Camping with motorized boat

I’m looking to compile a list of water-front camping spots that allow mooring, beaching, or docking a motorized boat right at your site. My son and I get a couple of trips a year and there’s nothing like it. I’ll start the list below, hoping others can add some new ideas that will be useful to all. I’m open to ideas anywhere in the country but I’ll start it out with a few in MN and WI.

EDIT: I’ll update the list here in the original post as others add to it.

Minnesota
– Voyageurs National Park, MN (lakes Kabetogama, Rainy, Namakan, Crane, and Sand Point. Portions Canadian water)

– Hinsdale Island, Lake Vermillion MN

– Lax Lake, Silver Bay MN

– Superior National Forest, Northeast MN (Tons of campgrounds and remote sites — check out the “Dispersed camping.” Includes several spots called out below, Birch Lake, Hogsback, and others near Finland/Isabella area)

• Within Superior National Forest, there are a handful of lakes in the Boundary Waters Canoe and Wilderness Area that allow motorized boats, some with 10hp or 25hp limits, some without limits. On Recreation.gov look for camp sites with the “OM” designation (overnight motor).

– Chippewa National Forest near Walker MN (several sites, similar to Superior Ntl Forest)

– Big Bog State Recreation Area, Tamarac River / Red Lake

– Minnesota River – several islands / sand bars

Wisconsin
– Willow Flowage, Oneida County WI
– Turtle Flambeau Flowage, Iron County WI
– Lake Chippewa Campground, Chippewa Flowage, Hayward WI
– Apostle Islands, Lake Superior near Bayfield WI

Border Waters
– Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway, MN/WI
– Isle Royale, Lake Superior (near Grand Portage MN, island is in Michigan water)

– Mississippi River: Many islands, several different pools

Colorado
– Horsetooth Reservoir, Fort Collins CO
– Blue Mesa Reservoir, Curecanti Ntl Recreation Area

New York
– Saranac Lake, Adirondack Mountains NY

Florida
– Everglades National Park

Mississippi River – most any sandbar

Turtle Flambeau Flowage – Wisconsin

munchy wrote:

Mississippi River – most any sandbar

Turtle Flambeau Flowage – Wisconsin

Awesome, thanks Munchy! I’ll add these to the list. I am a little timid about camping on the ‘Sip just because their policies are very ill-defined. The extent of the public info on the NPS website is: “There are no formal campgrounds within the national park. Primitive camping is available on some islands owned by the National Park Service.”

It’s crazy how the NPS website can be so clear when setting out the guidelines on the St. Croix, and completely the opposite for the Mississippi.

This is awesome because this is my favorite way to camp.

Lake Chippewa Campground, Chippewa Flowage, Hayward WI.

pool2fool wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Munchy wrote:</div>
Mississippi River – most any sandbar

Turtle Flambeau Flowage – Wisconsin

Awesome, thanks Munchy! I’ll add these to the list. I am a little timid about camping on the ‘Sip just because their policies are very ill-defined. The extent of the public info on the NPS website is: “There are no formal campgrounds within the national park. Primitive camping is available on some islands owned by the National Park Service.”

It’s crazy how the NPS website can be so clear when setting out the guidelines on the St. Croix, and completely the opposite for the Mississippi.

I have been camping on the Mississippi since the early 90’s and never had an issue. Don’t think we’ve ever even been checked by law enforcement either. But as long as there are no No Trespassing signs or Wildlife Refuge signs you should be good. You will be able to tell which areas are good as there will be lots of signs of traffic.

I could swear I once read that any islands or areas that can be submerged in normal high water were public use and you could camp. I cant find that now…

Anyway, we camp on the sandbars on the Minnesota River all the time with no hassle.

Lake Vermillion has some really nice spots around Hinsdale Island about centered on the lake just south of Tim Buk Two landing and a few more spread out. Really scenic lake and fishing is ok. Also up in the arowhead there are many small lakes arround Finland and Isabella that you can do the same. There is a really nice spot on Hogsback lake. you can stay in the main campground or motor across the lake to the narrows between the tow portions of the lake and ther is a really nice spot there. Good trout fishing right from shore.

Apostle islands.

Isle Royale.

There are some nice spots on pool 2 too.

-J.

Been going to Lake Kabetogema for years.
Great camp sites of various sizes and well situated for mooring a boat.

Birch lake near Babbitt at the doorstep of boundry waters. The lake is beautiful like Kab with stained water. We stayed on an island years ago in the fall. No reservations needed.

If you have never been to Voyageurs it is worth the drive. We kayak camped there and it was beautiful and amazing. Storm rolled in and we couldn’t get to a designated site and the officer was chill with letting us primitive camp for a few days.

munchy wrote:

Mississippi River – most any sandbar

Turtle Flambeau Flowage – Wisconsin

Jonesy wrote:

This is awesome because this is my favorite way to camp.

Lake Chippewa Campground, Chippewa Flowage, Hayward WI.

