Franklin Lake
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 26 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15–$25Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 7776 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Franklin Lake Campground is one of the most popular camping spots within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Northern Wisconsin. Its unique structures built by the CCC land it on the National Register of Historic Places. The campground is in a beautiful setting, among tall pines and hemlocks, perched on the edge of the clear blue waters of Franklin Lake. In addition to its scenic landscape, the campground offers access to a variety of hiking trails. Keep reading
Recreation
The lake provides visitors with ample opportunities for boating, fishing and swimming. Anglers can expect a catch of walleye, northern pike, large and smallmouth bass, rock bass, perch, and bluegill, among others. The lake is open to all types of boating, motorized and non-motorized. Numerous trails exist in the area, with some beginning within the campground, including a 6-mile hike to nearby Anvil Lake. The 1-mile Franklin Lake interpretive trail is partly accessible and tours the forest of trees, with some over 400 years old. It leads to the 13-mile Hidden Lakes Trail, which loops south, around Butternut Lake, passing several small lakes with scenic vistas and a remarkable stand of old hemlock trees, then back to the campground. A variety of wildlife make its home in the area and visitors are encouraged to keep watch.
Facilities
The campground offers 77 single family campsites, available for tent or RV camping. The campground offers both first-come, first-served campsites (34) as well as sites which can be reserved in advance (43). Sites are equipped with tables and fire rings with grills. Accessible flush and vault toilets as well as drinking water, are provided throughout the campground.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a lush stand of mature pine and hemlock trees, at an elevation of 1,700 feet. Historic stone and log structures, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, are scattered throughout the campground. The adjacent Franklin Lake is 892 acres and boasts a beautiful sandy beach.
Nearby Attractions
The City of Eagle River is located about 15 miles west of the campground. A variety of services are offered there.
What the agency tells you
Electric is available at select sites.
Click here for more information on the Chequamegon-Nicolet 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.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Use is restricted to hardened area.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 77 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- 23 electric
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…rings with grills. Accessible flush and vault toilets as well as drinking water, are provided throughout…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…flush and vault toilets as well as drinking water, are provided throughout the campground. Natural…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Ranger programs
- Kayaking
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 37th darkest of 70 in WI
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 76 of the 77 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 · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$25 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
77 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 76 mapped sitesAll 77 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. 77 of the 77 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| North | 041 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 105 ft | 247 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 042 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 258 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 043 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 84 ft | 250 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 044 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 45 ft | 256 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 045 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 190 ft | 281 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 046 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 178 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 047 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 160 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 048 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 60 ft | 149 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 049 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 57 ft | 150 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 050 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 47 ft | 138 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 051 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 194 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 052 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 84 ft | 233 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 053 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 148 ft | 334 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 054 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 19 ft | 368 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 055 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 19 ft | 350 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 056 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 35 ft | 223 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 057 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 35 ft | 205 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 058 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 67 ft | 136 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 059 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 67 ft | 122 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 060 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 96 ft | 96 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 061 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 96 ft | 111 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 062 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 47 ft | 101 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 063 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 60 ft | 93 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 064 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 90 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 065 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 92 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 066 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 112 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 067 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 116 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 068 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 120 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 069 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 87 ft | 128 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 070 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 99 ft | 142 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 071 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 102 ft | 133 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 072 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 45 ft | 224 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 073 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 129 ft | 200 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 074 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 84 ft | 196 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 075 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 124 ft | 166 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 076 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 72 ft | 186 ft | $15–$18 | |
| North | 077 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 157 ft | 210 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 001 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 28 ft | 275 ft | $25 |
| South | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 28 ft | 292 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 003 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 81 ft | 178 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 81 ft | 131 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 35 ft | 114 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 35 ft | 146 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 63 ft | 257 ft | $15 | |
| South | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 89 ft | 173 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 63 ft | 283 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 158 ft | 424 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 011 | type not stated | 35 ft | 50 amp | 487 ft | $25 | |
| South | 012 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 150 ft | 423 ft | $25 |
| South | 013 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 286 ft | $25 |
| South | 014 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 230 ft | $25 |
| South | 015 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 100 ft | 274 ft | $25 |
| South | 016 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 476 ft | $25 |
| South | 017 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 38 ft | 465 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 018 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 387 ft | $25 |
| South | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 49 ft | 342 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 020 | tent only electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 309 ft | $25 |
| South | 021 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 103 ft | 200 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 022 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 71 ft | 139 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 023 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 146 ft | $25 |
| South | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 75 ft | 97 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 025 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 117 ft | $25 |
| South | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 46 ft | 81 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 027 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 101 ft | 70 ft | $15–$18 | |
| South | 028 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 597 ft | $25 |
| South | 029 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 651 ft | $25 |
| South | 030 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 790 ft | $25 |
| South | 031 | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 851 ft | $25 |
| South | 032 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 947 ft | $25 |
| South | 033 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 973 ft | $25 |
| South | 034 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 34 ft | 1,049 ft | $25 |
| South | 035 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 34 ft | 1,081 ft | $25 |
| South | 036 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 1,027 ft | $25 |
| South | 037 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 83 ft | 818 ft | $25 |
| South | 038 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 83 ft | 756 ft | $25 |
| South | 039 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 29 ft | 598 ft | $25 |
| South | 040 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 29 ft | 590 ft | $25 |
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 77 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Anvil Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 2.7 miLuna - White Deer Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 2.7 mi
Luna White Deer CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 3.5 miSevenmile Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 3.6 miDrive approximately 8 miles east from Eagle River on Highway 70. Turn south onto Military Road/Forest Road 2178 and continue about 2 miles, to Butternut Lake Road/Forest Road 2181, and continue approximately 4 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Three Lakes, WI
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 53°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
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Franklin Lake is in Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Tom Tiffany (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →