Leg Lake Campsites
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 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 dispersed campsites. Licenses are required for fishing in Michigan waters. Leg Lake has good fishing for northern pike, largemouth bass, black crappies and bluegills. Some yellow perch and bullheads may be caught. There is an unimproved boat access located adjacent to site 2. It is intended for day use only. Only small boats and trailers are recommended at this access.
Facilities
There is NO drinking water available at these sites. There is a primitive toilet located at site 1. Lake Name: Leg Lake Number of Sites: 2 Max Number of People Per Site: Site 1 (24), Site 2 (8) Toilets: Yes at site 1 Boat Access: Back-In at site 2 Lake Size (acres) : 40 Natural Features There are two campsites located on Leg Lake. These sites lie about 0.25 miles west of County Road 437 between Forest Roads 2697 and 2438. Each of these has specific features as detailed below: Site 1 is located on the west side of the lake. It is a very large semi-open area that would be suitable for group camping or family gatherings with trailers. Site 2 is a small, wooded area located on the east side of the lake. This site is suitable for one family.
Nearby Attractions
There is 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. Gasoline, groceries, fishing and camping supplies, ice and deli are available approximately two miles south on County Road 437 in the Thunder Lake area. Contact Info For local information, please call (906) 474-6442 or call (906) 387-2512 for general information.
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 · 5
Campsite must be occupied the first night.
Campsite cannot be left unattended for more than 24 hours.
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
- 2
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 32 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 at site 1”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…in a rustic forest environment with no drinking water. The rustic environment offers a wonderfully serene…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Night sky · 69th 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
2 sites · the site map
All 2 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. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Minerva Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 1.1 mi
Triangle Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.7 mi
Little Bass Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.8 mi
Bass Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 3.3 mi
Carr Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 3.7 mi
Jackpine Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 3.9 miFrom Cooks (about 12 miles west of Manistique or 24 miles east of Rapid River on US-2): drive north 4.4 miles on County Road 442 to CR 437.
- Turn left (north) on CR 437 and drive 13.3 miles to FR 2697.
- Turn left (west) and drive to site 2 or
- To get to site 1: turn left (west) off CR 437 at about 13.2 miles on FR 2438 and drive 0.7 mile to reach site 1.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Manistique, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 7°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
Leg Lake Campsites 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 →