90 ft | 200 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 015 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 134 ft | 334 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 016 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 152 ft | 427 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 140 ft | 402 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 018 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 128 ft | 286 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 019 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 128 ft | 165 ft | $24 |
| CARP RIVER | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 113 ft | 180 ft | $24 |
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
Brevoort Lake CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 12 mi
Lake Michigan at St. IgnaceHiawatha National Forest · 13 mi
Soldier LakeHiawatha National Forest · 23 mi
Three LakesHiawatha National Forest · 23 miBay View CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 29 mi
Bay View (Hiawatha National Forest, MI)30 mi4664 Mackinac Trail, St Ignace Michigan 49781
From the intersection of US-2 and I-75, drive north on I-75 to exit 352. Turn right on County Road 123, then turn left on Mackinac Trail/Highway 63. Drive north approximately five miles, turn left onto FR 3445 and drive a quarter mile to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for St. Ignace, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°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
Carp River Campground 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 →