Winnie Campground - USFS
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $16From, per site
- Sites
- 3433 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Winnie Campground is remotely located on the west side of Lake Winnibigoshish in the heart of the Chippewa National Forest. Visitors come to the area to enjoy boating, trophy muskie fishing and beautiful scenery. Keep reading
Recreation
Lake Winnie offers excellent fishing opportunities for walleye, perch and muskie. It is one of Minnesota's premier fisheries. Boating on this 67,000-acre lake is also very popular. A boat ramp and harbor are located next to the campground. Many hiking and biking trails meander around the lake and its 141 miles of shoreline. A picnic area is adjacent to the campground. Hunting areas can be found in the surrounding forest.
Facilities
The campground offers 33 reservable sites, some of which are very large and suitable for groups. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets, hand-pumped drinking water and recycling services are provided.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the western shore of the lake in a scenic forest of mature red and white pine. Some sites have lake views.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Cass Lake, Minnesota is 25 miles west of the campground, offering restaurants, a bank, grocery and hardware stores, a movie theater and museum.
What the agency tells you
Fee includes one camping unit (camper, RV, pop-up, family tent) per site; additional units will be charged an additional fee
First-come, first-served sites may be available after the reservation season
Click here for more information on the Chippewa National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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.
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
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 34
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- 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, hand-pumped drinking water and recycling services…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…ring. Vault toilets, hand-pumped drinking water and recycling services are provided. Natural…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
- Night sky · 55th darkest of 77 in MN
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 33 of the 34 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 · 12
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
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 33 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. 33 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.
| S&P | Standard S&P | type not stated | 50 ft | |||
| Winnie Campground | 001 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 68 ft | 567 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 003 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 68 ft | 538 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 004 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 101 ft | 438 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 005 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 107 ft | 503 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 006 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 107 ft | 417 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 007 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 111 ft | 500 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 008 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 106 ft | 420 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 009 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 106 ft | 462 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 010 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 65 ft | 281 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 011 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 65 ft | 292 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 012 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 99 ft | 179 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 013 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 84 ft | 167 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 014 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 84 ft | 239 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 015 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 80 ft | 154 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 016 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 80 ft | 233 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 017 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 93 ft | 187 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 018 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 100 ft | 285 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 019 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 93 ft | 213 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 021 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 85 ft | 257 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 022 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 85 ft | 174 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 023 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 77 ft | 197 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 024 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 77 ft | 123 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 025 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 69 ft | 184 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 026 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 69 ft | 118 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 027 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 103 ft | 127 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 028 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 61 ft | 217 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 029 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 61 ft | 186 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 030 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 87 ft | 261 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 031 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 87 ft | 348 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 032 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 80 ft | 365 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 033 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 80 ft | 443 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 034 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 81 ft | 377 ft | $16 |
| Winnie Campground | 035 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 81 ft | 455 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.
25 of 34 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bimijiwan Recreation AreaChippewa National Forest · 8.0 miTamarack Point CampgroundChippewa National Forest · 9.3 miWanaki Campground LoopChippewa National Forest · 9.5 mi
Chippewa LoopChippewa National Forest · 9.5 mi
Norway Beach LoopChippewa National Forest · 10 mi
Wanaki LoopChippewa National Forest · 10 miTake Highway 2 six miles east of Cass Lake. Turn north on County Road 10 and drive two miles to County Road 91. Turn right onto County Road 91 and continue for just over three miles, to Forest Road 2171. Drive six miles northeast on Forest Road 2171 to Forest Road 2168, then four miles south 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 Bena, 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
Winnie Campground - USFS 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 →