Sandy Lake
1Heads up1 fire 42 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $26–$52Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 60All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Sandy Lake Dam and Recreation Area is situated at the outlet of Big Sandy Lake in northern Minnesota, 13 miles north of McGregor, MN. The dam is a part of the Mississippi Headwaters Project, one of the first reservoir systems in the country, and the Sandy Lake Dam structure dates back to 1895. Today the grounds have been developed into a park and campground that is noted for its clean, family-friendly environment and access to fishing and boating on both the lake and nearby Mississippi River. It offers the only public campground and beach on Big Sandy Lake. The area is also a part of the historic canoe route that connected the Mississippi River to Lake Superior and major fur trading companies. Artifacts from the area's long history are kept in a small museum located near the dam. Keep reading
Recreation
Sandy Lake offers many recreational opportunities including camping, boating, swimming, picnicking, birding and hiking. Anglers enjoy fishing the lake and river for Northern pike, walleye, small mouth bass, bluegill, crappie and even catfish. Playgrounds are located on both sides of the dam and are located near the beach and visitor museum areas. The old lock house has been converted into a free small museum containing historical artifacts from the area. Educational programs are offered seasonally and are open to the public.
Facilities
This recreation area and campground offers a variety of facilities with water access to Big Sandy Lake and the Sandy & Mississippi rivers. The campground features 43 single family sites, five double family sites and two group sites - all with electric hookups. Eight primitive walk-to tent sites (four of which have electrical hookups), a camper cabin with bunk beds and a day-use group picnic shelter are also available. The campground is divided by the Sandy Lake Dam into a north and south side, each with separate vehicle access roads. Only pedestrian traffic is permitted across the dam. Amenities include flush and vault restrooms, showers, drinking water, laundry facilities and a dump station. Day use facilities are intertwined within the campground and contain two lake boat ramps, one river boat ramp, docks, a fishing pier, beach, playgrounds and a short hiking trail. NOTE: Campsites 1-21, tent sites 1-4, and the south group campsite are accessed via the “South Entrance”. Campsites 22-49, tent sites 5-8, the north group campsite, and the camper cabin can be accessed via the “North Entrance”.
Natural Features
Big Sandy Lake is a reservoir that was created in the late nineteenth century from the waters of a naturally exisiting lake and the Sandy River. A forest of mixed hardwoods and towering red and white pine covers the area. An abundance of wildlife can be found including bald eagles, white-tail deer, black bears, chipmunks, loons, mink, river otters and many others. Wild rice is harvested from the lake seasonally and wild berries are occasionally found.
Nearby Attractions
Nearby attractions include golf courses, shopping and dining venues, Savannah Portage State Park, Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and many acres of state and county forest land.
What the agency tells you
Firewood is NOT available within the park. All firewood brought into the park must be certified pest free in accordance with the US Army Corps of Engineeers Firewood Policy. For more information please contact park staff at 651-290-5850 or email sandy.lake@usace.army.mil.
ATV/UTV's, golf carts, and motorized scooters are not permitted within the park.
Please keep all vehicles and camping equipment off the grass.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
*Follow "South Entrance" signs for campsites 1-21, tent sites 1-4, and south group campsite.
