U.S. Forest Service · Nicolet National Forest · WI
Laurel Lake Recreation Area
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 24 mi
Wildfire
Schneider fire · 24 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 14, 2026
Wildfire
Loon fire · 29 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 14, 2026
Wildfire
Aspen Power fire · 44 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 14, 2026
Wildfire
Blackberry fire · 45 mi away · 3 acres · updated Oct 16, 2026
Wildfire
Bog fire · 47 mi away · 94 acres · updated Oct 7, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 16, 2026
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Season
- May 2 – October 15Open May 2 through October 15
1,630 ftElevation
under 10 ftWater · Big Stone Lake
8.3 miSE of Eagle River, WI
74%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 56th darkest of 70 in WI
Open May 2 through October 15Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
If you are looking for a base camp to enjoy water recreation activities, try Laurel Lake Recreation Area off Highway 32 east of Three Lakes. The Laurel Lake Recreation Area on the Eagle River-Florence Ranger District consists of a campground with 12 campsites equipped with picnic tables, fire rings with grills, accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Laurel Lake provides access to the 50-mile long Three Lakes-Eagle River Chain of Lakes. Keep reading
So get out your water skis, bring your boat (a boat launch is located directly across from the parking area), and don't forget your fishing equipment! No swimming beach is provided here. There are many nearby trails that will keep you busy, including the Sam Campbell Memorial Trail . So if you like to camp, boat, fish and enjoy what the beautiful forest has to offer, then the Laurel Lake Recreation Area is the place for you. Laurel Lake Recreation Area is pet friendly; see our restrictions below for more information.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…fire rings with grills, accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Laurel Lake provides access to…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grills, accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Laurel Lake provides access to the 50-mile long…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Source: Stated in the agency description
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
Source: Stated in the agency description
Phone before you drive
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.
Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 9
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Individual campsite fee is $15, or $7.50 with the use of an Interagency pass (access or senior).
The interagency pass applies only to the fee for the campsite physically occupied by the pass holder, not to any additional fees or campsite(s) occupied by members of the pass holder's party.
There is a $5 recreation use fee for the boat landing.
The Forest also has an annual pass available for $30.
To learn more visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/cnnf/passes-permits/recreation .
This does not apply to registered campers.
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Laurel Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 0.1 miSevenmile Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 5.4 mi
Anvil Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 8.6 miAnvil Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 8.8 mi
Luna White Deer CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 8.9 mi
Franklin Lake9.0 mi
Laurel Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 0.1 miSevenmile Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 5.4 miAnvil Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 8.6 miAnvil Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 8.8 miLuna White Deer CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 8.9 miFranklin Lake9.0 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight23°Clear
Saturday53°Sunny
Saturday Night35°Clear
Sunday58°Sunny
NWS forecast for Three Lakes, WI
Source: National Weather Service, GRB forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 53°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 33°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
90°32°-10°
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.
Measured at: EAGLE RVR, WI (USC00472314), 10 miles away and at about the same elevation
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
developing
Roadless
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Sep 28, 2026
Who answers for this land
Laurel Lake Recreation Area is in Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Tom Tiffany (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it out of season. The season it publishes is the bar below.
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Three Lakes, WI, 2.3 mi ENE (a census designated place). Straight line.