Spectacle Lake Campground (Wisconsin)
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 23 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15–$18Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 34All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
With a 500-foot swim beach and the crystal clear lake, Spectacle Lake Campground is a family favorite. Come fish for a variety of gamefish species or hike the trail to Kentuck Lake Campground. This 2.5-mile trail utilizes part of the old Thunder Lake Railroad bed and is a pleasant hike. Keep reading
Recreation
The lake provides visitors with ample opportunities for boating, fishing and swimming. Anglers can expect a catch of walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass, panfish and trout. The lake is open to all types of boating, motorized and non-motorized. The Spectacle-Kentuck Trail extends from the campground along the old Thunder Lake Railroad bed all the way to Kentuck Lake Campground, approximately 2.5 miles away. A variety of wildlife make its home in the area and visitors are encouraged to keep watch.
Facilities
The campground offers 34 single family campsites, available for tent or RV camping. The campground offers both first-come, first-served campsites as well as sites which can be reserved in advance. Sites are equipped with tables and fire rings with grills. Vault toilets and drinking water are available throughout the campground. For more information about Spectator Lake Campground, print an information sheet (PDF) which includes a map of the campground.
Natural Features
This campground is located on the east shore of Spectacle Lake in a mixed species forest at an elevation of 1,770 feet. The 166-acre lake boasts an enormous 500-foot-long sandy beach.
Nearby Attractions
The City of Eagle River is located about 16 miles southwest of the campground. A variety of services and activities are offered in Eagle River throughout the year.
What the agency tells you
Use is restricted to hardened area.
No site hook-ups are available. However, drinking water is available at the facility. First-come, First-serve sites are available.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 34 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with tables and fire rings with grills. Vault toilets and drinking water are available throughout the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…rings with grills. Vault toilets and drinking water are available throughout the campground. For more…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 26th darkest of 70 in WI
- Bortle 2
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
34 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 34 mapped sitesAll 34 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. 34 of the 34 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Spectacle CG | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 132 ft | 126 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 97 ft | 99 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 003 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 87 ft | 90 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 004 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 107 ft | 226 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 87 ft | 83 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 107 ft | 230 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 87 ft | 78 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 99 ft | 190 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 87 ft | 65 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 197 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 90 ft | 61 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 201 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 109 ft | 58 ft | $18 |
| Spectacle CG | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 128 ft | 185 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 203 ft | 186 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 103 ft | 372 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 017 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 97 ft | 426 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 106 ft | 377 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 019 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 94 ft | 482 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 020 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 94 ft | 515 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 021 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 99 ft | 437 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 98 ft | 587 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 88 ft | 444 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 98 ft | 579 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 025 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 104 ft | 568 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 417 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 027 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 107 ft | 533 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 028 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 94 ft | 391 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 029 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 108 ft | 512 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 131 ft | 322 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 031 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 111 ft | 327 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 032 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 130 ft | 352 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 033 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 165 ft | 512 ft | $15–$18 |
| Spectacle CG | 034 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 130 ft | 358 ft | $15–$18 |
25 of 34 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Kentuck Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 2.2 miFranklin Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 5.2 miAnvil Lake Recreation AreaNicolet National Forest · 5.6 mi
Anvil Lake CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 5.8 miFrom Eagle River, travel 7.6 miles to FR2178 (Military Road). Turn left (north) and continue 2.9 miles to Kentuck Lake Road (FR2465). Turn right (northeast) on FR2465 and continue 1.7 miles to FR2196. Turn left (north) and continue 2.2 miles to Spectacle Lake Road (FR2572). Turn right (east) and travel 1.2 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 Eagle River, WI
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 2°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Spectacle Lake Campground (Wisconsin) 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 →