I’ve done a camping trip of this nature since my Junior year of HS. Primitive camping out on remote islands will always be one of my favorites. I’ve done a trip on the Chippewa Flowage once and the TFF 4 or 5 times now. When we went (2011), the Chip only had about 25 campsites. The week we went all the campsites were completely full every night besides one, the final night of our trip. The flowage is a little difficult to navigate with so many islands and what not, making it quite difficult to find a place to stay. They are all first come first serve so maybe showing up on a random Wednesday would work? We came in on a Monday in the middle of June with no luck.

The TFF will forever be my favorite camping destination. It almost pains me to tell others about it I’ve always gone over memorial weekend and there has always been a ton of campsites open for the taking. All the cabins and resorts are to the north, mainly west side, so if you head south you’re 100% out with nature. Lots of little walleyes. Took a few years before we got into anything over 16 inches.. as pathetic as that sounds. My profile pic was the biggest fish we caught up there, all of 19 inches! There are stumps everywhere, so go SLOW until you know what youre doing. If you are considering the Turtle Flambeau, go ahead and DM me and I’ll be glad to help with anything!

Chippewa National Forest – Cass Lake

Federal Dam Camp Ground – Leech Lake

X2 on Voyagers. One of the most Beautiful and relaxing places on earth!

BWCAW, Basswood, Trout and Saganaga Lakes offer motorized camping with a 25 hp motor size limit. As we grew older we left the canoe behind more and more as we switched to motor powered wilderness boat camping. Motor boat camping is far more comfortable than canoe camping. A list of creature comfort items one can bring in a boat but not practical in a canoe is long. Screen house, cooking table, lawn chair, coolers full of ice, soft drinks, sleeping cot, sonar/GPS unit, electric air mattress pump, and so on.

Big Bog State park (Red Lake) used to have some camp sites on the river with a dock. I haven’t been there in more than 6 years though so things might have changed.

Apostle Islands for sure! Been there twice, once in kayaks and once in a big boat. Both were a blast. Ended up fishing for lakers with an ice rod right off my kayak and did pretty good also! The scenery is second to none. Raspberry island is my favorite, but there is no camping there. I’ve camped on Sand, Oak, Otter, Rock and ironwood. I did not venture into the outer islands in a kayak, but did in the boat and it’s very cool.

Wow, great responses everyone. Can’t wait to find out more about these. This will be a useful resource for anyone interested in this kind of camping/fishing trip. I’ll get links for what I can and add them to the front page.

I actually have a Kabetogama trip planned for next weekend Fri-Mon but the weather is looking sketchy. Keeping my eye on the forecast, but if it’s going to be stormy all weekend we may pivot and hit the St Croix.

Here’s a satellite image from Google maps of the sites on Red (big bog st park).
People like to book them early to fish opener from a lawn chair.

https://www.google.com/maps/@48.1732639,-94.5110118,131m/data=!3m1!1e3

I’ve done my best to add links for everything to the original post.

I realize this forum is frequented by a lot of Midwesterners, but I’d love to hear about opportunities across the country. I’ve added a couple that I know about in CO, NY, and FL.

great post!

Can this get stickied?

The Whiteface reservoir north of Duluth is a fun lake to camp on.

Read the section on camping:

https://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/UMRPublicUse2014(1).pdf

And see the map:
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Upper_Mississippi_River/map.html

Not sure if this helps clear up anything on the Miss..

Hey folks — I know a lot of you are gearing up for ice fishing, but this is the time of year I start day-dreaming and pre-planning our big camping trips for the following summer.

Something I just learned that may be of interest — 2018 will be the last year of the ridiculous lottery system in the BWCA. So securing permits for overnight entry on lakes like Basswood and Moose that allow sub-25hp motors is going to get a lot easier. The system will be the standard recreation.gov reservation system that allows you to reserve sites in real time.

Awesome read. I have been boat camping for 30 years. There is nothing like it. My boat has battle scars to prove it – No museum piece here. I have hit the Mississippi, Rainy, Kabatogama, Willow, TFF, Lake Nipigon (by far the most challenging and rewarding)
My kids are adults now and our family vacations were based on this methodology and they really appreciate it.

I know you said “in the country” – but LOTW is close.

You could launch in Baudette, do an entire lap of the lake (assuming the turtle portage is usable), and never have to deal with customs.

Just need crownland permits and pick whatever islands look good to you. No camping in Whitefish Bay but I think everywhere else on the Canada side is open for business.

Not sure if your opening to canoeing but the bwca Is a heck of a trip and great fishing.

You dont’ have to hit a million lakes can setup on one lake and stay there and fish during the day.

Go up the Sawbill trail on the edge of the BWCA. Tons of small lakes. Most
With primitive campsites.

Homer lake and 4 Mile lake are my favorites.
Homer is a drop off point into The canoe area so you can anly go so far back.

We would go for a 4 day weekend late August.

Any questions send me a PM.

Buckhorn State Park in central Wisconsin on Castle Rock Lake.

They have a a fair number of campsites that are backpack/cart-in only (no road) and most of these campsites are on the water and accessible by boat with mostly sandy shoreline to pull your boat up. It’s a great resource for public park camping away from the normal state park crowd.

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/buckhorn/camping.html

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