Swan Lake Campsites
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 4All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Munising and Rapid River/Manistique Ranger Districts of the Hiawatha National Forest offer a variety of camping experiences. Many are located on inland lakes in a rustic forest environment with no drinking water. The rustic environment offers a wonderfully serene and peaceful setting for your next camping experience. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors will be able to enjoy swimming, berry picking, and fishing at these campsites. Licenses are required for fishing in Michigan waters. All campsites on Swan Lake have excellent swimming areas. Swan Lake offers a good fishery for large and smallmouth bass, bluegills and pumpkinseeds. There is a public boat launch to Steuben Lake located near Site 1.
Facilities
There are three primitive toilets available, but NO drinking water. Primitive toilets are located at sites 1, 2 and between 3 and 4. If you have site 3 Reserved do not block access road to site 2. Please and thank you. Lake Name: Swan Lake Number of Sites: 4 Max Number of People Per Site: Site 1 (8), Site 2-4 (16) Toilets: Yes Boat Access: Back-In At site 1 Lake Size (acres): 169 Number of Horses Allowed: Site 1 (2), Site 2 (2), Site 3 (4), Site 4 (6)
Natural Features
Swan Lake is the most popular lake in the designated campsite program, so getting a permit to camp here can be quite competitive. All four campsites are located on the non-motorized Pine Marten Run Trail and horse camping is allowed. Site 1 is located on a small hill overlooking the west shore of the lake and is isolated from the other three campsites on the lake. This site is 60 ft x 30 ft, and is suitable for one family. Trailers are NOT recommended unless they are set up in the parking area at the base of the knoll. The public boat launch to the lake is located near this site, so campers may have boaters accessing the lake. Site 2 is on the southwest side of the lake and is 65 ft x 50 ft. This site is level and suitable for two families and small trailers. Turn-around space is very limited . Site 3 is a nice level area, 65 ft x 35 ft, that can accomodate two families and trailers. Site 4 is 80 ft x 70 ft and suitable for two families. Sites 3 and 4 are adjacent to one another and can be reserved together to accomodate larger groups.
Nearby Attractions
All sites on Swan Lake have access to the Pine Marten Run trail system. There are a number of horse, bike, and hiking trails within minutes of several of the sites. In over a mile from these campsites, visitors can expect to find: bait shops, general and grocery stores, gas, a pay phone, trailheads, a fishing pier, biking, and kayak/canoe rentals. Contact Info For local information, please call (906) 474-6442 or call (906) 387-2512 for general information.
What the agency tells you
Pack-In, Pack-out policy
There is a 14-day stay limit.
No drinking water provided.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Campsite must be occupied the first night.
Campsite cannot be left unattended for more than 24 hours.
Horse camping: All straw, hay, feed and manure must be raked up and hauled home.
Horses must be properly tethered in designated areas
You are welcome to collect firewood from the area surrounding your campsite. Just remember that any firewood that you collect must be DEAD AND DOWN
Click here for more information on the Hiawatha 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
- 4
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 3 of 4 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “Toilets: Yes”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…in a rustic forest environment with no drinking water. The rustic environment offers a wonderfully serene…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
- Swimming
- Night sky · 78th darkest of 192 in MI
- 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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $8 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
4 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sitesAll 4 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. 4 of the 4 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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Tom's Lake CabinHiawatha National Forest · 0.9 mi
Mowe Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 1.2 mi
Ironjaw Lake CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 1.3 mi
Lake Nineteen CampsiteHiawatha National Forest · 1.5 mi
Corner Lake CampgroundHiawatha National Forest · 1.9 mi
Cookson Lake CampsitesHiawatha National Forest · 2.3 miFrom the Intersection of US-2 and Forest Highway 13 (about 14 miles east of Rapid River): drive north 19 miles on Highway 13 to CR 440.
- Turn right (east) and drive 2.7 miles to FR 2258.
- Turn left (north) on 2258 and drive 0.25 mile to FR 2725.
- To reach sites 2-4: Turn left (east) onto FR 2725. Drive about 0.75 mile on FR 2725 to reach the sites.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Munising, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 11°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
Swan Lake Campsites is in Michigan’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Jack Bergman (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →