Best Glamping near Isle Royale National Park

A small group of family and friends left the luxuries of home to backpack thirty miles in Isle Royale National Park. It was an amazing experience and I look forward to taking the rest of my children here as they grow up.

The first leg of our journey was a boat ride from Grand Portage, Minnesota to McCargoe Cove. We did not do much backpacking the first day. We did hike around the area and set up camp to take it easy our first night. We elected to stay in our own tents, but those who wanted more amenities could take advantage of several small shelters built in each camp.

Other than Windigo and Rock Harbor, there are no amenities other than some shelters and latrines.

McCargoe Cove is set in a cove right off Lake superior, so this spot is especially popular with the fishermen since there is a nice dock and ease of access for their boats. This was a nice place to stay but it wasn't my favorite.

I tried some new food at McCargoe Cove that I highly recommend: NOKA - Mango/Coconut was fantastic.

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!

Given that there is a relatively large dock here and a concessionaire ferry comes through here several times a week, there can be a lot of traffic. That being said, there are nice tent sites and some really cool tent/cabin structures. It wasn't super buggy while we were here so being in a tent was just fine. There are some nice open, rocky, sunny spots that are nice for sitting and enjoying the view. Be advised, there are quite a number of waterfowl that frequent the area so treat your water well, in fact the Park Service recommends treating your drinking water in two ways (ie. filter AND boil, chemically treat AND filter, some combination of two). The water is refreshing but there are leaches in addition to abundant bird poop. All part of the experience I suppose!

We visited in August so the bugs weren't bad, almost non-existent really. These spots were well spaced and while impacted, had a nice pine duff layer on the ground which was nice for sleeping. The view of Todd Harbor was beautiful and we enjoyed sitting on the rocky beach in the evening. The area is well shaded and there was a large group fire pit in the middle of the campground area. Super quiet spot with several tent sites and a cabin type tent, but it was occupied when we arrived. Sites are first come, first serve but permits are issued to insure that there are sites available. I would definitely recommend this spot.

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)

This is a lovely campground on Isle Royale - none of them are terrible (let's face it - you are on a gorgeous island that's basically untouched!), but this one is a little larger than some with more shelters than others.

Shelters - they are first come first served.  If the campground is uber full, the policy and expectation is that you consider sharing with others, especially if you are a party of one or two.   Not a bad policy and courteous, for sure. But this didn't happen when we were here. Each shelter is four sided with the front side "screened in" for bugs. This is lovely in buggy weather! There are also boards all over the inside (parallel to the floor around the walls) that are great for hanging and airing out wet items. Each one had a picnic table and trees and was a very short walk to water and a toilet.

Tent pads - there are separate tent areas that are away from shelters, for the most part. Nothing is "close" here so there is quite a bit of room.

Group - there are three group areas. If using group areas on a normal basis, you must have a group reservation and groups of more than 6 require this in advance. Three group areas all near to each other but with nice green buffers in between and a toilet to share between them.

Toilets - not fancy but offer privacy.  Small wooden shelters with a metal toilet and a pit. **NOTE:  they do not provide TP - you must take your own**  They don't smell like roses (what pit toilet does?) but they allow privacy and no need to dig a cat hole. Bonus win win.

This is one of only a handful of camps on the island that has a fire pit! It's a shared fire (not one for each site) with picnic tables nearby and a lovely view of the water. Only collect downed wood (no bigger than your wrist) to burn. 

As others have mentioned - there is a very nice dock here since a boat comes a few times a week with passengers. This is a "stop" for drop offs from the mainland (you must book this boat in advance to get here). So it's a great place to chill in the breeze, do a bit of yoga stretching, dry your socks, enjoy an evening coffee or fall over after hiking - lol. 

***Be aware - there are leeches in the lake. We attempted to splash off a bit and noticed them.***

Oh yes - the camp fox. He/she is a regular here. We saw the fox many times. Not afraid of people, will steal your stuff (including shoes) so be careful, tie your drying shoes to the picnic table, and do not feed the wildlife. But it it a beautiful specimen of an animal!

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.

We stayed at McCargoe Cove two of our four nights at ISRO and absolutely loved it. The shelters are very secluded from one another so you won't be on top of the group next to you at all. Nice fire ring down by the water - though not much downed wood very close nearby to get a fire going.

This was my favorite spot that we saw on the island, would recommend to anybody. Absolutely gorgeous and peaceful in the morning. Best spot I've had had a cup of coffee.

We had a fox come through our site right outside the door of our shelter too - way cool.