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

Carr Lake Campsite

ReservableOut of season, no booking; November 15 opens May 15.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night
$8From, per site
Sites
1All of them booked ahead
32 ftLongest rig
700 ftElevation
151 ftWater · Carr Lake
13.5 miNW of Manistique, MI
69%Tree cover

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 these campsites. Licenses are required for fishing in Michigan waters. Carr Lake offers fisheries for largemouth bass, yellow perch, northern pike and the occasional brook or brown trout. Carr Creek, located upstream and downstream from Carr Lake, offers a good fishery for brook and brown trout. Access to Carr Lake is by carry-in boat only and a boat slide has been constructed for small watercraft. Conditions for swimming are considered poor quality.

Facilities

There is a primative toilet available at this campsite. There is NO drinking water available. Lake Name: Carr Lake Number of Sites: 1 Maximum Number of People Per Site: 16 Toilets : Yes Boat Access: Slide Lake Size (acres): 16 Natural Features The Carr Lake campsite offers privacy and seclusion, situated on the small 16-acre Carr Lake. This site is fairly roomy (70 ft. by 40 ft.), grassy and suitable for 2 families. There is limited parking available at this site.

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 availablefive 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

Rule

Pack-In, Pack-out policy

Rule

There is a 14-day stay limit.

Rule

No drinking water provided.

Everything else this campground posts · 5
Rule

Campsite must be occupied the first night.

Rule

Campsite cannot be left unattended for more than 24 hours.

Rule

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

Rule

Click here for more information on the Hiawatha National Forest

Rule

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.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Tents and rigs

Sites
1
Hookups
None
Longest rig
32 ft
Accessible sites
None listed
Pets
Allowed
Shade
Every site
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
“Toilets : Yes”
Drinking water
None, bring your own
“…in a rustic forest environment with no drinking water. The rustic environment offers a wonderfully serene…”

Around the campground

On the water
Lake, River, Creek
Boating
Fishing
Night sky · 82nd darkest of 192 in MI
Bortle 2
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

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.

Booking windowOut of seasonOut of season, no booking. On November 15, 2026 at 10 AM ET, availability opens through May 15, 2027.recreation.govAdd to calendar (.ics)
A night$8plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$24DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
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’ll write once, when the season that starts Sat, May 15 2027 is open for booking.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night$8
Standard Nonelectric$8
Rates for the season the campground is in now, May 15, 2026 to Oct 15, 2026.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$16
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$24

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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

1 sites · the site map

All 1 sites

1 of 1 sites located
Standard1
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
SleepsTakes aUp to

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.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Coordinate46.07778, -86.50778
The phone906-474-6442 OR 906-387-2512
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Getting there

From 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 2.5 miles to the road to Carr Lake. 

- Turn right (north) and drive 0.25 mile to the campsite.

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Today48°Rain Showers78% rain
Tonight24°Chance Rain Showers39% rain
Saturday56°Sunny
Saturday Night34°Mostly Clear

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.

90°32°0°

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.

Measured at: GARDEN CORNERS, MI (USC00203078), 13 miles away and 113 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

Jack Bergman, official portrait

Carr 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.
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.