North Star
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 1 of the next 30 nights; a database flag says not open read 14:23 UTC
- A night
- $14From, per site
- Sites
- 3938 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
North Star Campground is located 4 miles south of Marcell and 25 miles north of Grand Rapids on MN State Highway 38. There are 38 campsites located within easy walking distance of the sandy swimming beach. The lake has many sheltered bays and inlets to provide quiet water for ideal fishing. Keep reading
Recreation
Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (218) 246-2123.
What the agency tells you
!! NEW FOR 2026 !! Sites 22-38 will be reservable through recreation.gov from 7/3/2026 to the evening of 9/6/26. Sites 1-21 will remain first-come first-served. When there is no reservation for a site, the site is considered first-come first-served. Reservations will be posted 4 days in advance.
Fee includes one camping unit per site. Double occupancy is not permitted on single unit sites; on large sites double occupancy is permitted. The second occupant must pay the full nightly amount for each night of stay by using a fee envelope at the entrance kiosk. Please read the fee board upon entering the campground to see what qualifies for single and double occupancy. Vehicles and/or trailers must not block any part of roadways or gates at any time.
Some important campground rules: - Quiet hours are from 10pm – 6am. Generators cannot be run during this time. If you have a medical condition that requires powered equipment, please plan accordingly with battery backup. - Pets are welcome but must remain on a leash 6' or shorter in length at all times. Pets are not allowed in beach areas. - Campfires cannot be left unattended. They must be extinguished before the campsite is vacated. - Fireworks, including sparklers, are not allowed. - Cutting/damaging live vegetation is not allowed. You may gather dead and downed wood for campfires if it fits within the fire ring. - The use of power saws, including electric chainsaws, is strictly prohibited. All regulations are found under 36 CFR 261 and are punishable by fines.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Northern Minnesota is home to black bears. Campers must keep coolers and other bear attractants locked inside hard-sided campers or in vehicles when not attended, including overnight. Black bears are present and active within the campground area. Feeding any wildlife, including hanging bird feeders, is strictly prohibited. NEW FOR 2025: Chippewa National Forest Campground Food Storage Order
Bundled firewood is no longer available in Chippewa National Forest campgrounds. Firewood may be available for sale at local vendors, or may be brought from home if within Itasca County. You may also cut dead and downed wood in the forest without a permit as long as it will be used in the campground. Chainsaw use (gas and electric) is not permitted in the campground. 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.
Click here for more information on the Chippewa National Forest.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 39
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 100 ft
- Accessible sites
- 17
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Kayaking
- Mushroom Picking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Paddle Boating
- Paddling
- Scenic drives
- Night sky · 51st darkest of 77 in MN
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 15 km away
- Past peak
Full this Saturdayread 14:23 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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, $14 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
recreation.gov availability, read 14:23 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
39 sites · the site map
All 39 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 39 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 38 of the 39 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| North Star | 01 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 02 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 03 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 04 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 05 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 06 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 07 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 08 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 09 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 10 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 11 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 12 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 13 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 14 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 15 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| North Star | 16 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 17 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 18 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 19 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 20 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 21 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $14 | |||
| North Star | 22 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | yes | $14 | ||
| North Star | 23 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | yes | $14 | ||
| North Star | 24 | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | yes | $14 | ||
| North Star | 25 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | yes | $14 | ||
| North Star | 26 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | yes | $14 | ||
| North Star | 27 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | yes | $14 | ||
| North Star | 28 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | yes | $14 | ||
| North Star | 29 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | yes | $14 | ||
| North Star | 30 | standard nonelectric | yes | $14 | |||
| North Star | 31 | standard nonelectric | yes | $14 | |||
| North Star | 32 | standard nonelectric | yes | $14 | |||
| North Star | 33 | standard nonelectric | yes | $14 | |||
| North Star | 34 | standard nonelectric | yes | $14 | |||
| North Star | 35 | standard nonelectric | yes | $14 | |||
| North Star | 36 | standard nonelectric | yes | $14 | |||
| North Star | 37 | standard nonelectric | yes | $14 | |||
| North Star | 38 | standard nonelectric | yes | $14 | |||
| Scan and Pay | Standard | type not stated | 615 ft | 270 ft |
25 of 39 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Clubhouse LakeChippewa National Forest · 5.1 mi
OnegumeChippewa National Forest · 19 miOnegume (ah-ni-gah-mig[k])CampgroundChippewa National Forest · 19 mi
Mosomo PointChippewa National Forest · 19 mi
Cut Foot Horse CampgroundChippewa National Forest · 19 mi
Williams NarrowsChippewa National Forest · 20 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bigfork, MN
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -5°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
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
North Star 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyPete StauberU.S. Representative · Minnesota’s 8th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAmy KlobucharU.S. Senator · Minnesota
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTina SmithU.S. Senator · Minnesota
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at North Star, Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota
Dear Pete Stauber, I’m a constituent in Minnesota’s 8th district. I tried to camp at North Star, Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 38 of the 39 campsites the agency files at North Star, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. North Star keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run North Star. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about North Star (Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at North Star, Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota
Dear Amy Klobuchar, I’m a constituent in Minnesota. I tried to camp at North Star, Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 38 of the 39 campsites the agency files at North Star, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. North Star keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run North Star. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about North Star (Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at North Star, Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota
Dear Tina Smith, I’m a constituent in Minnesota. I tried to camp at North Star, Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 38 of the 39 campsites the agency files at North Star, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. North Star keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run North Star. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about North Star (Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota) via campanac.com