East Lake Campsites
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 3All 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
Visitors will be able to enjoy swimming, berry picking, and fishing at these dispersed campsites. Licenses are required for fishing in Michigan waters. East Lake has fishing for largemouth bass, perch, bluegill and bullheads. Boat access is located just past site 1. It is unimproved, shallow and sandy. Carry-in access is recommended. Swimming at Site 3 is excellent, but is not recommended at sites 1 and 2.
Facilities
There is NO drinking water at this location. There are primitive toilets located at sites 1 and 2. Lake Name: East Lake Number of Sites : 3 Max Number of People per site: Site 1 (24), Site 2 and 3 (8) Toilets: Sites 1 and 2 Boat Access: Back-In launch just past site 1 down FR2650 Lake Size (acres): 53 Natural Features There are 3 campsites located on different shores of the 53-acre East Lake: Site 1 is located in a wooded area, on a hill, overlooking East Lake. It is located on the western shore of the lake. The site is 100 ft. x 75 ft. and is suitable for up to three families. Site 2 is located on wooded site on the northeast side of the lake. It is 45 ft. x 35 ft. and would be suitable for one family. The access road to this site is narrow and winding, but can be traversed by small trailers. Site 3 is located at an open area the extends into East Lake. It is 55 ft. x 50 ft. and is suitable for one family. Trailers are NOT recommended due to the very narrow and winding access road. Contact Info For local information, please call (906) 474-6442 or call (906) 387-2512 for general information.
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. Gasoline, groceries, fishing and camping supplies, boat rentals, ice and MDNR licenses are availalbe at Steuben, approximately two miles northwest, on County Road 437.
What the agency tells you
Pack-In, Pack-out policy
There is a 14-day stay limit.
No drinking water provided.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Campsite must be occupied the first night.
Campsite cannot be left unattended for more than 24 hours.
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
Click here for more information on the Hiawatha National Forest
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
- 3
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- 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
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Night sky · 72nd darkest of 192 in MI
- Bortle 2
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
3 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 3 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. 3 of the 3 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
Where it is
Steuben Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 1.6 mi
Bass Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 1.7 mi
Little Bass Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.1 mi
Crooked Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 2.8 mi
Colwell Lake CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 3.2 mi
Minerva Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 3.9 miFrom Manistique, MI: drive north on M-94 22.5 miles to the intersection with CR 437.
- Turn right at the big parking lot opposite CR 437.
- To get to site 1: take the immediate right on FR 2723, drive 0.7 mi to FR 2650. Turn left (east) on FR 2650 and drive 0.2 mi to site 1.
- To get to sites 2 and 3: proceed directly through the parking lot on FR 2247 and drive about 1 mile to FR 2247A. Turn right (south) on 2247A and drive less than a mile to the campsites.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Manistique, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 12°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
East 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 →