Smith Rapids
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 9 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 118 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Smith Rapids Campground is located on the South Fork of the Flambeau River. It is an ideal location for hiking, river fishing and canoeing. Keep reading
Recreation
The fast-flowing South Fork of the Flambeau River is popular among canoeists. A carry-down boat ramp is available at the campground. The river has walleye, smallmouth bass, redhorse, musky and northern pike. The campground is also in close proximity to the 70-mile Flambeau Trail System, open to off-road vehicles, hiking and mountain biking. The trail is highlighted by rolling terrain, tree-lined corridors, a wooden bridge and vistas overlooking various bogs and lakes. It is a popular snowmobiling location during winter months. Off-road vehicles are not permitted to operate in Smith Rapids Campground.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites for tent and RV camping. Several of the sites have extra long parking spurs. Tables and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water.
Natural Features
At an elevation of about 1,500 feet, the campground provides shady, wooded sites. Smith Rapids is located on the South Fork of the Flambeau River, with a scenic view of Smith Rapids Covered Bridge. Constructed in 1991, the bridge is the only glue-laminated town lattice covered bridge in Wisconsin.
Nearby Attractions
Park Falls, Wisconsin is approximately 17 miles from the campground and is a full service community.
What the agency tells you
Bring insect repellent
Click here for more information on the Chequamegon-Nicolet 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11 · 3 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features At an…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features At an elevation of about 1,500…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 13th darkest of 70 in WI
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 14 km away
- Past peak
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 8 of the 11 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $12 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
19 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 8 mapped sitesAll 19 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 11 of the 19 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. 11 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX1 | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX2 | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX3 | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX4 | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX5 | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX6 | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX7 | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| SMITH RAPIDS | 001 | type not stated | 20 ft | 120 ft | 149 ft | $33.97 | |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 65 ft | 133 ft | 178 ft | $12 |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 65 ft | 197 ft | 148 ft | $12 |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 110 ft | 366 ft | 192 ft | $12 |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 96 ft | 401 ft | 157 ft | $12 |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 006 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 96 ft | 380 ft | 127 ft | $12 |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 007 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 74 ft | 484 ft | 361 ft | $12 |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 008 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 74 ft | 463 ft | 381 ft | $12 |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 009 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 173 ft | 318 ft | 213 ft | $12 |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 010 | type not stated | 65 ft | 510 ft | 417 ft | $33.97 | |
| SMITH RAPIDS | 011 | type not stated | 65 ft | 418 ft | 317 ft | $33.97 |
The agency files 8 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Twin Lakes (WI)Chequamegon National Forest · 5.8 mi
Sailor LakeChequamegon National Forest · 6.8 mi
Emily Lake Recreation AreaChequamegon National Forest · 8.7 miWabasso Lake Recreation AreaChequamegon National Forest · 9.4 mi
Stockfarm BridgeChequamegon National Forest · 28 miHenry Lake CampOttawa National Forest · 34 miFrom Fifield, travel east on State Highway 70 for a little more than 12 miles and turn left (north) onto Forest Service Road 148. Continue for 2 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lac du Flambeau, WI
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 0°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
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
Smith Rapids 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 →