Best Cabin Camping near Isle Royale National Park

There are two of these little beauties in the Windigo area so reserve early! The cost is pretty reasonable (was in 2021 at least) and the amenities are pretty extensive, I mean a full sized grill is provided! There is a small and very limited camp store in the area so plan on arriving with most of what you need. There is a small outhouse outside of the camper cabin but there are also really nice restrooms down the hill that have flush toilets, coin operated showers and coin operated laundry facilities. There are also a number of trails in the Windigo area, including the Miniong Ridge and Greenstone Ridge. We stayed here our first night on the island before heading across the island on the Greenstone. 

There are two separate bedrooms, each with a set of bunk beds and a common area with a futon and small table. There is a picnic table outside and a nice Adirondack chair on the porch. The windows and doors have screens so you can get good airflow inside. The electricity is also nice and allowed us to charge headlamps and things prior to our backcountry adventure.

There is not a lot of info out there on this camp site so I thought I'd fill in some of the gaps.  It is not shown on many maps.  It is on Isle Royale and is about 1/3 of a mile walk from the Windogo area where the Ferry boat lands.  The easiest access to the island is via Ferry which is about $150 round trip from Grand Portage MN.  A sea plane is also available for around $320 RT.  There are no motorized vehicles or bicycles at Windigo and the surrounding area.

Washington Creek is a popular overnight stay for backpackers who are on their way on/way off the island via the ferry as well as a great camp  for people who aren't up to the strenuous activity of backpacking.  Everyone is super-friendly.

There are 15 individual wooded campsites.  5 are tent/hammock sites and 10 have a shelter that is a wood structure about 10' x 16' with a wood floor, 3 wood walls and a forth wall made of screen with a screen door.  Each campsite has a picnic table, but no fire ring as fires are not allowed, only cook stoves.  There are a few pit toilet "privies" (out houses) which all campers are asked to use.  There is one potable water faucet for the campground and another at the Windigo flag pole.  At the time we were there there was some concern about filtering water from inland water sources, but this might have been just a CYA on the part of the park service.

There are 4 group campsites each of which consist of a picnic table and more open space than the individual sites - which might supply enough room for a half dozed tents plus or minus.  There are 2 privies in that area. 

In the nearby Windigo area there is a small store with the basics; Dry and canned food, beer, wine, soda, ice and some souvenirs.  All the basics you would need to survive if you showed up with no food as long as you are not picky.  Looking around there, I actually didn't know there was that many flavors of Romman Noodles. :-). No fresh meat or produce though.  The availability of only 1 kind of potato chips kinda sums it up for me… They do sell a bit of camping gear most notably the iso-butane canisters for cook stoves.  They have a bit of fishing gear too.  The store has an open porch that is a nice place to relax and drink a beer or read a book and mingle with other campers.

There was a nice new but un-opened store building(6/2021) which should boost the appeal, and perhaps the available merchandise.  I heard tell there was to be a few beer taps too (Woo-Hoo!!!) with indoor seating area.  Lots of outside covered and uncovered seating too.

In addition to the store there is a Ranger/visitor center with some interesting displays and is staffed with park personnel who are anxious to provide whatever info you may need.

There at Windigo (again 1/3 mile from the Washington Creek Campground) there is a "bath house".  This has flush toilets and hot/cold sinks, and pay showers and pay laundry facilities.

I heard there were a few rustic cabins there at Windigo for rent however I did not see them myself. 

I'll post some pics to provide further info.

This was a last-minute stop for us because we didn't want to stay at the campground we had originally intended. I found it here on The Dyrt, but bypassed it for another campground option. However, when we drove past the roadside sign, my husband said he wanted to check it out. And we're so glad we did!

When we pulled in, we were told to use the telephone to call the host and they would come and help us out. So when we did, somebody drove up and gave us our choice of spots. The campground was almost empty, so we had anything we wanted, and majority of the options were on the lake!

some of the spots are closer together so there's not a lot of privacy, but the side of the campground we were on had lots of buffers between the sites in the form of pine trees. each site had a gorgeous campfire ring made out of stones pulled off of the beach. It's a red Rock Beach! The bathroom was in a little house, but it had its own shower and looked like something from a log cabin. Not at all like a campground bathroom! there was another shower house at the opposite end of the campground which had similar decor. There was also dump station and fresh water easily available. not to mention the laundry house! Two washers, two dryers, and a sink for scrubbing plus all of the laundry soap and dryer sheets you needed. It was just payment on the honor system to use them. Very reasonable!

there was no electric hook-up at the site we were in, but we didn't need one. However, they were available.

Great little find in Michigan!

Campground is right outside of the rock harbor port. There are bathrooms with flush toilets at the port and outhouses in the campground. There is a store with souvenirs and food items and beverages(finally got a much deserved cold beer after our 50 mile, 5 day hike across the island!). most sites had shelters and a picnic table was provided. You have to stay in the shelter unless not everybody can fit in there, and honestly the site we had would’ve been hard to pitch a tent outside. Getting to this campground later in the day, you may find that all the sites are taken and may end up sharing one of the sites without shelters with others. This site only allows 1 consecutive night stays due to it being popular with those just getting to the island and those preparing to leave the next day.

The shelters at Rock Harbor Campground were especially welcoming to us at the end of our 40-mile trek across Isle Royale in June 2016.

We started in Grand Portage, Minnesota, and ferried to Windigo. From there we hiked around 40 miles across the spine of the island, on the Greenstone Ridge Trail, all the way to Rock Harbor. When we arrived, we were happy to see that there were still a few wooden shelters available and we wouldn’t have to pitch our tent the last night before catching the ferry back to Grand Portage in the morning.

Isle Royale is one of the most remote and least visited national parks. It was the 51st (of 59) that we visited during our year on the road, and it was not a disappointment.

While our long backpacking trek felt like we had accomplished something major, we would also recommend just sticking around the Rock Harbor and completing some of the shorter trails as day hikes.

The Rock Harbor Campground was nice: its wooden shelters provided good protection from the rain and a place to spread out after feeling cramped in our tiny backpacking tent for the previous two nights. It also had a picnic table, water and bathrooms nearby.

Don’t forget to plan out your trip thoroughly with a ranger ahead of time!

You can read much more about our three days hiking across the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Isle Royale)