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U.S. Forest Service · Superior National Forest · MN

Whitefish Lake Rustic Campgd & Timber-Frear Area

First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Get directionsWhat it costs, and the rules
Right now
Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
A night
FreeNo camping fee
Season
May 10 – October 1Open May 10 through October 1
Drawn from the record · 1,680 ft · 64% tree cover · Whitefish Lake within reach · Bortle 2 sky
1,680 ftElevation
191 ftWater · Whitefish Lake
29.3 miNE of Silver Bay, MN
64%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 14th darkest of 77 in MN
Open May 10 through October 1Today

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

Whitefish Lake Rustic Campground and the Timber-Frear Area includes a 3 site rustic campground and 11 backcountry campsites scattered on 5 lakes. These lakes, along with four others, are interconnected with portages to form an excellent canoe route and camping experience outside of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. There is no boat launch for trailered boats at Whitefish Lake, carry down access only. Four additional rustic campgrounds, on Toohey , Fourmile , Wilson , and Windy Lakes are nearby. For a map of Whitefish Lake Rustic Campground and the Timber-Frear Area and more information in a printable format, click here.

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Facilities

Boat ramp
Yes
Source: Stated in the agency description

Around the campground

On the water
Lake
Source: Stated in the agency description

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and it costs nothing at all. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.

recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
A nightFreeNo camping feethe agency’s fee record
A weekendNothingDerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Directions
Every line of the receipt · 4

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
Camping feeFree
There are no fees at rustic campgrounds or backcountry sites
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
A night, and a whole weekendDerivedNothing

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.

How we know this receipt · 5
Sign price: Derived by CAMPANAC from the U.S. Forest Service fee record: a stated per-night amount only · Sep 7, 2026
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate
Coordinate47.71883, -91.04505

Where it is

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Today56°Sunny
Tonight39°Mostly Clear
Sunday62°Sunny
Sunday Night35°Mostly Clear

NWS forecast for Lutsen, MN

Source: National Weather Service, DLH forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 34°F, day 51°F.

Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.

90°32°-10°

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.

Measured at: WOLF RIDGE ELC, MN (USC00219134), 20 miles away and 280 ft lower
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Kawishiwi Lake To Sawbill15,305 acres · 6 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026

Who answers for this land

Pete Stauber, official portrait

Whitefish Lake Rustic Campgd & Timber-Frear Area 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it out of season. The season it publishes is the bar below.
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.016 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 77 rated federal campgrounds in Minnesota · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Lutsen, MN, 15.1 mi W (a census designated place). Straight line.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026