Norway Beach - Chippewa Campground Loop, near Cass Lake, Minnesota, is a serene spot tucked away in the [Chippewa National Forest](https://thedyrt.com/camping/minnesota/near/chippewa-national-forest), perfect for those looking to unwind in nature. With a mix of tent and RV sites, it offers a laid-back atmosphere surrounded by towering pines and a sandy beach ideal for swimming and kayaking.

Campers appreciate the spacious, shaded sites that provide a sense of privacy, making it a great place for families and friends to gather. One visitor shared, “The sites were nicely sized and private,” highlighting the campground's ability to offer a peaceful retreat. While there are no showers or water hookups, fresh potable water is available throughout the loop, and nearby amenities in Cass Lake make it easy to stock up on supplies.

For those who enjoy biking, there’s a long path winding through the area, providing access to miles of scenic trails. The beach is a major draw, with shallow waters perfect for kids and a lovely spot to dock a boat. If you’re up for a little adventure, you might even catch some crawfish for a fun boil, as one family did during their stay.

While some campers noted that the sites can feel a bit cramped, the beautiful surroundings and friendly atmosphere make Norway Beach a solid choice for a camping getaway. Whether you’re here for a weekend or a longer stay, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to relax and enjoy the great outdoors.

## Overview

 Chippewa Loop is part of the Norway Beach Recreation Area, on the southern shores of beautiful Cass Lake in north central Minnesota. The campground is a perfect location for family camping, with excellent boating and fishing opportunities.
## Recreation

 Cass Lake offers many recreational activities, including boating, canoeing, water skiing and swimming. Anglers fish for walleye, northern pike, perch and trophy muskie. A boat ramp is nearby. Star Island, in the middle of Cass Lake, is a unique feature of the Chippewa National Forest. Six miles of trails wind around the island, which is home to 199-acre Lake Windigo. Hiking and biking trails are available in the area, including the Migizi Bike Trail and the Norway Beach Trail. The Norway Beach Visitor Center is nearby. This building, with its magnificent fireplace, is a monument to the talents and craftsmanship of Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees. Educational programs and displays depict Dakota and Ojibwe heritage and the area's flora and fauna. A variety of special events are held at the center throughout the year. A kid's fishing day is held in June, Bald Eagle Day is sometime in July, and Smokey Bear's birthday party is held in August. Interpretive programs are offered every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
## Facilities

 The Chippewa Loop offers 46 campsites, some of which are available on first-come, first-served basis. Thirty of the sites are equipped with electric hookups. Flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided.
## Natural Features

 The campground is situated on the banks of Cass Lake, in a forest of mature red and white pine trees. Some sites overlook the scenic lake. Cass Lake is the largest of eight lakes that make up the Cass Lake Chain of Lakes. The lake covers nearly 16,000 acres and has 27 miles of forested shoreline and sandy beaches. 
## Nearby Attractions

 The town of Cass Lake is four miles west of the campground, offering restaurants, a bank, grocery and hardware stores, a movie theater and museum.

Norway Beach - Chippewa Campground Loop

Join the fun near Cass Lake. With tons of outdoor activities and scenic camping, this is an excellent vacation spot for all kinds of travelers. There are tons of hikes and other fun activities to partake in, as well as sights to see and explore. Search nearby campsites and find top-rated spots from other campers.

Cass Lake

The Best Camping Near Cass Lake, Minnesota

I camped at this location with my siblings and cousins in early August a few years ago. We had 2 tents for sleeping and a canopy shelter near the picnic table. The campsite was plenty big enough for a party of 7 & 2 dogs. The area and campsites are wooded, mostly shaded with large evergreens. Bathrooms and showers were nearby, just a walk across the road from our campsite. We were on a back road, which was enjoyable yet an easy walking distance to the beach. The lakeside campsites also looked nice. We had friends that were camping in a RV nearby who's campsite was also inviting. The ground space is level and gravel/dirt with occasional pine needles from overhead evergreen trees. The bike path goes along the lakeshore/woods that provides access of miles of bike paths in the Cass Lake & Walker area. The beach was sandy & provided gorgeous views of Cass Lake. I highly recommend this campground to those that want to experience Cass Lake. 

A Camping Trip Still Talked About Years Later

We planned a huge family camping trip this year and the lovely Chippewa Loop campground in the Chippewa National Forest was the camp ground that we had the honor of staying at! We had three sites, 79, 80, and 81 with 17 people total. 9 Adults and 8 kids ranging from ages 7 to 1. The campground is right outside Cass Lake Minnesota that had a nice grocery store, a pretty weird liquor store, a family dollar, and a fishing pier if you didn’t have a boat. It was about a half an hour outside of Bemidji, Mn that has a lot of history from Minnesota and a great fireworks display over the lake on the Fourth of July. The City of Bemidji has a lot a little boutique shops if you are into shopping while on camping trips. It also had a cute little ice cream store that we took all the kids to across from the Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox statue and a nice park for the kids to play at right off of Lake Bemidji. If you’re into craft breweries Bemidji also has a brewery called Bemidji Brewing right in town. There’s also a Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and a dollar tree amongst other stores if you have that “I forgot list”.

