Best Tent Camping near Gordon, WI

Tent campgrounds around Gordon, Wisconsin provide access to the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway and nearby natural areas. Schoen Park offers primitive tent camping in a dispersed area along the river, while Howell Landing provides a larger group tent site with access to the Namekagon River. Grace Lake Road Dispersed camping in neighboring Minnesota offers free tent sites with more rustic conditions.

Most tent sites in the Gordon area are basic with limited amenities. The Namekagon Trail Bridge and Phipps Landing provide toilet facilities, but many sites like Schoen Park lack drinking water, showers, and sanitation facilities. Campers should bring water filtration systems, especially at dispersed sites. Access varies significantly between locations, with some sites reachable by car while others require boat, hike, or walk-in approaches. Schoen Park has tight turning space that may challenge larger vehicles. Sites are generally first-come, first-served with no reservation system, making weekday arrivals advisable during summer months.

Tent campers experience greater privacy at sites like Grace Lake Road Dispersed, where camping spots are set back from roads and offer peaceful settings. Sites along the Namekagon River provide water access for fishing and paddling activities, with some offering picnic tables and fire rings. Despite the primitive nature, the scenic location compensates for the lack of amenities. The Saint Croix Riverway sites offer quiet camping opportunities with river views. One camper noted that Schoen Park is "a great spot for primitive campers" with "a beautiful view of the river." Areas with ATV and dirt bike access, like Grace Lake Road, may experience higher traffic and noise levels on weekends but remain relatively quiet compared to developed campgrounds.

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Best Tent Sites Near Gordon, Wisconsin (37)

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Recent Tent Camping Photos near Gordon, WI

3 Photos of 37 Gordon Campgrounds


Tent Camping Reviews near Gordon, WI

451 Reviews of 37 Gordon Campgrounds


  • Annie V.
    Sep. 30, 2020

    Moose Lake State Park Campground

    Nice Stop Along the Way

    I came out of the BWCA near Grand Marais late in the day and so wanted to stop somewhere to camp as I headed south before dark. There were plenty of spots available online at this little park. It was clean and the campsites were fine—could see my neighbors without much tree cover though.

    If the weather had been better when I woke up I would have hiked some trails or paddled the lake. Next time!

  • Tori K.The Dyrt PRO User
    Jan. 28, 2025

    Jay Cooke State Park Campground

    Lost Lake Backpack Site

    such a fun backpack site! The hike in was muddy and buggy as there was quite a bit of rain in the weeks prior to our camping trip. Picnic table, fire ring, and bear locker provided. Site offers great vies of a little beaver pond where you may get to see some wildlife! Site was able to fit 4 backpacking tents, most of which were 2 person size tents, so it is good for a small group. Private latrine a short walk into the woods.

  • Kim The Dyrt PRO User
    Sep. 13, 2020

    Chequamegon National Forest Beaver Lake Campground

    Great campground, bad reservation system

    After a long hard hike on the NCT, we hiked into camp ready for a meal and a good sleep. We had spot #7 reserved, easily the most beautiful camp spot on the lake. A wonderful strip of sandy beach, heavily treed site, nice flat tent pads, a picnic table and fire pit.

    Our hearts sank as we walked to the site only to encounter a big RV parked there and it appeared someone was set up for the weekend. We were baffled! I had my print out confirm and proof it was ours but there was no camp host or any kind of ranger on site. We were on our own.

    So the people who took our site shows up. They tried to explain to us that there was a mistake in the reservation system and they had the site reserved too. I have no idea if it was a fabrication or not. But we were willing to share the camp site since we were only there for one night anyway.

    We pitched our tent. Enjoyed the sunset over the lake and settled in for a nice sleep.

    Pros: Large treed campsites Close vault Excellent potable water Beautiful serene lake Close to the NCT trailhead Vault cleaned daily Dumpsters and bear lockers Quiet camp sites No light pollution. Clear skies Minimal bugs in late august

    Cons: No camp hosts No firewood for sale Gravel back roads far from town No contact with forest service for issues NCT stretch of trail through the campsite is not that great

    I would camp there again but drive and not hike in.

  • Kim K.
    Oct. 3, 2021

    Herbster Campground

    Amazing location

    We tried it on the way to the UP of Michigan and came back the same route for two more nights. If you are a water lover, you’ll love the easy access to the water and walkable beach. 12 Reservable campsites online. Tent camping and electrical camping on water, and dry camping in the back woods first come first serve. Camp hosts are nice. Picnic table and fire ring included. Wood bundles $5 for a lot of wood. Laundry, separate bathrooms from shower trailer. Faucets in shower were odd. Definitely would stay again.

