Black Beach Campground

We stayed at the newly opened (June 2020) Black Beach Campground during a long July 4 weekend. The campground is brand new (in fact the sod was still regularly being watered each day). Owned by the City of Silver Bay, Minnesota, the sites here are spacious and feature full hookups. Our site - #32 - was located in the "lower" campground area, which is a few hundred yards from Highway 61. The first 15 sites or so are located right by busy Highway 61, but more than 20 campsites are removed from the highway. Site 32 is on the very end of a row and includes a nice stand of birch trees on one side offering a little privacy. It's close to the restroom, but not too close. The hard-packed gravel pads are fairly even, requiring very little leveling. Big bonus: Black Beach on Lake Superior is just a five minute walk from the campground. This is an amazing beach that offers three different and unique areas for spending a hot summer day. Be sure to check out each area of the beach!

This is a new campground with very large, level sites that can accompany any size rig. They have a nice grass area between sites and the campground sits an easy 1/2 mile from Silver Bay. The hook-ups are nicely situated at each site. Black Beach is between approximately 1/2 mile from the campground depending on your site. They have new shower bays and a great playground for the kids. The only reason I didn't give this campground 5 stars is they nickel and dime you for picking your site, add'l vehicles, pets, etc.

#1 They ONLY take plastic, no cash or check. Be aware.

#2 You are directly next to the highway, if quiet is what you want there is a loop of sites that cost more and are closer to Superior.

Vault toilet, shower room with solar/sky light (if it's cloudy, bring a lantern!), wonderful clear crisp drinking water, and very new sites. FREE WIFI!!

We were tenting it closest to the vault toilet. This was the week before memorial weekend so we could get the site for the night but they were booked out for the weekend. There's a hiking trail nearby, newish sod around the sites, and large areas to play with dogs or kids. It's a little muddy and hilly but I really liked our spot for the one night.

Sites 1-16 sit on Hwy 61. Constant traffic noise. Sites very close together so little privacy from other campers. No shade or landscaping between sites. Pictures of park are deceiving as they show more expensive full service portion that is away from Hwy 61.

We stayed in the campground area away from the highway and closest to Lake Superior where it was quiet and we enjoyed our stay. I can see where the area closest to the highway would be noisy. Speaking of noise... we were initially booked in site 46 beside the pond. There were many frogs in the pond that made a very loud high pitch sound all night. We moved to site 34 after the first night and only heard frogs in the distance. Sites 26 - 49 are near the lake with comfortable spacing between the sites. I believe all of these sites had full hookups. The office was open from 12:00 - 3:00 PM each day.

Verizon 28.1 down 11.5 up
AT&T 23.6 down 30.4 up
Campground Wifi 1.2 down 40.6 up

We only stayed 2 night. A great location for seeing all the state parks and going down to black beach! We were the closest to the road and the bathrooms which wasn’t very attractive but we didn’t stay at the campsite during the day. The sites are all exposed, it’s not the typical woodsy camping vibes but it was easy to get into and had very nice bathroom/showers! If you care more about being close to the beach and to the parks than what the campsite looks/feels like then it’s perfect!

FOR $45 A NIGHT I WOULD RATHER USE THEIR SHOWERS INSTEAD OF MY RV, BUT THEIRS IS FEW AND FAR APART. COULDN'T WAIT FOR IT TO OPEN, AND NOW DISAPPOINTED. IF I COULD OF HAD THE LOWER LOTS IT MIGHT OF BEEN BETTER.

Everybody has different needs in a campground. We spent one night and wanted full hookups after dry camping, and a place we could get a reservation in advance. As others have mentioned, the upper campground is close to Hwy 61 so you get road noise. You hear less of that in the lower campground but there's a nonstop flow of traffic (at least on our June weekend stay) out to Black Beach, kicking up lots of dust. On the map site 26 looks like you'd be able to see the water, but there are trees obstructing so you just end up with all the road dust. Several campers had ATVs, grills, lots of lawn furniture...so it's obviously a nice stay for some. Entry road is good, sites are gravel and level, spaced close like a typical campground, no trees or shrubs for privacy.

If I didn't need internet access to do my day job I would not stay here.

There are two loops, east and west. The west loop is bordered by Hwy 61 to the west and an industrial facility to the south that runs 24/7. If the traffic noise doesn't keep you awake the constant humming of the industrial facility will.

Did you get an electric only site and need to dump? Well you're out of luck there bucko. Because when we designed this campground, complete with full hookup sites, we didn't include a dump station.

Want to put your awing out? Forget about it, we made some of these sites so narrow that if you do put your awing out it will likely hit your neighbor's camper.

East campground adjacent to gravel road leading to beach area, very well traveled and dusty. Campground is well laid out and adequately spaced between sites. Lots of kids, traffic, and dust!