Site number 80 was the best to put up a travel trailer, but it was also extremely close to site number 82 and practically joined site number 82. We ended up putting our Jayco Eagle 30 foot travel trailer in site number 81 because with everyone else tent camping and we were the only one with a travel trailer, we felt this site was the best to park our travel trailer in because it was the least level site and only had one small pad for a tent. Site number 79 and 81 were joined together by a path that made it easy for us to all eat in one site. We all pretty much congregated in site number 81. We put most of our tents, three to be exact, in site number 80 because it was the most level and open for tents. The site was capable of having two large cabin tents and a small 4 person tent comfortably. Site had a lot of good pine trees for hanging Hammocks but, like I said before, it was almost right on top of site number 82 so we decided to only put up the 3 tents and congregate across the road in site number 81 as to not disturb the other site occupants. It was pretty frustrating that that was the most level site because it was also the best one to park a travel trailer in and have an awning out and a picnic table but we couldn’t do it because we didnt want to disturb the other site with 17 people. 

Site number 79 had a good drive pad but the tent pad was extremely un-level.  we put up a single pole tipi in that site because the people in that site had cots and didn’t mind sleeping on an incline. When I say incline, I mean incline, the tent pad was not level at all which is kind of frustrating. Site number 79 was the least friendly for hammocks so we hung all her hammocks in site number 81.

Site number 81 is where we decided to put up the trailer but the trailer pad was super un- level. We ended up making a Walmart run to get two more packs of leveling blocks and we use three packs of leveling blocks to make it level with room to have our awning and out. Right behind the travel trailer was a sloped hill that went down to the fire pit and a tent pad that was also on a slight incline which we were up by eight person tent there but that person had a raised air mattress and didn’t mind sleeping on an incline. Attached to site number 81 was also the path to the showers that was right down the hill. It worked out great because the showers and the bathrooms were so close to our site but we felt like the trees were blocking everything from our site.

We took a lot of bike rides and got to see a lot of the other sites and they had a lot of good tent sites in some of the other loops and it seems like all of the electric sites were not as great as the tent sites. All of the electric sites seem to be un-level and not a great place to pitch a tent as well as having the camper.

The park itself was very beautiful had a lot of nature things like milk weed and monarch butterfly’s everywhere and a beautiful swimming beach that was about waist high (4 feet deep) for about 300 to 400 yards out from shore. The beach was great for swimming and kayaking and you could dock a boat on the sandy beach and eat lunch if you wanted to. We ended up catching 40 crawfish and doing a crawfish boil, which the kids absolutely loved. The picnic shelter was pretty awesome too, very shaded and on a rougher part of the beach.  There was a really long bike path that went through all of the loops and the main road was super bike friendly as well. 

In the visitor center there was a really cool area for the kids to go to play if it was too hot or rainy, or if you just wanted to be indoors for a little bit. They had a bike decorating event and we brought all the kids bikes and decorated them. There was a little gift shop and they also gave out free stickers which we ended putting on our camper as we do at every park we get a sticker from. 

Each camp ground loop also had a campground host that sold firewood, three bundles for $10. The firewood was pretty bad and some of it was wet and it burned really really fast. But like every park in Minnesota you can’t bring your own firewood unless it’s kiln dried lumber or something like that within a certain number of miles of the place you are camping. 

A few downsides to this park where there’s no official places to fill water up for your camper and no official place to dump your black and grey water tanks from your camper. You end up having to go to another park and pay to dump your camper. This could be a problem if you are staying for an extended time and use a lot of water. There also wasn’t a whole lot to do aside from biking and hiking and swimming like there was a leech lake recreation area we were at a few days prior to this trip. The restrooms and showers were pretty unkempt and dirty. Everyone but me and my sister had cold showers every time they went to take a shower.

All in all the park is very beautiful and I had some very good attributes like friendly staff, clean campsites and secluded campsites where you didn’t feel like you are right on top of the other site aside from site 80 and 82. It seemed like there were three or 4 sites together in groups and then a little ways away there were a few more clumped together.

I don’t know if we would actually come back to this park because the sites weren’t as big as they seemed in the pictures online and we felt cramped most of the time. There wasn’t a good space in the sites to put up games like corn hole or ladder ball which made it a bit boring at times to just stay at camp. We spent a lot of time at the beach. 


Great for tent camping but not so much for Rv/travel trailer camping

My wife and I call this park home! We have been enjoying the majestic pines and sand beach for 14 years! We even held our wedding there 3 summers ago!

Our Happy Place!

The RV sites were moderately flat and easy to back into. The forest provided ample tree coverage. The sites were nicely sized and private. The bathrooms were a little creepy. There was fresh pottable water throughout the loop. The resort up the street has wood and ice for sale. This campground is close to Bemidji which is a nice town to tour. No sewage dump on site. 

Nice Quiet Stay in the Forest

There are several obvious homeless sites here. People from the local tribe can stay here for free with no time limit. It wouldn't be a problem, but several sites look like homeless encampments. If you've seen a homeless encampment you know what I mean. If they were clean I wouldn't complain. This loop has electric, so this is where they stay. 

Photos of Norway Beach - Chippewa Campground Loop

Real photos from real campers