Williams Narrows
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $16From, per site
- Sites
- 1816 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Williams Narrows Campground is located on Cut Foot Sioux Lake in the heart of the Chippewa National Forest. Visitors come to the area for boating, trophy muskie fishing and beautiful scenery. The Chippewa National Forest and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe work together to co-steward resources - making the Forest a great place to recreate as well as a special place where cultural and traditional resources are protected and preserved and the Band’s treaty rights are respected. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating, swimming, and fishing are popular activities on Cut Foot Sioux Lake. A boat ramp and swimming beach are located between the campground's two loops. Miles of trails in the area provide great hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, and birding opportunities. The Simpson Creek Trail and Cut Foot Sioux National Recreation Area Trail can be accessed by boating across the narrows. Cut Foot Sioux Lake is located next to Lake Winnibigoshish. Lake Winnie offers excellent fishing opportunities for walleye, perch, and muskie. It is one of Minnesota's premier fisheries. Boating and water skiing are popular activities there as well.
Facilities
The campground offers several single-unit campsites, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and hand pumps for drinking water are provided in each loop.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the eastern shore of Cut Foot Sioux Lake. A scenic forest of birch, oak and pine trees shades the campground. A few campsites have lake views. The lake is home to a variety of waterfowl and birds of prey, including loons, osprey and bald eagles.
What the agency tells you
Fee includes one camping unit per site. Double occupancy is not permitted on single unit sites; on large sites double occupancy is permitted. The second occupant must pay the full nightly amount for each night of stay by using a fee envelope at the entrance kiosk. Please read the fee board upon entering the campground to see what qualifies for single and double occupancy. Vehicles and/or trailers must not block any part of roadways or gates at any time.
Some important campground rules: - Quiet hours are from 10pm – 6am. Generators cannot be run during this time. If you have a medical condition that requires powered equipment, please plan accordingly with battery backup. - Pets are welcome but must remain on a leash 6' or shorter in length at all times. - Campfires cannot be left unattended. They must be extinguished before the campsite is vacated. - Fireworks, including sparklers, are not allowed. - Cutting/damaging live vegetation is not allowed. You may gather dead and downed wood for campfires if it fits within the fire ring. - The use of power saws, including electric chainsaws, is strictly prohibited. - Off-highway vehicle use is permitted only to enter and exit the campground and must adhere to the speed limit of 5 mph. Operators must adhere to state OHV laws. All regulations are found under 36 CFR 261 and are punishable by fines.
Northern Minnesota is home to black bears. Campers must keep coolers and other bear attractants locked inside hard-sided campers or in vehicles when not attended, including overnight. Black bears are present and active within the campground area. Feeding any wildlife, including hanging bird feeders, is strictly prohibited. NEW FOR 2025: Chippewa National Forest Campground Food Storage Order
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Bundled firewood is no longer available in Chippewa National Forest campgrounds. Firewood may be available for sale at local vendors, or may be brought from home if within Itasca County. You may also cut dead and downed wood in the forest without a permit as long as it will be used in the campground. Chainsaw use (gas and electric) is not permitted in the campground. 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.
Reservations must be made at least 4 days in advance. After this window, sites are considered first-come first-serve. Customers with reservations may change to an open non-reservable site after arrival - please see the campground host as well as a sign at the entrance kiosk for more information. If you would like more site-specific information, call the Deer River Ranger District at 218-246-2123 before making a reservation. First-come, first-serve sites may be available after the reservation season.
Click here for more information on the Chippewa National Forest. For more information on tribal camping, click here.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 18
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and hand pumps for drinking water are provided in…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and campfire ring. Vault toilets and hand pumps for drinking water are provided in each loop.…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Ranger programs
- Kayaking
- Mushroom Picking
- Paddling
- Stargazing
- Swimming
- Water access
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:32 UTC
recreation.gov lists 16 of the 18 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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, $16 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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:32 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
18 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 18 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. 18 of the 18 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| S&P | S&P Standard | type not stated | $16 | ||
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 001 | standard nonelectric | 77 ft | 321 ft | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 002 | standard nonelectric | 77 ft | 295 ft | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 003 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 375 ft | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 004 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 323 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 005 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 391 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 006 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 309 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 007 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 313 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 008 | standard nonelectric | 121 ft | 279 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 009 | type not stated | 262 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 | |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 010 | standard nonelectric | 89 ft | 213 ft | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 011 | standard nonelectric | 89 ft | 301 ft | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 012 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 250 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 013 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 278 ft | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 014 | standard nonelectric | 83 ft | 194 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 015 | standard nonelectric | 83 ft | 183 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 016 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 280 ftCut Foot Sioux Lake | $16 |
| WILLIAMS NARROWS | 017 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 261 ft | $16 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
OnegumeChippewa National Forest · 1.1 mi
Mosomo PointChippewa National Forest · 1.3 miEast Seelye BayChippewa National Forest · 2.1 mi
Deer LakeChippewa National Forest · 2.1 mi
Cut Foot Horse CampgroundChippewa National Forest · 3.8 miFrom Deer River, take Highway 46 north 15 miles. Turn west on Bowen/Williams Narrows Road (County Road 148) and travel two 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 Inger, MN
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 54°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Williams Narrows 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 →