Ironjaw Lake Campsite
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 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 campsites. Licenses are required for fishing in Michigan waters. Our management efforts seek to provide for quiet, peaceful recreation opportunities in a semi-primiitve setting. The campsite is located on the non-motorized Pine Marten Run Trail, which is open to hiking, mountain biking, and horse back riding. The swimming area at this site is in poor condition. Horse camping is allowed at Ironjaw Lake. Ironjaw Lake is one of the better fishing lakes in the area. Crappie fishing is excellent in the spring. The lake contains northern pike, largemouth bass, bluegill and bullheads. Boat access is dow a steep hill but the surface is firm. Turn-around and back-in space at the base of the hill is very limited. 4 wheel drive vehicles are highly recommended. Parking is restricted to a small area located at the top of the hill. Boat access is open to the public, Keep the road clear and expect to have people using the boat launch.
Facilities
There is NO drinking water available. There is a primitive toilet located across the road from the parking area. Lake Name: Ironjaw Lake Number of Sites: 1 Maximum Number of People Per Site: 8 Maximum Number of Horses Allowed: 2 Toilets: Yes Boat Access: Back-In Lake Size (acres): 62 Natural Features Ironjaw Lake (62 acres) is located in the heart of the Ironjaw Semi-Primitive Area, which is managed for both motorized and non-motorized uses. The campsite at Ironjaw is a pull through site that features a tent pad situated on a hill overlooking Lake Nineteen. The site is suitable for only one family with a small trailer. There is limitied turnaround 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. Groceries, gasoline, fishing and camping supplies, boat rentals, ice, MDNR licenses, deli, and restaurants are available approximately six miles west on Forest Highway 13.
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 · 7
Campsite must be occupied the first night.
Campsite cannot be left unattended for more than 24 hours.
Horse camping: All straw, hay, feed and manure must be raked up and hauled home.
Horses must be properly tethered in designated areas
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
- 1
- 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
- “Toilets: Yes”
- 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
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Mountain biking
- Night sky · 77th 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
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| IRONJAW LAKE CAMPSITE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 147 ftNineteen Lake | $8 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lake Nineteen CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 0.2 mi
Swan Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 1.3 mi
Cookson Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 1.8 mi
Tom's Lake CabinHiawatha National Forest · 2.1 mi
Mowe Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.3 mi
Triangle Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.5 miFrom the Intersection of US-2 and Forest Highway 13 (about 14 miles east of Rapid River): drive north 18.7 miles on Highway 13 to County Road 440.
- Turn right (east) on CR 440 and drive 4.6 miles to FR 2733.
- Turn left (north) and drive 1.3 miles to the parking area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Munising, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 11°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
Ironjaw Lake Campsite 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 →