Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Grand Marais, MN

I've been going to cascade since the very first time I ever went camping, which was at cascade. It's the perfect campground. Trails, the lake, 10mn from Grand Marais (world's best donuts!), great hiking, everything rocks. I'd move there if I could.

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.

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.

Do you love camping and Grand Marais a whole lot? If so, then this is the campground for you. You are within easy strolling distance of downtown Grand Marais, and all of the glorious offerings. This is probably the only campground close to Hwy 61 that you do not get highway noise from, thanks to the reduced speed limit through Grand Marais.

There is a wide variety of sites available, and not all of them offer the same amenities. Their campground map does a good job reflecting which sites have electric/water, electric/water/sewer, or nothing beyond the site itself. The campground is overwhelmingly dominated by rvs and trailers(some of which look pretty permanently settled there).

There are a lot of amenities on the propert. You have a picnic shelter, ball field, play ground, clothes lines, a bathhouse AND a community garden. Oh, and you also have Lake Superior RIGHT THERE. This campground is a little more cramped than I would like, but you can’t argue against the premium location for both lake-viewing and access to town.

Beautiful campground. Close to hiking and biking and Grand Marais. Spotty cell reception with Verizon. Friendly chipmunks, they may climb on you!

A perfect little campground right in grand marais. If you attended the Norfolk house this is the perfect place to stay and you can walk right over! Either way check out the Norfolk house! It’s a simple campground but you can’t beat the location!

Gorgeous area around the river! Campsites need to be booked in advance, but easy to get to. Tucked away pretty nicely between two harbors and grand marais, quiet area but attracts lots of hikers due to the beautiful river views! Def recommend staying here!

Loved stopping here for a night in Grand Marais this summer. Ranger was friendly and said hello while I enjoyed a morning hike to Devils' Kettle. Downside was sites are very close together, not much privacy from your neighbors. Sites was crawling with tons of bugs that look like ticks, but aren't (you could squish them).

If you want easy access to Grand Marais, but want to be in a quieter location just up the Gunflint Trail, this campsite will be for you. It is small, quiet, and very rustic. A main draw is trout fishing, and their is a trail around the lake. You could make this a base for day trips up and donw the North Shore, or further into the interior of the  Superior National Forest. Campsites are wooded and have a fire ring and area to set up tents,  there is a good boat access, the usual Forest Service privvies are available, and there is water.  In terms of a destination campground in and of itself it is not my favorite of those along the Gunflint, but the proximity to Grand Marais is definitely a plus. We are tent campers and the sites are ok for that, some of the sites can accomodate trailers, but I’m not sure if the space and lack of hookups would be of interest to RV’s

If you’re looking for a good campsite last minute or are you really really really like the North Shore I want to be right on Lake superior this is a good campground for you. This campground is located in Grand Marais Minnesota right inside the city on the harbor. The RV sites with electric are pretty dang close together which is not my style camping but for most people at RVs they don’t mind that. The tent sites were sent away from the RV sites and we’re pretty secluded from each other which I really really really like.

A lot of people choose this park to park their RV for the summer and pay the summer fee for it. You can also get a daily rate which is not that bad. Check out the picture for info on the rates.

There’s a boat launch into Lake superior in the Grand Marais harbor right inside the city park which is amazing if you’re on a boat and want to go fish or just swim.

All in all this is a great park for families. They also have group camps if you’re interested in that but they were pretty centralized in the the park and were not secluded to anybody.

Inside the city limits you can grab yourself a worlds best donut And for an amazing cup of coffee check out Java Moose For dinner you could do a sit down at The Angry Trout right on the harbor and follow it up with a Voyager Brewing Company beer with amazing views of the sunset.

My husband and I absolutely LOVE this campground. We came here to celebrate our anniversary and will definitely be back!! I love that you feel like you’re mikes out of town but you are actually really close to all the fun things that there are to do in Grand Marais! There’s also a lot of hiking near by! I highly recommend this camp ground!

The campground is close to everything in Grand Marais which is nice not have to drive. The bathrooms are very clean, but if you want a hot shower good luck. The sites are small for any big rig(s) and you are very close to your neighbor, so if you don’t like close proximity this is not a campground for you. The views are beautiful from the marina. The campground is very family friendly.

Nice cozy campgrounds, the restrooms/showers were nice and clean! The hike up to Devil’s Kettle was rough but oh so worth it! The park staff member we ran into was able to help direct us to the perfect store for us to pick up some supplies we forgot! Grand Marais is only a 15 minute drive away. We’re only here for two nights but we love it and will definitely be coming back! 

Our first night here was just a typical campsite, close to others and close to the road. Nothing I would come back to. HOWEVER...we moved sites the next night to the honeymoon hill campsite. GORGEOUS! You have your own private driveway for your car, you walk across a wooden bridge with a creek underneath to your site. Magical! Haha it was super super cute!! Right in Grand Marais so waking distance to downtown and the pier walk! I would recommend getting up early to watch the sunrise from the pier!

