Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Grand Marais, MN

This is one of our go to camp spots. It is a 45 minute drive up from Grand Marais, but worth every mile to get there.
Most sites have a unique layout, and almost all are private! Site #17 is my favorite, by far. It is large, picturesque, and has a path to the water.
Wilderness Way outfitters is at the entrance to the park, and they have a small cafe, shower house, and store. They also offer everything you need to get out in the BWCA and explore. I recommend finding all the hiking trails along the gunflint and making day trip hikes. Trails are of varying challenge, and you'll often find moose.

Not my favorite campground on the Superior Hiking Trail. Heading southbound from Grand Marais this was to be our first possible water source after a very warm day. The Pond looked ok in the middle. It it was very warm (brain eating amoeba anyone?) and stagnant on the edges. The latrine was pleasant. The fire pit was in full sun and too hot to sit on the benches so we opted to rest on a shady slope nearby. The tent pads were few and sloping as well. It felt a bit claustrophobic with trees and no views. Even the pond was not in view. If you're heading SOBO then I recommend a couple extra miles to the small but moving Sundling Creek campsite or even better the Trout Creek campsite on the Cascade River.

I was here a while back and decided to give it another whirl during a fall trip to Grand Marais/Gunflint. However a bit of difference this time:

-Online booking showed that it was first come first serve, so we decided to go ahead and try our luck.

-I came with my buddies during mid-late October and we were NOT expecting snowfall [light]

-We arrived and the campground was actually CLOSED for the season!! (Arrived October 19th)

-To our luck though, the owners of the campground (Golden Eagle Lodge) allow you to camp on campgrounds for free but no utilities (water or trash).

-We were still able to use the covered outhouse near our site.

-Virtually no other campers when we got there, but by Fri/Sat/Sun, RV campers started rolling in.

Of course, this experience was way different from my July visit (3 star rating), but considering the fact that the campground was still open when other campgrounds on Gunflint were not (no outhouse/water/trash), it was great because it was free.

-40ish minute drive from Grand Marais.

-Right by Gunflint Scenic Byway. Try to find some Moose!

Site #26 was huge and that’s where we stayed for the trip. Very secluded and near the trail to the lake. No Loons.

North Cascade River campsite on the Superior Hiking Trail was a site for sore eyes as we hiked southbound from Grand Marais. Until this site water sources had been minimal. We did find some flowing water at Sundling Creek but before that we had a couple stagnant and warm beaver ponds to work with. Everything else was dried up in the middle of Summer. This larger campsite would do well with groups. It had a couple different fire pit areas and lots of nooks and crannies for tents. The water source was the Cascade River which was close but down a very steep incline. Not great if you had kids with you. But fun to traverse nonetheless. The river below was easily accessible and flowing freely. A bit too deep to really play in but with some hiking poles you could have moved around. Not really any place to spread out as a group by the river more just for fetching water. This campsite was also a great spot for hammock campers. Plenty of room up top as well as some great spots right by the river. The site was pretty nice and recommended over the next several spots north to Grand Marais but if you're heading southbound save yourself for a real winner, Trout Creek Campsite.

The campsite wasn't huge, but it did what we needed it to do...it allowed us to set up a tent, have a campfire and sleep!  That's all you need, right?

The tent pads were very level and without any lumps or holes.  The were, however, gravel type sand pads that made it very hard to pound in stakes, but fortunately, it wasn't windy so we didn't have an issue.  The fire grate was clean and provided a nice campfire in the evening.  Each site had a picnic table that was nice and solid.  Our site, number 21, had a small path that led down to the lake.  You couldn't see the lake from where we were, but it was only about 20 yards and BAM...BINGO!  The lake! The bathroom (pit style enclosure with a door) was just down the path from us and we were on a loop, so it was easy for the kids to walk around a bit and stretch their legs after the long car ride. Everyone was quite and respectful after dark and remarkably, we didn't have any critters that night!  Not even a mouse :)

Easy to get to from Grand Marais, and the sites were fairly private from one another.  A good choice, even when it's busy season.  But make sure to bring bug spray...the mosquitoes were brutal!

On our way back from Grand Marais, Mn I stopped and toured the campground at Temperance River State Park. This park is located just outside Schroeder, Mn which is 1.5 hours north of Duluth, Mn. It’s just off of highway 61 with spectacular views of Lake Superior.

There is an amazing foot bridge with amazing views of the Temperance River Lagoon that is also an awesome fishing spot for Salmon, Trout and all other kinda of fish.

This park has a great campground woth amazing views of Lake Superior right from your campsite. Campsites can be occupied by a maximum of 6 people and cost $15-$23/night for standard campsites and an additional 8$ for electric sites.

There is an upper and lower campground with showers, bathrooms and water at the upper campground. The lower campground has pit toilets and water spicket‘s. The lower campground also has cart in sites if that is an interest of yours. There are carts provided.

We ate at the picnic area in the lower campground and were able to get our feet wet in Lake Superior that was a bit cold this time of year. We found some awesome rocks and fished at the base of the waterfall in the Lagoon. We didn’t catch anything but we definitely were not fishing with the correct lures. Other people were reeling in the fish.

Temperance is also close to the famous Betty’s Pies, Castle Danger Brewery and a TON of other amazing food places.

This park is definitely on my list of parks to stay at in the future.

This was our first time staying at Two Island Lake Campground. We spent the first part of the week further up the Gunflint and wanted to find someplace new for the second part of the week. We got to the campground on a Wednesday and there were only 2 other sites taken so we pretty much had our pick of sites. We ended up in site #34. Along with a couple other sites it is at the end of the third loop of the campground. The site was long and very roomy. Several places to put up tents or plenty of room for a camper. There is also a nice trail back to the lake with a nice flat area at the end for sitting and enjoying the view or for storing your canoe/kayaks. When we first arrived to the campground we had no neighbors and it was very quiet and peaceful. However it seems that this must be a very popular campground because before long we had neighbors on both sides. Fortunately the campsites are well surrounded by trees on all sides and we rarely heard or saw our neighbors.

We were also happy that this campground is only about 15 minutes away from Grand Marais as we had a rainy day and we went into town to relax and play tourist.

We stayed here from Wednesday thru Saturday and as we left on Saturday we drove thru the campground and found that only 2 or 3 empty sites remained. We will most definitely be staying at this campground again but we will remember to go in the middle of the week as it seems to fill up quickly on the weekends!