Deer Lake
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $16From, per site
- Sites
- 4930 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Deer Lake campground is located on the west shore of Cut Foot Sioux Lake, next to Lake Winnibigoshish, and is split into two separate loops. North Deer Lake campground has 17 sites; South Deer Lake has 31 campsites. A boat ramp is centrally located between the loops and provides lake access via Biauswah Creek. Visitors come to the area for boating, walleye, northern, sunfish, and crappie fishing, and beautiful scenery. The 26-mile Cut Foot Sioux National Recreation Trail runs through the Deer Lake campgrounds and is designated for hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking. The Chippewa National Forest and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe work together to co-steward resources - making the Forest a great place to recreate as well as a special place where cultural and traditional resources are protected and preserved and the Band’s treaty rights are respected. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating, swimming, and fishing are popular activities on Cut Foot Sioux Lake. A boat ramp is centrally located between the campground's two loops and provides lake access via Biauswah Creek. A large swimming beach is located at the North Deer Loop and a smaller beach is located at South Deer Loop. Boats may be moored offshore. Miles of trails in the area provide great hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, and birding opportunities. The 26-mile Cut Foot Sioux National RecreationTrail runs through the campground and connects with the Simpson Creek Trail. Off-highway vehicles, including ATVs and UTVs, may be brought to the campground. However, OHVs must be trailered to roads legal for riding outside the campground. OHV use is not permitted on Eagle Nest Road. Cut Foot Sioux Lake is located next to Lake Winnibigoshish, which can be accessed from Cut Foot Sioux. Lake Winnie offers excellent fishing opportunities for walleye, northern, panfish, and muskie. It is one of Minnesota's premier fisheries. Boating and water skiing are popular activities.
Facilities
The campground offers several single-unit campsites, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and handpumps for drinking water are provided. There are no electric hook ups in the campground. Firewood is available from local vendors.
Natural Features
A sandy swimming beach is located at North Deer Lake campground. North Deer Loop is covered by a hardwood forest of maple and oak, with some mature pine trees scattered throughout the site. South Deer Loop is forested with mature red and white pines. The Cut Foot Sioux area is home to a variety of waterfowl and birds of prey, including loons, osprey, and bald eagles. The much larger Lake Winnibigoshish is accessible by boat and within sight of these two campgrounds.
Nearby Attractions
Down the road, East Seelye Bay offers a large picnic area, boat landing with dock and a swimming beach.
What the agency tells you
Fee includes one camping unit per site. Double occupancy is not permitted on single unit sites; on large sites double occupancy is permitted. The second occupant must pay the full nightly amount for each night of stay by using a fee envelope at the entrance kiosk. Please read the fee board upon entering the campground to see what qualifies for single and double occupancy.
Some important campground rules: - Quiet hours are from 10pm – 6am. Generators cannot be run during this time. If you have a medical condition that requires powered equipment, please plan accordingly with battery backup. - Pets are welcome but must remain on a leash 6' or shorter in length at all times. Pets are not allowed in beach areas. - Campfires cannot be left unattended. They must be extinguished before the campsite is vacated. - Fireworks, including sparklers, are not allowed. - Cutting/damaging live vegetation is not allowed. You may gather dead and downed wood for campfires if it fits within the fire ring. - The use of power saws, including electric chainsaws, is strictly prohibited. - Off-highway vehicles are not permitted on Eagle Nest Road. If desiring to use OHVs, vehicle must be trailered to a road where OHV use is permitted. All regulations are found under 36 CFR 261 and are punishable by fines.
Northern Minnesota is home to black bears. Campers must keep coolers and other bear attractants locked inside hard-sided campers or in vehicles when not attended, including overnight. Black bears are present and active within the campground area. Feeding any wildlife, including hanging bird feeders, is strictly prohibited. NEW FOR 2025: Chippewa National Forest Campground Food Storage Order
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Bundled firewood is no longer available in Chippewa National Forest campgrounds. Firewood may be available for sale at local vendors, or may be brought from home if within Itasca County. You may also cut dead and downed wood in the forest without a permit as long as it will be used in the campground. Chainsaw use (gas and electric) is not permitted in the campground. 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 informatio n.