  • E
    Jul. 4, 2018

    Pattison State Park Campground

    Beautiful, quiet

    A great campground! There is a beach, playground, as well as drive-in and hike-in sites. The waterfalls are very cool, and they have nice signage and pamphlets to learn more about them. I recommend taking the time to read about the geology. I haven't stayed in a car camping sites, but we thought they looked very nice.

    The hike-in sites are great, not too far to walk but you have privacy. One thing to note about the hike-in sites is that the trails aren't well marked. Once you're on the trail for a while, they start having regular signage, but the start of the trails themselves aren't marked. You park in an area behind the car camping sites, next to what I assume is a storage building or old house. There are two starts to the trail, the one I found best is down the service road maybe a couple hundred yards. There's also one on the other side of the lot, but it winds a bit, forks into another trail, and all in all seems a little more confusing. I'd recommend just talking to the campground host when you get there, they can explain everything. The walk is short enough (a mile and a half) that we hiked out and back a couple times when camping, either to access the beach or to fill up water. Another important note is that while it's in an area where hanging a bear bag is recommended, the woods aren't thinned enough to where there are strong branches low enough for a bag. It took quite a lot of looking to find a suitable spot for our bag. There's a fire ring and picnic table at each site, which was nice. The bathrooms outhouses, which was a nice surprise, as I was expecting an unenclosed vault toilet.

    There's a separate trail to the beach from the sites as well, but I went back the main way anyway. The beach isn't anything special, but is nice enough. There's a nice, small playground near the beach as well.

  • Tori K.The Dyrt PRO User
    Nov. 12, 2024

    Paint Rock Springs Campground — St. Croix State Park

    No service

    Felt nice to spend a weekend without cell service about an hour away from home. Forgot to take my usual photos and video of the site all set up but had a few random to share. Nice campground. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring. There are flush toilets and showers and the office has a store for any last minute needs.

  • Annie C.The Dyrt PRO User
    Apr. 28, 2019

    Jay Cooke State Park Campground

    Working on being spectacular

    This is a beautiful park with tons of great hiking trails and amazing waterfalls. The campground is also really nice, and very popular. It was sold out the day I was there. I was surprised it was sold out considering there was no water, no showers, and no toilets due to major construction to fix the plumbing of the entire campground and to build new bathrooms. The campground is set up with a series of loops in a wooded area, so most campsites have nice privacy. You need to check in at the ranger station to get your campsite and learn about the water problems/solutions, as well as pay for your site and pay for the day use permit. I was kind of glad it was sold out as I found it to be very pricy for a campground that had no water or toilets (they did have porta potties). But, the hiking trails and waterfalls were definitely worth the visit.

  • Nancy W.The Dyrt PRO User
    Oct. 23, 2017

    Jay Cooke State Park Campground

    Swinging Bridge and Lots of Hiking

    The main reason we wanted to come to this park was to hike the trails and experience the famous swinging bridge that takes you over the St. Louis River and the rushing rapids below and rocky gorge below. The park dates back to the early 1900’s and its historic character comes from the influence of the Civilian Conservation Corps who made improvements to the park in the 1930’s and 40’s. The park has an 82-site campground and LOTS of activities to keep adults and kids busy.

    The campground is what you would expect in a state park with tall trees, shady sites, lots of activities, and popular with families. Roads and sites are gravel and each site has a picnic table and fire pit. Some campsites are long and suited for large RV’s while others are more rustic tent sites and there are 5 cabins for rent. Twenty-one sites have electric hook-ups. If you are looking for more rustic, remote tent sites there are some hike-in sites. Four sites are located 1 to 4 miles from parking area where each site has picnic table, fire ring and latrine but water must be hauled in.  About half of the sites are reservable online with the others being first come, first served. What we liked was that this park was very well cared as sites and facilities were very clean. Tall trees provided nice shade and campsites were well-spaced so you didn’t feel like you were on top of your neighbor. 

    There is lots to do in this park and we were sorry we didn’t have more time to spend. Activities include hiking (over 50 miles of trails including a stretch of the North Country National Scenic Trail), 8 miles of biking trails, 30+ miles of cross-country ski trails, kayaking and fishing. The park offers hundreds of naturalist programs including nature walks, evening campfire talks, fishing programs, and geocaching.  Just a short drive north of the state park is Gordy’s High Hat which is a famous hamburger joint that has been around for years and still draws a massive crowd. There is a big enough parking lot to pull your RV into if you need to. Food was great and cheap!

