Kawishiwi Lake Rustic Campground
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- FreeNo camping fee
- Season
- May 10 – October 1Open May 10 through October 1
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Kawishiwi Lake is a lovely campground in a birch stand on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness . It provides an excellent campsite for people entering or exiting the BWCAW via the Kawishiwi Lake Entry Point. The BWCAW boundary is the shore of the lake, so motors are not allowed on the lake and if you plan on putting a canoe in the water at all, you will need a day use permit available at a kiosk at the access point.
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and it costs nothing at all. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Sawbill Lake Campground - Superior National ForestSuperior National Forest · 10 miToohey Lake Rustic CampgroundSuperior National Forest · 11 miFourmile Lk Rustic Campground & Backcountry Sites12 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lutsen, MN
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 50°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 32°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 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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land

Kawishiwi Lake Rustic Campground 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 →