Gull Lake Recreation Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $32From, per site
- Sites
- 42All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Gull Lake Recreation Area offers something for everyone with boating, hiking, fishing and swimming at Minnesota's famous Gull Lake, the largest of the 10 lakes on the Gull Chain of Lakes. Visitors have the opportunity to see and hear an abundance of watchable wildlife like bald eagles, white-tailed deer, river otters, a variety of songbirds, and the legendary call of the loon. Keep reading
Recreation
Anglers will delight in the large population of fish including stocked walleye, northern pike, bass and a variety of panfish. Boaters can access crystal clear waters throughout the chain of lakes and enjoy the peaceful sunsets overlooking the woods. Hit the self-guided interpretive trail for a short hike with wildlife watching and scenic overlooks along the lake. Hop on your bike on the City of East Gull Lake's paved multi-use trail that starts by the dam, or head out to join up with the Paul Bunyan State Trail with trailheads located in Baxter and Nisswa. Got a kayak, canoe, or intertube? Try heading down the Gull River from the lower canoe launch. Ask the Park Rangers about river safety with current water flow and check-out a life jacket before you go.
Facilities
The campground is known for its well-spaced wooded sites, each with 50 or 30 amp electric hookup service, picnic tables, campfire rings, and a centrally located showerhouse. A water fill and dump station is located near the entrance to the campground. This side of the park holds two canoe launches, a paved shoreline fishing platform, fish cleaning station, self-guided information booth, playground, a flush toilet restroom, and a handful of picnic tabels and grills. Across the dam is the Ranger Office, boat ramp, vault toilet, and swimming beach on the lake. Volleyball nets, basketball hoop, horseshoe pits, and two more playgrounds are also perks of this side of the park.
Natural Features
The campground sits on the Gull River at the outlet of Gull Lake. The area was formed by a receding glacier that moved southward from Canada and carved the landscape. Gull Lake is one of the six Mississippi Headwaters Projects of the Mississippi River Watershed operated by The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Nearby Attractions
Gull Lake is located minutes from 520 holes of golf, the 100-mile Paul Bunyan State Trail, amusement parks, a zoo, and numerous shopping opportunities in Brainerd, Baxter, and Nisswa.
What the agency tells you
Reservations MUST be made online utilizing recreation.gov either prior to your visit or immediately upon arrival. The park office can not make reservations. However, the staff are happy to help walk you through the process on your smart phone or tablet. Firewood sales will be available at the wood shed on site #40 ONLY between 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Upon arrival, you will be provided with instructions on how to pay for firewood with a credit/debit card online with wood delivery straight to your site. Exact cash sales are still available at the wood shed during hours of operation.
Only two tents OR one wheeled-camping unit plus one tent is allowed per campsite.
Upon your arrival, you will find a box on your site post with check-in information such as firewood ordering hand out, your day use camper pass, and an important campground information handout. Please review these materials when you arrive. Park Staff may come around to check in with you. If you need assistance, contact a ranger or a volunteer.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
There is no longer an entrance at the north side of the park. All users will need to access the park via the south entrance. There is a new roundabout on Gull Dam Road to route you to the south if you still wish to come via Gull Dam Road. Suggested directions are as follows: From the intersection MN 210 and MN 371 in Baxter, drive north 2.6 miles. Turn left on Cty Rd 77 (Pine Beach Road). Drive west for 4.7 miles. Turn right onto Cty Rd 70 (E. Gull Lake Drive). You will come to a stop sign in 2.1 miles, go straight, this will take you into the park. Follow the road over the dam and the campground will be straight ahead.
There are no sewer or water sites at this campground but potable water and a dump station are located at the campground entrance.
The shower building and drinking water are available May 14 - October 15.
ONLY CERTIFIED FIREWOOD is allowed in the park. Firewood restrictions are in effect to prevent the spread of harmful forest insects and disease. Click here for more information
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 42
- Hookups
- 42 electric, 1 water
- Longest rig
- 122 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 42
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…information booth, playground, a flush toilet restroom, and a handful of picnic tabels and… / …the dam is the Ranger Office, boat ramp, vault toilet, and swimming beach on the lake. Volleyball nets,…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Evening Programs
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ice Fishing
- Information Site
- Ranger programs
- Kayaking
- Motor Boat
- Picnicking
- Snowshoeing
- Night sky · 75th darkest of 77 in MN
- Bortle 4
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $32 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
43 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 43 mapped sitesAll 43 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. 42 of the 43 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.
| GULL LAKE | 01 | standard electric | 66 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 426 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 02 | standard electric | 61 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 338 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 03 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 330 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 04 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 313 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 05 | standard electric | 105 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 407 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 06 | standard electric | 78 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 320 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 07 | standard electric | 110 ft | 50 amp | 95 ft | 420 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 08 | standard electric | 89 ft | 50 amp | 111 ft | 308 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 09 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 402 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 10 | standard electric | 79 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 443 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 11 | standard electric | 89 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 486 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 12 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 547 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 12A | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 39 ft | 639 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 13 | standard electric | 100 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 543 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 14 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 39 ft | 678 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 15 | standard electric | 78 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 771 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 16 | standard electric | 61 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 799 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 16A | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 65 ft | 748 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 17 | standard electric | 77 ft | 50 amp | 94 ft | 653 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 18 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 717 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 19 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 684 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 20 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 80 ft | 644 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 21 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 97 ft | 537 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 22 | standard electric | 122 ft | 50 amp | 86 ft | 601 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 23 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 91 ft | 440 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 24 | standard electric | 88 ft | 50 amp | 97 ft | 486 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 25 | standard electric | 116 ft | 50 amp | 91 ft | 362 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 26 | standard electric | 79 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 433 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 27 | standard electric | 93 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 312 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 28 | standard electric | 102 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 277 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 29 | standard electric | 98 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 385 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 30 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 103 ft | 286 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 31 | standard electric | 69 ft | 50 amp | 90 ft | 632 ftGull River | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 32 | standard electric | 71 ft | 50 amp | 95 ft | 735 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 33 | standard electric | 90 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 706 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 34 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | 95 ft | 639 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 35 | standard electric | 77 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 630 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 36HOST | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 503 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 37 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | yes | 54 ft | 424 ft | $32 |
| GULL LAKE | 38HOST | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 99 ft | 450 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 39 | standard electric | 97 ft | 50 amp | 103 ft | 284 ft | $32 | |
| GULL LAKE | 40HOST | standard electric | 50 amp | 76 ft | 465 ft | $32 | ||
| GULL LAKE | Picnic Shelter | day use | 15 amp | 760 ft | 85 ft | $50 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. 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 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cross Lake Recreation Area21 mi
Mabel LakeChippewa National Forest · 46 mi
Stony PointChippewa National Forest · 50 mi
Sandy Lake55 mi
Leech Lake Rec Area58 mi
South Pike BayChippewa National Forest · 64 miFrom the intersection MN 210 and MN 371 in Baxter, drive north 2.6 miles. Turn left on Cty Rd 77 (Pine Beach Road). Drive west for 4.7 miles. Turn right onto Cty Rd 70 (E. Gull Lake Drive). You will come to a stop sign in 2.1 miles, go straight, this will take you into the park. Follow the road over the dam and the campground will be straight ahead.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for East Gull Lake, MN
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -1°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
Gull Lake Recreation Area 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 →