Colwell Lake Campground
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $26–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 4034 on recreation.gov
- Season
- May 13 – October 8Open May 13 through October 8
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Colwell Lake Campground is situated on Colwell Lake in the center of Michigan's Hiawatha National Forest. Guests of all ages can enjoy nature and the outdoors in this picturesque setting. The campground has much to offer in terms of recreation, such as swimming, fishing, boating and picnicking, and can accommodate families, individuals, small groups, RV and tent campers with several amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
With an excellent swimming beach, boat access and an accessible fishing pier, Colwell Lake has plenty to offer families and anglers. Largemouth bass, northern pike, crappie, pumpkinseed sunfish, perch and bluegill are all available in the lake. The facility also provides a leisurely 2 mile hiking and snowshoeing trail.
Facilities
The campground consists of many individual family sites, as well as a group site that can hold 24 people and two tent-only sites along the lake shore. Sites are equipped with campfire rings, lantern posts and tent pads, with vault toilets and drinking water located throughout the facility. A picnic area sits adjacent to the sandy swimming beach. Pedestal grills and tables for individual families or small groups are provided. Boaters will find a boat ramp and launching pier near the campground entrance. There is adequate space for parking and a trailer turn-around.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the eastern shore of the 145-acre Colwell Lake. The area is forested with a variety of deciduous and conifer trees, and some campsites overlook the water.
Nearby Attractions
Big Island, Fish and Straits lakes are all within 25 miles of the campground. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (906) 767-1111.
What the agency tells you
No lifeguards present at swim beach; children must be accompanied by an adult at all times
Two pets per site
No switching sites upon arrival
Everything else this campground posts · 8
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.
Reserved Sites will be held until checkout time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of the second day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests.
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
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.
Click here for more information on the Hiawatha National ForestHiawatha
Hiawatha National Forest - West Day Use Fees: Day Use $8.00 Day Use Annual Pass $40.00
Check OUT is at 12:00 PM Check IN is at 2:00 PM
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 40 · 2 walk-in, 1 group
- Hookups
- 7 electric
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…rings, lantern posts and tent pads, with vault toilets and drinking water located throughout the facility.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and tent pads, with vault toilets and drinking water located throughout the facility. A picnic area sits…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 68th darkest of 192 in MI
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 34 of the 40 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 · 17
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 rates for this season, $26–$30 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
40 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 35 mapped sitesAll 40 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. 40 of the 40 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| COLW | 001 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 152 ft | $26 | ||
| COLW | 002 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | 103 ft | 263 ft | $30 |
| COLW | 003 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 60 ft | 184 ft | $30 |
| COLW | 004 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | 45 ft | 194 ft | $30 |
| COLW | 005 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 45 ft | 233 ft | $30 |
| COLW | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 110 ft | 182 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 007 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 85 ft | 96 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 80 ft | 258 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 009 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 80 ft | 337 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 52 ft | 89 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 011 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 52 ft | 114 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 69 ft | 464 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 013 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 75 ft | 192 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 69 ft | 531 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 211 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 278 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 017 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 58 ft | 267 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 78 ft | 236 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 019 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 209 ft | 486 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 020 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 107 ft | 182 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 021 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 126 ft | 123 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 022 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 117 ft | 94 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 023 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 124 ft | 265 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 117 ft | 100 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 025 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 162 ft | 107 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 124 ft | 229 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 027 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 124 ft | 110 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 028 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 148 ft | 139 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 029 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 125 ft | 276 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 125 ft | 151 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 031 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 184 ft | 176 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | 032 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 222 ft | 147 ft | $26 | |
| COLW | FS1ENN1 | standard electric | $30 | ||||
| COLW | FS1ENN2 | standard electric | $30 | ||||
| COLW | FS1ENN3 | standard electric | $30 | ||||
| COLW | FS1NNN18 | standard nonelectric | $26 | ||||
| COLW | FS1NNN19 | standard nonelectric | $26 | ||||
| COLWELL LAKE | 033 | walk to | 186 ft | 78 ft | $24 | ||
| COLWELL LAKE | 034 | walk to | 186 ft | 194 ft | $24 | ||
| GRP | GP | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 450 ft | 893 ft | $80 |
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.
25 of 40 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Crooked Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 0.4 mi
Steuben Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 1.6 mi
Clear Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 2.0 mi
East Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 3.2 mi
Bass Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 3.7 mi
Little Bass Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 4.2 miFrom Manistique, Michigan, drive north 25 miles on State Route 94 to Forest Road 2246. Turn right (east) and drive 0.5 miles to the campground road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Munising, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 55°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 39°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Colwell Lake 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 →