Reservations must be made at least 4 days in advance. After this window, sites are considered first-come first-serve. Customers with reservations may change to an open non-reservable site after arrival - please see the campground host as well as a sign at the entrance kiosk for more information. If you would like more site-specific information, call the Deer River Ranger District at 218-246-2123 before making a reservation. First-come, first-serve sites may be available after the reservation season.
Click here for more information on the Chippewa National Forest. For more information on tribal campping, click here.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 49
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and handpumps for drinking water are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…ring. Vault toilets and handpumps for drinking water are provided. There are no electric hook ups in the…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach, Coast
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Kayaking
- Mushroom Picking
- Paddling
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Swimming
- Water access
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:47 UTC
recreation.gov lists 30 of the 49 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $16 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:47 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
50 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 28 mapped sitesAll 50 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 49 of the 50 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.
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 011 | type not stated | 184 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 012 | type not stated | 163 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 013 | type not stated | 115 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 014 | type not stated | 125 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 017 | type not stated | 259 ft | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 019 | type not stated | 248 ft | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 025 | type not stated | 130 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 026 | type not stated | 111 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 027 | type not stated | 176 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 028 | type not stated | 163 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 029 | type not stated | 238 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 030 | type not stated | 177 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 031 | type not stated | 260 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 11 | type not stated | 209 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | X | standard nonelectric | $16 | ||
| MANAGEMENT SITES 1 | 010 | type not stated | 208 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES 1 | 012 | type not stated | 226 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES 1 | 013 | type not stated | 221 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES 1 | 014 | type not stated | 269 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES 1 | 016 | type not stated | 349 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES 1 | 017 | type not stated | 326 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES 1 | XXX | unnamed record | $16 | ||
| NORTH | 001N | standard nonelectric | 73 ft | 247 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| NORTH | 002N | standard nonelectric | 111 ft | 206 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| NORTH | 003N | standard nonelectric | 73 ft | 312 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| NORTH | 004N | standard nonelectric | 81 ft | 134 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| NORTH | 005N | standard nonelectric | 81 ft | 185 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| NORTH | 006N | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 94 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| NORTH | 007N | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 96 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| NORTH | 008N | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 105 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| NORTH | 009N | standard nonelectric | 106 ft | 171 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| NORTH | 015N | standard nonelectric | 240 ft | 251 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 001S | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 620 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 002S | standard nonelectric | 122 ft | 692 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 003S | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 556 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 004S | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 563 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 005S | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 456 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 006S | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 349 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 007S | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 445 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 008S | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 265 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 009S | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 379 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 010S | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 324 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 015S | standard nonelectric | 107 ft | 245 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 016S | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 349 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 018S | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 353 ft | $16 |
| SOUTH | 020S | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 333 ft | $16 |
| SOUTH | 021S | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 309 ft | $16 |
| SOUTH | 022S | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 207 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 023S | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 200 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| SOUTH | 024S | standard nonelectric | 118 ft | 82 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It filed it without a site name, and nothing in its own record decides what it is. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
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 50 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Williams NarrowsChippewa National Forest · 2.1 mi
Mosomo PointChippewa National Forest · 2.7 miOnegume (ah-ni-gah-mig[k])CampgroundChippewa National Forest · 2.9 mi
OnegumeChippewa National Forest · 2.9 mi
Cut Foot Horse CampgroundChippewa National Forest · 3.6 miTake Highway 46 northwest from Deer River, MN. Turn on Eagle Nest Road (Old CR 33) and travel 4 miles west. You will pass East Seelye and West Seelye Campgrounds. Deer Lake Campground is on the left. North Deer is first and South Deer is another half-mile down the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Inger, MN
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -2°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
Deer Lake is in Minnesota’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Pete Stauber (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →