Council Lake Campsites
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 4All of them booked ahead
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
Council Lake is a 12-acre lake with yellow perch, rock and largemouth bass, bluegill, black crappie, bullhead and northern pike. Licenses are required to fish in Michigan waters. Council Lake is part of a small chain of lakes and offers excellent canoeing and kayaking opportunities. There is a short portage that links Council Lake to Bar Lake and the Indian Wild and Scenic River. Non-motorized boats can be used on the lake, however access at the campground is by land only. A boat ramp can be found at adjoining Red Jack Lake. The day-use area is equipped with tables and a pedestal grill. The area is near a beach that is perfect for lounging and swimming. No drinking water is provided at the campsite; water must be brought in and garbage must be carried out.
Facilities
There are four campsites at Council Lake for tent and small RV camping. Each campsite is equipped with a table and a campfire ring. A pit toilet is located near site 1, but toilet paper is not provided. There is NO drinking water. Lake Name: Council Lake Number of Sites: 4 Maximum Number of People: 8 (for each site) Toilets: 1 (by site 1) Boat Access: Carry-In Lake Size (acres): 14 Natural Features These four campsites are situated on the quaint 12 - acre Council Lake, nestled in a mixed stand of hardwood and pine trees. They are on the southern shores of Council Lake, close to adjoining Red Jack and Scout lakes. 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.
No drinking water is provided at the campsite.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Campsite cannot be left unattended for more than 24 hours.
Campsite must be occupied the first night of your reservation.
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited at the campsite and in the surrounding areas.
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
- 4
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…with a table and a campfire ring. A pit toilet is located near site 1, but toilet paper is not…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…in a rustic forest environment with no drinking water. The rustic environment offers a wonderfully serene…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- 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
4 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sites4 sites share one published coordinate and are left out of the rankings.
All 4 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. 4 of the 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| COUNCIL LAKE CAMPSITE | 01 | standard nonelectric | 131 ft | $8 |
| COUNCIL LAKE CAMPSITE | 02 | standard nonelectric | 131 ft | $8 |
| COUNCIL LAKE CAMPSITE | 03 | standard nonelectric | 131 ft | $8 |
| COUNCIL LAKE CAMPSITE | 04 | standard nonelectric | 131 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
Widewaters CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 1.8 mi
Island LakeHiawatha National Forest · 2.0 mi
Pete's Lake CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 2.6 mi
McKeever CabinHiawatha National Forest · 2.9 mi
Ewing Point CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 3.2 miHovey Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 4.1 miFrom Munising, Michigan, take Highway M-28 east towards Shingleton.
- Turn right (south) on Forest Highway 13 at Wetmore and drive 9.9 miles south to Forest Road 2261.
- Turn right (west) onto Forest Road 226 and drive 1.7 miles.
- Continue until the road ends at Council Lake.
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
Council 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 →