Gooseneck 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. The best swimming opportunities are located at site 3 and site 4. Site 1 does NOT have good swimming conditions. Site 3 has good swimming conditions, however there are high banks at this site that block the view of the shoreline from the site. Site 4 has a very shallow beach area An improved public boat access is located near site 1. A toilet is nearby, which is shared with site 1. The lake offers a good fishery of walleye, large and smallmouth bass, rock bass, sunfish and northern pike.
Facilities
There is NO drinking water available at these sites. Primitive toilets are available at the campsites: Site 1 has a primitive toilet, which is located and shared with the public using the boat launch Site 3 has a primtive toilet. Lake Name: Gooseneck Lake Number of Sites: 3 Maximum Number of People Per Site : Site 1 and 4 (8), Site 3 (16) Toilets : Yes at sites 1 and 3 Boat Access: Back-In near Site 1 Lake Size (acres): 123 Natural Features Gooseneck Lake is an extremely busy lake with private land and cottages surrounding most of its shores. As a result, pontoon boats, jet skis and water skiers and even occasional fishing boats can be seen and heard on the lake. There are three campsites on Gooseneck Lake: Site 1 is set back in a wooded area. Although its small, it is very nice. It is 40 ft. x 30 ft. with rough road access. It is suitable for a single family, but trailers are not recommended. Site 3 is an excellent camping area at the top of a small sandy bank. It is an open area, 100 ft x 70 ft in size. Access is good and this site is suitable for two families and trailers. Site 4 is located on the south side of the lake. The site is 70 ft. x 45 ft. and can accomodate one family. The access road is firm, but very narrow with sharp turns and washboard roots. Trailers are not recommended due to the very limited turning space. 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.
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
- 24 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “Primitive toilets are available at the campsites: Site 1 has a primitive toilet, which is located and shared with the public using the boat launch Site 3 has a primtive toilet.”
- 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
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Night sky · 86th 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
Camp Seven Lake CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 0.4 mi
Lyman Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 0.8 mi
Jackpine Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 1.6 mi
Carr Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 2.1 mi
Bear Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 2.3 mi
Camp Cook CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 2.4 miFrom the Intersection of US-2 and Forest Highway 13 (about 14 miles east of Rapid River); drive north 8.4 miles on Highway 13 to CR 442.
- Turn right (east) and drive 8 miles to FR 2218.
- Turn left (north) and drive 1.6 miles to FR 2218EA or 0.8 mile to FR 2218G.
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 35°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 7°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
Gooseneck 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 →