Pfeiffer Lake
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $18From, per site
- Sites
- 1716 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Pfeiffer Lake Campground, located adjacent to it's namesake lake, is a small, peaceful and scenic facility in the Superior National Forest of Minnesota. The lake's healthy population of fish make it a favorite spot for anglers, and the swim beach, playground and picnic area provide fun for the whole family. Superior National Forest, located in northeastern Minnesota's arrowhead region, is comprised of 3 million acres. The forest spans 150 miles along the United States-Canada border. Visitors can find recreation opportunities year-round, including travel in the famous Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Keep reading
Recreation
Pfeiffer Lake has many activities, fishing being one of the most popular. Panfish, bass, perch and walleye can be caught from the fishing dock or offshore, accessible via the facility's boat ramp. Canoeing and kayaking are also a favorite pastime. The picnic area is next to a grassy swimming beach and 3-mile hiking trail.
Facilities
The campground has 16 total campsites 8 reservable and 8 first-come, first-served campsites, some of which can accommodate RVs. The campground provides fire rings, tables, drinking water, vault toilets and a centrally located playground that offers children a great place to run off the day's energy. A campground host is on site to answer questions.
Natural Features
The campground sits in a forest of mixed hardwoods and pine and new pine and cedar have been planted. The lake is 57 acres and has an irregular shoreline great for exploring by canoe or kayak. The lake area is also a nesting place for loons and a habitat for other birds and wildlife.
Nearby Attractions
Numerous outdoor recreation opportunities lie within Superior National Forest's 77 lake accesses, 13 fishing piers, 10 swimming beaches and 22 picnic areas. The forest is also home to three scenic byways. Additional sites of interest
What the agency tells you
Campground will be closed and gates typically will be locked November 1 through May 1.
There is no drinking water, garbage service or toilet cleaning in the winter season.
Additional fee for second vehicle (non-towed) is $9.00/per day.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
The site must be occupied in the first 24 hours of reservation.
NO FIREWORKS.
Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. 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
- 17
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 16 of 17 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…fire rings, tables, drinking water, vault toilets and a centrally located playground that offers…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…campground provides fire rings, tables, drinking water, vault toilets and a centrally located playground…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 62nd darkest of 77 in MN
- Bortle 3
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:51 UTC
recreation.gov lists 16 of the 17 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
“Additional fee for second vehicle (non-towed) is $9.00/per day.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $18 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:51 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
17 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 17 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 16 of the 17 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. 17 of the 17 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.
| Pfei | S&P Standard | type not stated | $18 | ||||
| PFEI | 001 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 487 ft | 159 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 002 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 65 ft | 518 ft | 224 ft | $18 |
| PFEI | 003 | standard nonelectric | 93 ft | 429 ft | 239 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 004 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 408 ft | 287 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 005 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 380 ft | 196 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 006 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 343 ft | 106 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 007 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 323 ft | 57 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 008 | standard nonelectric | 150 ft | 224 ft | 103 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 009 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 233 ft | 248 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 010 | standard nonelectric | 14 ft | 42 ft | 199 ft | 334 ft | $18 |
| PFEI | 011 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 241 ft | 311 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 209 ft | 268 ft | $18 |
| PFEI | 013 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 305 ft | 167 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 014 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 67 ft | 241 ft | 224 ft | $18 |
| PFEI | 015 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 338 ft | 127 ft | $18 | |
| PFEI | 016 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 284 ft | 187 ft | $18 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Pfeiffer Lake Campground & Backcountry SitesSuperior National Forest · 0.1 mi
Lake Jeanette Campground & Backcountry Sites27 mi
Jeanette Lake27 mi
Echo Lake Campground & Backcountry SitesSuperior National Forest · 29 mi
Echo Lake (Minn)Superior National Forest · 29 mi
Fenske Lake CampgroundSuperior National Forest · 31 miFrom Virginia, Minnesota, take Highway 53 north for 21 miles to County Road 22. Turn onto County Road 22 and travel east for 10 miles. Turn south on Forest Road 256 and travel 1.2 miles to Pfeiffer Lake Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Tower, MN
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January 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
Pfeiffer Lake 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 →