Monocle Lake
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 42All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Monocle Lake Campground offers a a relaxing place to fish, swim and hike along the shores of scenic Monocle Lake just off Lake Superior. It is located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the northeastern corner of the Hiawatha National Forest. The campground is centrally located among many recreational opportunities in the Sault Ste. Marie area, including the Whitefish Bay National Scenic Byway and Tahquamenon Falls. Keep reading
Recreation
Monocle Lake is populated with walleye, smallmouth bass, pike and perch. Two man-made reefs lie just off the eastern shore next to the campground, where anglers typically have good luck. Swimming and boating are popular activities in the area. Visitors also enjoy hiking the 14.5-mile Monocle Lake Trail. Two miles of the trail have interpretive displays, and the first 1100 feet of the trail are along an elevated, accessible boardwalk. Additional trails are found in the surrounding area.
Facilities
The campground offers heavily shaded single-family sites for tent and RV camping. Some sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Hookups are not available. A day-use picnic area, adjacent to a fairly large parking area at the campground, provides easy access to a swimming beach. The picnic area is equipped with tables, grills and drinking water, as well as accessible vault toilets. A paved boat launch with a parking lot big enough to accommodate vehicles and trailers provides easy access to the beautiful all sports lake.
Natural Features
The campground surrounds the south end of 172-acre Monocle Lake, and is less than two miles from the historic Point Iroquois Lighthouse. It is nestled in a mixed hardwood forest of aspen, maple, birch and pine trees, providing scenic lake and forest views from anywhere in the campground. Private residences also surround the inland lake. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (906) 767-1111.
Nearby Attractions
The nearest town is Bay Mills, which is about 6 miles from Monocle Lake. The United States-Canada border, at Sault Ste. Marie, is about 25 miles from the campground. Tahquamenon Falls, a series of beautifully brown-colored waterfalls on the Tahquamenon River, is located about 35 miles from Monocle Lake.
Charges & Cancellations
Please cancel 7 days in advance if you need to cancel your reservation. Reservation sites cannot be traded for walk-in sites.
What the agency tells you
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.
Reservations cannot be traded for walk up sites.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Check OUT is at 12:00 PM Check IN is at 2:00 PM
This location does not have an office. It has a self pay station. Reservations cannot be changed at this location.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 42 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 80 ft
- Paved pads
- 6 of 42
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Hookups are not…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Hookups are not available. A day-use…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Beach, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 188th darkest of 192 in MI
- Bortle 4
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 · 16
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, $24 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.
“Please cancel 7 days in advance if you need to cancel your reservation. Reservation sites cannot be traded for walk-in sites.” · 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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
42 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 27 mapped sitesAll 42 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. 42 of the 42 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| MONOCLE LAKE | 01 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 65 ft | 396 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 02 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 65 ft | 448 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 03 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 100 ft | 397 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 04 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 339 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 05 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 66 ft | 387 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 06 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 74 ft | 338 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 07 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 74 ft | 374 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 08 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 67 ft | 342 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 09 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 67 ft | 355 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 10 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 67 ft | 404 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 11 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 357 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 12 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 56 ft | 409 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 13 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 14 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 15 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 16 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 17 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 18 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 19 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 20 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 21 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 22 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 90 ft | 429 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 23 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 90 ft | 453 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 24 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 106 ft | 310 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 25 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 106 ft | 222 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 26 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 27 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 28 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 249 ft | 126 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 29 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 30 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 31 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 106 ft | 136 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 32 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 106 ft | 197 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 33 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 34 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 188 ft | 159 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 35 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 188 ft | 142 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 36 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $24 | ||
| MONOCLE LAKE | 37 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 188 ft | 153 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 38 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 208 ft | 176 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 39 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 39 ft | 79 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 40 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 39 ft | 41 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 41 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 61 ft | 262 ft | $24 |
| MONOCLE LAKE | 42 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 61 ft | 289 ft | $24 |
25 of 42 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Monocle Lake CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 0.8 miBay View CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 6.7 mi
Bay View (Hiawatha National Forest, MI)6.8 mi
Soldier LakeHiawatha National Forest · 14 mi
Three LakesHiawatha National Forest · 19 mi
Carp River CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 31 mi12600 E Lakeshore Drive Brimley Michigan 49715
From Bay Mills, travel west on County Road 42 (Whitefish Bay Scenic Byway) for approximately half a mile, then turn south on Forest Road 3699 to the campground entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Brimley, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 4°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
Monocle 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 →