Island Lake
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 11All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Island Lake Campground is a small and quiet campground nestled in a mostly pine forest. Island Lake offers great fishing for anglers with small boats or canoes. Keep reading
Recreation
Island Lake offers excellent fishing and canoeing or kayaking. Anglers fish for largemouth bass, blue gill and perch. The campground offers fishing from shore. Island Lake Campground features a boat slip for small carry-in boats or canoes. Other popular activities include hiking, biking and ATV trails.
Facilities
This small campground offers a group site and single-family sites that can be doubled-up to occupy two families. Note: Each family has to pay a site fee if doubled up on one site.
Natural Features
Although there are a few mixed hardwood trees in the area, this campground is favored by those individuals who like to camp in a classic pine forest setting.
Nearby Attractions
There are many waterfalls to see in the area, as well as the popular Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Grand Island, located just 15 miles away at Lake Superior. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (906) 767-1111.
What the agency tells you
Off-road vehicles are allowed in the campground in and out only.
Two pets per site
No switching sites upon arrival
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per tent site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged an $8 per night fee and collected at the campground if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at your site.
Reserved Sites will be held until checkout time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of the second day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests.
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
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 Don't move firewood:
Click here for more information on the Hiawatha National Forest Hiawatha
Hiawatha National Forest - West Day Use Fees: Day Use $8.00 Day Use Annual Pass $40.00
Check OUT is at 12:00 PM Check IN is at 2:00 PM
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 110th 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 · 14
What you actually pay
“Extra vehicle will be charged an $8 per night fee and collected at the campground if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $26 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
11 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 11 mapped sitesAll 11 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. 11 of the 11 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| ISLAND LAKE | 001 | group standard area nonelectric | 30 ft | 137 ft | 182 ft | $65 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 199 ft | $26 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 195 ft | $26 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 98 ft | 193 ft | $26 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 98 ft | 205 ft | $26 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 85 ft | 216 ft | $26 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 85 ft | 278 ft | $26 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 211 ft | 373 ft | $26 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 009 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 96 ft | 133 ft | $26 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 96 ft | 117 ft | $26 |
| ISLAND LAKE | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 137 ft | 95 ft | $26 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Council Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.0 miHovey Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.6 mi
Widewaters CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 3.7 mi
Pete's Lake CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 3.9 mi
McKeever CabinHiawatha National Forest · 4.5 mi
Ewing Point CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 4.7 miFrom the intersection of M-28 and Forest Highway 13, just a couple miles east of Munising, drive south 8.8 miles to FR 2268, or Buckhorn Road. Turn right (southwest) on FR 2268 and drive 2.2 miles on FR 2268 and FR 2254 to FR 2557. Turn left (south) on FR 2557 and drive 0.8 mile to Island Lake Campground.
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
Island Lake 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 →