Hazelton Recreation Area
1Heads up1 fire 36 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $14–$18Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 30All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Hazelton Recreation Area is located on the east bank of the Missouri River on Lake Oahe just south of Bismarck, North Dakota. The lake is formed by the Oahe Dam in South Dakota, which was built during the Flood Control Act of 1944, commonly called the Pick-Sloan Plan. The lake and dam are named for the Oahe Indian Mission established in 1874 among the Lakota Sioux Indians. Over 50 recreation areas are scattered around Lake Oahe, where camping, fishing, boating and hunting are popular activities. For more information, please visit the Oahe Dam & Lake website . Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors enjoy coming to Lake Oahe for its great boating, water skiing, swimming and fishing opportunities. Many species of fish inhabit the lake, including walleye, northern pike and yellow perch. Many acres of land around the lake are open to public hunting. A wide variety of small and large game animals inhabit the area, including deer, pronghorn, grouse, dove, pheasant, partridge, squirrel, rabbit and waterfowl.
Facilities
The campground offers 18 primitive sites and 12 sites with 50-amp electrical hookups. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided. Amenities include vault toilets and a playground. A boat ramp is located on-site and has a large paved parking lot, adjacent picnic tables, a fish cleaning station and additional vault toilets.
Natural Features
Lake Oahe extends from Oahe Dam near Pierre, South Dakota to Bismarck, North Dakota and is 231 miles long. Its 2,250 miles of shoreline are made up of mixed grass prairie dotted with trees that grow down to the shore in occasional steep draws. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (701) 255-0015.
Nearby Attractions
Lake Oahe Charges & Cancellations A $10 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Reservation changes and cancellations can be made on Recreation.gov or by calling 1-877-444-6777. For more information on rules and policies regarding reservation cancellations and changes, please visit: https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies .
What the agency tells you
- All public-use of Lake Oahe Project Lands and Waters is governed by Title 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and is enforced by uniformed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Park Rangers. In case of Emergency, dial 9-1-1. - All campsites at Hazelton Recreation area are 100-percent Reserveable with Zero-Day Booking Window. This means you may reserve your campsite up to the day you wish to camp at Hazelton. Please be aware that failure to reserve a site prior to arrival may result in campground being full prior to arrival. - Up to eight (8) people are allowed per campsite. - All motor vehicles are restricted to designated roadways and parking areas only, off-road travel is prohibited. - Fireworks are strictly prohibited on Corps of Engineers lands and waters. - Fires are only permitted in designated fire rings or grills. All fires must be completely extinguished before departing the campground. - Visitors must properly dispose of trash in designated recepticles. Do not place trash in fire rings or grills. - Pets are allowed but must be on a leash no more than six (6') feet in length within the campground. All pet waste must be picked up and properly disposed of promptly. - Fishing and boating regulations apply and are enforced by North Dakota Department of Game & Fish. - For more information, please contact the Oahe Project - Bismarck Office at 701-255-0015 or email oahecampgrounds@usace.army.mil.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
STOP THE SPREAD OF INVASIVE SPECIES. Remove plants, seeds, animals, and mud from boots, gear, pets, and vehicles. Clean your gear before entering and leaving the recreation area. Stay on designated roads and trails. CLEAN, DRAIN, DRY boats and any other recreational equipment that contacts water. Dispose of unwanted bait, worms, fish parts, or other organisms into the trash and not into the envirnment. For mor information visit https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/rec
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 30
- Hookups
- 12 electric
- Longest rig
- 67 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…rings are provided. Amenities include vault toilets and a playground. A boat ramp is located on-site…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Disc Golf
- Fishing
- Picnicking
- Water access
- Night sky · 10th darkest of 27 in ND
- Bortle 3
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 · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $14–$18 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.
“A $10 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
30 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 30 mapped sitesAll 30 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. 30 of the 30 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| HAZELTON | 001 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 564 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 002 | standard electric | 49 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 648 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 003 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 578 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 004 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 654 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 005 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 582 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 006 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 69 ft | 648 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 007 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 563 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 008 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 602 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 009 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 546 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 010 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 38 ft | 526 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 011 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 579 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 012 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 505 ft | $18 |
| HAZELTON | 013 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 59 ft | 1,053 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 014 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 40 ft | 979 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 015 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 51 ft | 1,049 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 016 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 40 ft | 979 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 017 | standard nonelectric | 63 ft | 51 ft | 1,054 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 018 | standard nonelectric | 63 ft | 54 ft | 978 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 019 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 55 ft | 1,051 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 020 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 42 ft | 987 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 021 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 55 ft | 1,056 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 022 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 42 ft | 984 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 023 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 66 ft | 1,069 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 024 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 45 ft | 991 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 025 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 38 ft | 990 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 026 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 65 ft | 1,064 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 027 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 38 ft | 1,002 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 028 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 64 ft | 996 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 029 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 70 ft | 1,066 ft | $14 | |
| HAZELTON | 030 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 80 ft | 982 ft | $14 |
25 of 30 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Beaver Creek Recreation Area19 mi
Downstream Campground (ND)78 mi
Wolf Creek Campground (ND)80 mi
East Totten Trail Campground (ND)83 miSchnell Recreation AreaNorth Dakota Field Office · 86 miFrom Bismarck, ND, take University Drive south (road becomes Highway 1804). Continue 25 miles south. Recreation area will be on the right side of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cannon Ball, ND
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 55°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
Hazelton Recreation Area is in North Dakota’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Julie Fedorchak (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →