Due to severely late trip-planning, this was the only North Shore state park with a site available that didn't require backpacking in. We stayed at cart-in campsite #31 which you can practically see from the cart-in parking lot. A cart for each cart-in site is provided, and there is a pit toilet and a water spigot located at that parking lot. The site is located above lake superior and slightly inland, so a decent view if you are sitting in the right spot but it has nothing on the lake-side sites at Split Rock Lighthouse state park.

The reason for the average rating is that this campground is kind of long and skinny, which means that you will hear all the cars going by at 60 MPH unless you have a large buffer between your site and Hwy 61. The trail system isn't nearly as vast as neighboring state parks- you can pretty much do a quick stroll through the lake-side portion of the park or go up the trail that follows the river (so lovely). You can take offshoot trails that are part of the Superior Hiking trail- but these are kind of overgrown and I'm tick-phobic. I wouldn't consider this a must-camp destination, but it was perfectly suitable as a quick place to spend a night on our way up to the Gunflint trail.

I would say this is a great campsite for campers who aren't leaving their site much or for people who don't need a lot of trail options.

The main bathroom facility isn't nearly as nice as the new one at Cascade River, but it is well-maintained considering its age. I would recommend showering early to avoid lines- I think there were just two or three shower stalls?