*Follow "North Entrance" signs for campsites 22-49, tent sites 5-8, north group campsite, and camper cabin.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 60 · 8 walk-in, 2 group, 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 52 electric, 4 water
- Longest rig
- 92 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 60
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…the dam. Amenities include flush and vault restrooms, showers, drinking water, laundry facilities and a…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Amenities include flush and vault restrooms, showers, drinking water, laundry facilities and a dump station.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…flush and vault restrooms, showers, drinking water, laundry facilities and a dump station. Day use…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Ranger programs
- Ranger Station
- Swimming
- Visitor center
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 58th darkest of 77 in MN
- Bortle 3
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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $26–$52 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
61 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 61 mapped sitesAll 61 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 60 of the 61 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 | 22 | standard electric | 49 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 82 ft | 232 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 23 | standard electric | 47 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 60 ft | 163 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 24 | standard electric | 52 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 60 ft | 222 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 25 | standard electric | 37 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 106 ft | 156 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 26 | standard electric | 56 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 111 ft | 264 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 27 | standard electric | 48 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 56 ft | 317 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 28 | standard electric | 53 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 56 ft | 278 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 29 | standard electric | 58 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 74 ft | 390 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 30 | standard electric | 72 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 74 ft | 348 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 31 | standard electric | 42 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 70 ft | 447 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 32 | standard electric | 75 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 70 ft | 461 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 33 | standard electric | 66 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 77 ft | 519 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 34 | standard electric | 80 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 103 ft | 459 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 35 | standard electric | 39 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 60 ft | 535 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 36 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 60 ft | 520 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 37 | standard electric | 76 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 85 ft | 438 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 38 | standard electric | 60 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 104 ft | 472 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 39 | standard electric | 68 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 57 ft | 461 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 40 | standard electric | 30 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 57 ft | 473 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 41 | standard electric | 54 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 100 ft | 342 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 42 | standard electric | 73 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 106 ft | 334 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 43 | standard electric | 61 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 101 ft | 319 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 44 | standard electric | 52 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 66 ft | 334 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 45 | standard electric | 72 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 101 ft | 282 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 46 | standard electric | 54 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 66 ft | 343 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 47 | standard electric | 65 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 80 ft | 253 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | 48 | standard electric | 45 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 82 ft | 288 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| North | 49 | standard electric | 69 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 83 ft | 234 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| North | Camper Cabin | cabin electric | 15 amp | yes | 189 ft | 293 ftSandy River | $60 | |
| North | North Group | group standard electric | 92 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 137 ft | 156 ftBig Sandy Lake | $60 | |
| North | Tent 5 | walk to | 77 ft | 607 ftSandy River | $16–$18 | |||
| North | Tent 6 | walk to | 77 ft | 652 ftBig Sandy Lake | $16–$18 | |||
| North | Tent 7 | walk to | 49 ft | 665 ftSandy River | $16–$18 | |||
| North | Tent 8 | walk to | 49 ft | 672 ftSandy River | $16–$18 | |||
| South | 01 | standard electric | 52 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 28 ft | 77 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 02 | standard electric | 44 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 28 ft | 61 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 03 | standard electric | 40 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 33 ft | 66 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 04 | standard electric | 31 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 33 ft | 69 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 05 | standard electric | 35 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 27 ft | 60 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 06 | standard electric | 32 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 22 ft | 63 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 07 | standard electric | 27 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 22 ft | 60 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 08 | standard electric | 24 ft | 50 amp | 36 ft | 56 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 09 | standard electric | 19 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 51 ft | 26 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 10 | standard electric | 25 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 45 ft | 21 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 11 | standard electric | 27 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 40 ft | 11 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 12 | standard electric | 33 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 38 ft | under 10 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 13 | standard electric | 35 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 32 ft | under 10 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 | |
| South | 14 | standard electric | 41 ft | 20/30/50 amp | yes | 32 ft | under 10 ftBig Sandy Lake | $26–$52 |
| South | 15 | standard electric | 56 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 41 ft | under 10 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| South | 16 | standard electric | 60 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 30 ft | 15 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| South | 17 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 26 ft | 24 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| South | 18 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 26 ft | 37 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| South | 19 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 29 ft | 54 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| South | 20 | standard electric | 47 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 184 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| South | 21 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 262 ftSandy River | $26–$52 | |
| South | Picnic Shelter | day use | 15 amp | yes | 219 ft | 117 ftSandy River | $35 | |
| South | South Group | group standard electric | 78 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 124 ft | 236 ftBig Sandy Lake | $60 | |
| South | Tent 1 | walk to | 15 amp | 58 ft | 29 ftBig Sandy Lake | $16–$18 | ||
| South | Tent 2 | walk to | 15 amp | 58 ft | 30 ftBig Sandy Lake | $16–$18 | ||
| South | Tent 3 | walk to | 15 amp | 48 ft | 31 ftBig Sandy Lake | $16–$18 | ||
| South | Tent 4 | walk to | 15 amp | 48 ft | 44 ftBig Sandy Lake | $16–$18 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
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 61 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Pokegama Dam Campground34 mi
Cross Lake Recreation Area38 mi
Mabel LakeChippewa National Forest · 40 mi
Leech Lake Rec Area53 miNorth StarChippewa National Forest · 55 mi
Gull Lake Recreation Area55 mi22205 531st Lane McGregor, MN 55760
Take Highway 65 for 13 miles north of McGregor, Minnesota.
*Follow "South Entrance" signs for campsites 1-21, tent sites 1-4, and south group campsite.
*Follow "North Entrance" signs for campsites 22-49, tent sites 5-8, north group campsite, and camper cabin.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Palisade, MN
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -3°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
Sandy 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 →