Island lake (MI)
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 17All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Island Lake Campground is a popular campground and picnic area featuring a swimming beach marked with buoys on the 58-acre Island Lake. Located on the southern edge of the Mio Ranger District of the Huron-Manistee National Forest, this site is a short drive North on M-33 from Rose City, MI. This site is gated in the off-season. Island Lake Brochure and Map. Keep reading
Recreation
Water Activities: Island Lake is a popular location for swimming, fishing, and non-motorized boating. The water tempurate is cold with a maximum depth of 25 feet. Anglers can expect to catch sunfish, perch, and bass. Visitors can carry-in kayaks, canoes, and other non-motorized watercraft a short distance from the day use parking area to day use beach. Hiking: There is a 1.25 mile loop trail that departs from the campground. A spur trail off the main loop connects Island Lake Campground with Loon Lake Day Use Area. OHV Riding: Nearby M-33 trailhead provides OHV riders with access to the Mack Lake Motorized Trail System and the Bull Gap Hill Climb Area . Additionally, a large majority of Forest Service roads are open to OHV use. Please refer to the motor vehicle use map (MVUM) to understand which roads are open to OHV use.
Facilities
The campground provides handpump wells for drinking water, several vault toilets, and trash collection services. The embedded day use area also provides visitors with picnic tables and grills. Campsites at Island Lake have paved parking pads, picnic tables, campfire rings, and lantern posts.
Natural Features
Island Lake is a small, sheltered lake. It's namesake Island is visable from the day use area. Several of the campsites offer views of Island Lake through the trees. The forest around the campground is mixed hardwoods with many wildlife and waterfowl viewing opportunites. Island Lake and the surrounding landscape are the result of glacial retreat and showcases some of Michigan's geologic history. While retreating from Michigan, glaciers left behind a pattern of broad ridges, called moraines. A chaotic arragnement of deep circular depressions and winding ridges, the Island Lake campground and Island Lake nature trail takes visitors through part of the West Branch Morraine. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (989) 826-3252.
Charges & Cancellations
All reservation changes, cancellations, and refunds are managed through Recreation.gov.
What the agency tells you
As a visitor to the National Forest, you are asked to follow certain rules designed to protect the Forest, natural resources and to provide for public safety of visitors. These rules are available to you online or at any office of the Huron-Manistee National Forests. Please take time to read and understand them. General Topic orders apply across the Forests. Applicable Orders: - Motorized Vehicle Use of Roads, Trails and Off-road Areas; R904-14-02 - Occupancy and Use - Developed Recreation Areas, Dispersed Areas, Being Publicly Nude, Marine Prohibitions, Parking and Sanitation; R904-14-03
Forest quiet hours apply.
Some sites are available on a first-come, first serve basis.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
You must occupy your site within 24 hours of the start of your reservation. Contact the Forest Service to request a late arrival or your site may be forfeited.
Do not tie or tack anything to standing trees, including but not limited to pets, laundry lines, or garbage bags.
You may use downed wood for firewood. Keep fires within the fire ring. Do not leave hot campfires unattended. Make sure your ashes are cool to the touch before you leave.
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
Fireworks and use of fireworks are not permitted.
ORVs may only be operated on roads and trails signed as open for their use. ORVs may not be used within campgrounds.
This site is gated during the off season.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 17
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- 16 of 17
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…wells for drinking water, several vault toilets, and trash collection services. The embedded day…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…campground provides handpump wells for drinking water, several vault toilets, and trash collection…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Kayaking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Paddle Boating
- Paddling
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Water access
- Night sky · 146th darkest of 192 in MI
- 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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 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.
“All reservation changes, cancellations, and refunds are managed through Recreation.gov.” · 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
17 sites
All 17 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. 17 of the 17 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 | 1 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 10 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 11 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 12 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 13 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 14 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 15 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 16 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 17 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 2 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 3 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 4 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 5 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 6 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 7 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 8 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 |
| Island Lake | 9 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $15 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Wagner Lake (MI)Huron National Forest · 3.0 mi
Chimney Loop CampgroundHuron National Forest · 3.0 mi
Mack Lake ORV CampgroundHuron National Forest · 6.1 mi
Meadows ORV CampgroundHuron National Forest · 8.9 miRiver Dune CampgroundHuron National Forest · 9.9 mi
Au Sable Loop CampgroundHuron National Forest · 10 miFrom West Branch:
- Travel east on M-55 for 5 miles.
- Turn left and travel north on M-33 for 16 miles.
- Turn left and travel west on Loon Lake Loop Rd. for 1 mile.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Rose City, MI
Typical weather
Typical May night 41°F, day 68°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 41°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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 (MI) 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 →