    Even if you don’t camp in this park, I think it is well worth the $7/daily admission fee to spend a day enjoying all this place has to offer.

  • Krista T.
    Jul. 1, 2020

    Jay Cooke State Park Campground

    Gorgeous

    A River Runs Through it(specifically the St. Louis River)- and a train runs through somewhere nearby. We stayed at this campground on our way back from the North Shore, we almost decided to just skip it and head home and I’m so glad that we didn’t! I knew as soon as we pulled into the campground that we made the right decision to stay. We did do a little hiking along the river, but we didn’t do any longer hikes since my brief park research led me to believe that the river is the best feature. It is a very popular campground- we stayed on a Monday night and less than 5 campsites were vacant.

    Pros

    -Every campsite seems to be well-treed and relatively private, providing a perfect atmosphere to just enjoy nature from your campsite.

    -Tree straps are available to borrow at the ranger station. This was the first time I have ever been asked if I’m hanging anything from trees- even a clothes line. It had never occurred to me that a clothes line would be a problem for trees, but I’m glad that I know that now!

    -The restroom/shower facility is very new and has my favorite layout where there is one main area with toilets and sinks and separate rooms accessible from the outside for private shower rooms. Not only is the shower privacy nice, but it keeps the water contained to that individual room. This was great in comparison to Whitewater State park which had constantly wet floors in the shared shower, toilet, sink space. The pit toilets are also nice(for a pit toilet). The outhouse near my site had a hook for hanging things(nice) and a hand-written note explaining that in order to keep smells to a minimum you need to close the lid AND the door when you leave. So while it wasn’t the newest pit toilet I’ve ever used, I didn’t mind using it at all. 

    Cons

    -One of the only things that was obnoxious about this park is that there is a frequently used train track nearby- and the trains really lay on whistle. I slept with earplugs in because of this, but I was still woken up around 4 times that night.

    -The layout of most campsites is kind of tight. If you are camping with multiple tents it might be a good idea to get multiple sites OR just do your research to make sure that the tent pad measurements listed on the reservation site are going to be sufficient. Most sites did not have enough space for your car, your tent, the fire ring, and a bug house. Our site would have had enough space for all of them had we chosen to move our picnic table into the car area, but we weren’t planning on a fire so we just left the picnic table by the fire pit and put our bug house over it. We DID see a campsite with their bug house literally 2 feet from an active fire- do not do this.

    -Our tent pad was really well graveled and made me realize that the standard stakes that came with our tent and bug house need to be upgraded. I was able to get most anchor points secure, but I gave up on one particularly resistant spot.

    -The Hiking Club trail is probably the most used, I considered the CCC hike which is accessible from the loop I was staying in- but I’m tick phobic and the grass trail looked a bit overgrown. The Hiking Club trail wasn’t super well marked and based on the markers I went on the rocky side trail to the river assuming that that was the Hiking Club trail- it wasn’t.


Guide to Gordon

Tent camping near Gordon, Wisconsin offers a serene escape into nature, with a variety of campgrounds that cater to outdoor enthusiasts looking for adventure and relaxation.

Tent campers appreciate these amenities

  • At Phipps Landing, campers can enjoy the convenience of drinking water and fire pits, making it a great spot for evening gatherings.
  • Howell Landing features a clean, well-kept group site with access to the Namekagon River, perfect for those who love water activities.
  • For a more primitive experience, Schoen Park offers a private, dispersed camping area with beautiful river views, ideal for those seeking solitude.

Tent campers should check out local activities

  • The scenic Namekagon River near Namekagon Trail Bridge is perfect for fishing and floating, providing a peaceful way to explore the area.
  • Earl Park offers access to hiking trails and opportunities for wildlife viewing, making it a great choice for nature lovers.
  • Campers at Riverside Landing can enjoy boat-in access, allowing for a unique camping experience right on the water.

Unique features of the campgrounds

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is the most popular tent campsite near Gordon, WI?

According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Gordon, WI is Schoen Park — Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway with a 5-star rating from 2 reviews.

What is the best site to find tent camping near Gordon, WI?

TheDyrt.com has all 37 tent camping locations near Gordon, WI, with real photos and reviews from campers.