This is a designated canoe campground on the Mississippi River Headwaters water trail. It used to be one of my favorite campsites on the water trail, and was known for its big beautiful pines and for being a well maintained campsite on the water trail. A big windstorm came through in 2012 and knocked down most of the beautiful pines and ravaged the campsites. There had been several nice Adirondack lean-tos, nice fire grates, picnic tables, plenty of tent sites, decent outhouses, a water pump, and a nice landing for canoe access and swimming. The storm caused trees to fall all over the campground, causing a lot of damage. Rather than restoring the facilities that were damaged, most were just removed and havent been replaced, hence only one shelter remains and it it in rough shape; and the other campsites have been taken out altogether leaving just a big open grassy area. The water pump has been taken out, and the remaining outhouse is in bad condition. The heavy rains and floods at that time and since have also caused the main channel of the river to move further out in the reed bed, so the landing basically accesses a pretty shallow slough that you will have to slog through in order to get in from and out on the river. It is really sad to see it in this condition, and it is a barely tolerable spot to stop if you are through-paddling, but it is the last stop before the day-paddle it may take you to get through the giant rice beds downstream en route to Iron Bridge. The only positive is that the DNR did replant a lot of pine seedlings around the campground to replace the trees that were lost, and they seem to have had a good growth spurt the past couple years, so this spot is on its way for the vegetation to be renewed at least. I would advise not staying here though, unless improvements are made. If possible, try to camp upstream at Fox Trap or High Banks rather than this campsite.
