8/27/21 – While it hardly seems possible, the Forest Service has just announced further closures in the Superior National Forest. In addition to the existing closure of the BWCA Wilderness and the closure area surrounding the Greenwood fire, they have announced a closure of the undeveloped camp spots in the Superior National Forest.
The Press Release states:
“Effective August 27, camping on Superior National Forest lands outside of developed campgrounds will be closed. Day use is allowed on the forest and most developed campgrounds (fee and non-fee) remain open to public use. Please review the Forest Closure Order for a list of open campgrounds.
Forest officials made the decision to enact this closure in the interest of public safety as the forest continues to experience severe to extreme drought, high fire risk and multiple active fires.
Closing camping outside of developed campgrounds reduces the possibility of the following:
- Search and rescue resources being diverted from firefighting operations.
- The need for emergency evacuations should additional wildfires occur.
- The chance of illegal campfires. Despite the current fire restrictions, there have been multiple reports of illegal campfires on the forest and several of those illegal campfires have caused small fires on the forest which divert resources away from priority fires.
This closure will be in place until it is safe to lift, forest resources are freed up from firefighting, and likely until the Arrowhead receives a season-ending rain or snow event.
The Superior National Forest is coordinating with the State of Minnesota, who will be implementing similar closures across the Arrowhead Region due to the challenging natural resource conditions.
In addition to this camping closure order, the Forest has several other closures in place for the Greenwood and John Ek fires. Developed campgrounds in those closure areas include McDougal Lake, Little Isabella, Iron Lake and Trails End campgrounds. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is also closed at this time and permits have been refunded through September 3.
Please visit the forest website for more information or call your local district office. “
Now for the million-dollar question: Where can you camp right now? Here’s the list, per the official order:
- Devils Track Lake Campground
- East Bear Skin Lake
- Flour Lake
- Kimball Lake
- Two Island Lake
- Birch Lake
- Fall Lake
- Fenske Lake
- S Kawishiwi River
- Echo Lake
- Lake Jeanette
- Cadotte Lake
- Pfeiffer Lake
- White Face Reservoir
- Big Rice Lake
- Crescent Lake
- Ninemile Lake
- Sawbill Lake
- Temperance River
- Baker Lake
- Cascade River
- Clara Lake
- Four Mile Lake
- Harriet Lake
- Hog Back Lake
- Kawishiwi Lake
- Oxbow
- Poplar River
- Silver Island Lake
- Toohey Lake
- Trestle Pine
- White Pine Lake
- White Fish Lake
- Wilson Lake
To be clear, when it says you can camp at Sawbill Lake, Baker Lake, and Kawishiwi Lake, what it means is that the campsites in the established campgrounds are open – NOT the backcountry lake sites that are within the BWCA Wilderness.
In happier news, they were able to put 14 firefighters in on the Whelp fire today. While we haven’t received any measurable rain, it has been overcast, humid, and drizzling on and off all day. This is good firefighting weather, and we are feeling hopeful and grateful for the crew working on the Whelp fire. We were happy to be able to pack food for that crew, and we made sure to include lots of high-calorie, high-carb eats!
We are using our down time to work on some of the used canoes that will be for sale this season. Expect the first batch to go live on the website in a couple of days, with more available as they are done being refurbished.
As always, thank you for following along with us, and please let us know what questions you have.
Clare