Richardson Lake Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 24 mi
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 26All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 2 – November 30Open May 2 through November 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Richardson Lake Campground sits on its namesake lake in beautiful Forest County Wisconsin. This campground's 26 sites are located on the south shore of Richardson Lake, well known to anglers for its bass, northern pike, and pan fish. Relax on the sandy swim beach or take in the views of the lake from the picnic area above the beach. Take your boat or canoe out on Richardson Lake in search of wildlife along the shoreline. Keep reading
Recreation
The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest has an abundance of outdoor recreation opportunities. Those most enjoyed at Richardson are fishing, swimming, and canoeing.
Facilities
Richardson Lake Campground offers 26 campsites of various sizes that can accommodate tents and RVs. Drinking water, vault toilets, swim beach, and boat landing are also provided at this location.
Natural Features
The campground lies in a lush maple dominated northern hardwood forest on the south shore of 47-acre Richardson Lake. Richardson Lake Campground is best known for its spectacular fall color.
Nearby Attractions
The communities of Wabeno to the east and Crandon to the north offer some services and community events throughout the year.
What the agency tells you
Each single occupancy site is allowed up to 8 persons and one vehicle. Should space allow at the campsite, three additional vehicles or towed units are allowed per site. If there is not enough space at the campsite for the additional vehicles or towed units, you must use the overflow parking.
Privately owned ATV's, UTV's, and Golf Carts are not allowed to be operated within the campground.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 26 · 1 tent-only, 1 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 56 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tents and RVs. Drinking water, vault toilets, swim beach, and boat landing are also provided at…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…that can accommodate tents and RVs. Drinking water, vault toilets, swim beach, and boat landing are…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Night sky · 61st darkest of 70 in WI
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 13 km away
- Peak color
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:43 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 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 16:43 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
26 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 26 mapped sitesAll 26 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. 26 of the 26 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Main Loop | 01 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 85 ft | 175 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 02 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 85 ft | 150 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 03 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 104 ft | 236 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 04 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 104 ft | 209 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 05 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 82 ft | 115 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 06 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 82 ft | 96 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 07 | walk to | 7 ft | 91 ft | 126 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 08 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 269 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 09 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 340 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 10 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | 104 ft | 288 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 11 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 94 ft | 392 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 12 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 101 ft | 417 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 13 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 82 ft | 328 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 14 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 91 ft | 437 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 15 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 82 ft | 349 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 16 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 91 ft | 446 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 17 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 103 ft | 369 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 18 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 97 ft | 456 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 19 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 97 ft | 424 ft | $15 |
| Main Loop | 20 | tent only nonelectric | 56 ft | 104 ft | 352 ft | $15 |
| Small Loop | 21 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 103 ft | 160 ft | $15 |
| Small Loop | 22 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 96 ft | 124 ft | $15 |
| Small Loop | 23 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 83 ft | 240 ft | $15 |
| Small Loop | 24 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 96 ft | 155 ft | $15 |
| Small Loop | 25 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 83 ft | 250 ft | $15 |
| Small Loop | 26 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 97 ft | 200 ft | $15 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 26 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ada Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 5.0 miAda Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 5.0 miBear Lake Recreation Area11 mi
Bear Lake Campground (Chequamegon-Nicolet NF, WI)11 mi
Boot Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 12 miBoot Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 12 miFrom Wabeno, drive north 0.8 miles on Highway 32 to Highway 52. Turn left (west) on Highway 52 and drive 2.4 miles to Richardson Lake Road (FR2880). Turn right (north) on Richardson Lake Road and continue 0.4 miles to the campground.
The weather
the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 52°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical November night 23°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 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.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Richardson Lake Campground 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 →