The aspect of this campground we liked the best was that we could walk to town. The campground itself is o.k. It was full when we were and definitely felt crowded. There are some tent sites up in a wooded secluded area but most of the park is geared to RVs. Or you can pitch pitching your tent amongst RVs. Tucked up in the woods is a small tent area that is nice and quiet but a little far from the bathrooms so be prepared to walk.

There are 300 campsites of with full hookups, some with electric and water hookups and others no hookups. Some site have great views of Lake Superior, some are sunny and open and others have some large trees. Our site (#104) was very close to our neighbors and the RV right behind us and we had a big tree right in our “patio” which was not conducive to sitting outside. We had a 50 amp full hook-up site which all worked well and well-placed in the site. The campground is county-run and a mix of seasonal people (lots of whom appeared to be there for the fishing) and transients like ourselves. One aspect of seasonal campers that I don’t like is how they junk up their site and this certainly had that. 

There are four bathhouses on the property some of which are pretty old and tired whereas others are larger and more updated. The bathroom near us was large but was heavily used (which is an understatement) as four tour-size busloads of college students exiting the boundary waters spent the night in tents near it. It was pretty trashed with that volume of people. Since the park is pretty large they have amenities like baseball fields, playground, group camping sections, a beach with picnic area, fish cleaning station, and nearby boat launch. 

A short walk to downtown and you have restaurants, shopping, grocery, fuel, pretty harbor, art galleries, bait shops, and more. One of the most highly touted places in Grand Marais is World’s Best Donuts. Even before we got to Grand Marais, people in other parts of Minnesota told us about it. The donuts were really good but beware their closing hour is when they sell out which is why we went really early. We also ate at The Crooked Spoon Cafe and had an amazing meal. Nearby Grand Marais are a scattering of state parks known for their waterfalls which are worth seeing. Many people come here because it is close to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness but since we just came from the town of Ely we did not go back to the boundary waters. We liked this area and kept busy for the three days we were there but couldn’t see staying long-term.

This is a quiet no frills campground.  The sites are nice and private with trees separating the sites.  The shower/bathrooms are great.  They also have the hole in the ground toilets spread around the campgound.  The hiking trails are great leading you to multiple waterfalls and to Lake Superior.  My only issue with this campground is that there isnt any play area for kids.

Theres plenty to do in the areas surrounding this State Park.  We drove the Gunflint Trail, went to Lutsen and shopped around Grand Marais.  Voyageur Brewing is a fun brewery with good beer.

This is a huge community campground within the village of Grand Marais, right on the harbor. Most folks are here with RVs, but there are three separate sections for tent camping only: one right on the lakeshore, one right on the bike path, and one tucked into the woods up the hill to the south. We always do tent camping, and had intended to go to Magney State Park nearby but they were filled for the weekend, so we reluctantly decided to try the town campground and were pleasantly surprised. Although the RV sites are jam-packed close together in the open throughout most of the campground, the forest tent sites are private, quiet, spacious, well wooded, and I would say comparable to the sites at Magney. We were at one of the smaller tent sites, but most are pretty big, the one called Honeymoon Hill is really great, ask for that if you can! The tent area does have drinking water but the toilets are just porta potties, though they are very clean and well kept. There is a full bath house down the hill about 1/4 mile walk, good facilities but heavily used and it got a bit muddy very quickly after the rain Sunday morning. The main advantage of this campground is great location on Lake Superior and Grand Marais Harbor, easy biking and walking distance into the village with all its amenities, and easy driving distance to numerous trailheads and other outdoor opportunities, so overall a pleasant surprise and an excellent alternate if area state parks are filled.

Cascade River State Park is a nice (but busy) place, and since I like more secluded spots, this campground cannot come among my favorite places to put a tent. A plus is the park's proximity to Lake Superior; seeing the sunrise on the lake is a must-do! Other than that, the park has nice trails, a small waterfall and decent amenities. Some of the nice things to see in the area are Grand Portage National Monument, Grand Marais, Pigeon Falls right on the border with Canada.. or a trail to Eagle Mountain - the highest peak in the state. :) The Superior Hiking Trail also pass through the area.

Small (27 site) campground north of Grand Marais, MN on MN61. Although there is easy access from the highway, the campground is very quiet and there are several hiking trails accessible directly from the campground, including the very popular Devil’s Kettle trail (just over two miles roundtrip but including over 200 steps). The bathhouse was very clean and centrally located. Attention to maintenance detail was very apparent throughout the park on the trails and restoration in the campground. In addition to the camping fees, you also have to pay a state park fee ($7 daily or$35 annual). Wish we would have stayed here but the campground was full.

This is a great campground in a great town.  The sites are rather small and crowded, but when we visit we spend more time in town and along the Gunflint Trail.  The bathrooms are very nice and cleaned once per day.  You are super close to Lake Superior and have access to a wonderful beach.  There are hiking trails that you can also access from the campground and you can even walk into town.  I recommend stopping at "My Sister's Place" for dinner in town and eating "World's Best Donuts" for breakfast.  This isn't a "remote" experience, but it's always a fun place to stay and the whole family loves going to Grand Marais.