Cookson Lake Campsites
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 5All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 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 enjoy swimming and fishing in the 35-acre adjacent lake. Largemouth bass, northern pike, bluegill and bullhead are among the typical catch. Licenses are required for fishing in Michigan waters. Fish cribs were placed around the Island in 2023. A public boat ramp is located adjacent to site 2, which can be used to access Cookson Lake's fishery of largemouth bass, northern pike, bluegill and bullhead.
Facilities
The campground offers five primitive campsites for tent and RV camping. Each offers tables and campfire rings. A pit toilet is located near one of the sites, but toilet paper is not provided. Drinking water is NOT present at these sites. There is a primitive toilet present at these sites. Lake Name: Cookson Lake Number of Sites: 5 Maximum Number of People: Site 1 (8), Sites 2-5 (16) Toilets: 1 Boat Access: Back-In Lake Size (acres): 35 Natural Features Cookson Lake Campsite offers a primitive place to stay in the thick of Michigan's wilderness. Beautiful forests surround several lakes in the area, providing ample opportunity to enjoy nature in all its forms. These campsites is located in a large open field on the shores of Cookson Lake. All of the campsites are surrounded by a mixed stand of aspens and northern hardwoods on the south shore of the lake. This 35 - acre lake boasts two small islands, and a variety of wildflowers abound in the area during warmer months.
Nearby Attractions
Cookson Lake is near the Indian Wild and Scenic River and the Big Island Lake Wilderness Area. Groceries, ice, gasoline, fishing and camping supplies, ice and deli are available 5 miles east on County Road 437 in the Steuben Area. Contact Info For local information, please call (906) 387-2512 or call (906) 474-6442 for general information.
What the agency tells you
Pack- in, Pack-out policy
There is a 14 day stay limit.
Off-road vehicles are not permitted at the campsite or on surrounding roads.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Campsite cannot be left unattended for more than 24 hours.
Campsite must be occupied the first night.
You are welcome to collect firewood from the area surrounding your campsite. Remember that any firewood that you collect must be DEAD AND DOWN.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 5
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…Each offers tables and campfire rings. A pit toilet is located near one of the sites, but toilet paper…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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.
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
5 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 5 mapped sitesAll 5 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. 5 of the 5 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.
| COOKSON LAKE CAMPSITE | 01 | standard nonelectric | 97 ft | 209 ft | $8 |
| COOKSON LAKE CAMPSITE | 02 | standard nonelectric | 97 ft | 271 ft | $8 |
| COOKSON LAKE CAMPSITE | 03 | standard nonelectric | 115 ft | 331 ft | $8 |
| COOKSON LAKE CAMPSITE | 04 | standard nonelectric | 115 ft | 451 ft | $8 |
| COOKSON LAKE CAMPSITE | 05 | standard nonelectric | 115 ft | 554 ft | $8 |
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
Ironjaw Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 1.8 mi
Lake Nineteen CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 1.9 mi
Ewing Point CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 2.0 mi
McKeever CabinHiawatha National Forest · 2.3 mi
Swan Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.3 mi
Tom's Lake CabinHiawatha National Forest · 2.8 miFrom Munising, Michigan: Drive east on M-28 towards Wetmore.
- Turn right (south) on Forest Highway 13 at Wetmore and drive 11.9 miles to FR 2258.
- Turn left (southeast) and drive about 2.5 miles to FR 2257 (just before the bridge over the Indian River).
- Turn left (northeast) on FR 2257 and drive 1.8 miles across the access 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 38°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 11°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
Cookson Lake Campsites 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 →