Crawfish Lake Campground

This is a free, primitive campground located on the national forest side of Crawfish Lake.

There are a few sites accessible to larger vehicles but most are designed for vehicles less than 20 feet or tents. Most sites are on the water with a few on the other side of the gravel access drive. There are vault toilets. The campground can get busy/full on summer weekends but is mostly empty during the week and off-season.

This campground is in a very remote area. Access is seasonal. Although there are cabins on the opposite side of the lake, you really feel like you're in the wilderness here. We hear wolves and coyotes at nights and almost always see deer during the day. What's amazing is that there is actually cell phone reception here (but not data).

This was our first free campground, so we didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into. This one might have set the bar high for other free campsites, though. It was pretty well laid out, seemed to be cared for, and the lake and surrounding forest were really pretty.

Getting to the campground wasn't bad. It is located in a National Forest, so we were nervous about the condition of the roads. Luckily, it was mostly paved roads except the final 5 miles. We followed the directions from Google Maps and found it easily. When you pull into the campground, there are a few sites to the right but the bulk of the sites are to the left. Most of the spots appear to be for tent camping or smaller RVs. We stayed in site 9 and didn't have too much trouble getting in with our 20 foot trailer and Tundra. It would have been easier to get in had we known ahead of time that there were turnarounds at each end of the campground. Since we didn't know, we had to do a weird maneuver using one campsite in order to back into the one we had chosen.

The is a perfect place to escape off grid, as there isn’t much of a cell signal - even with our cell booster. There is no water or electric, but there are a couple of pit toilets. We have a toilet in our trailer, so we didn’t use the pit toilets, but they seemed clean enough.

There were quite a few kayakers out enjoying the lake, which was calm and very inviting. We had some ducks come right up to the shoreline at our site, and we saw a loon way out in the distance. The lake is surrounded by trees and there are a bunch of vacation homes on the other side.

We only stayed 1 night but wish we could have stayed longer. There is a 14-day limit, which we would love to take advantage of another time. We camped on a Saturday towards the end of July and there were plenty of sites still available. There are 19 total sites, most of which are right on the lake, but a few are across the gravel road.

This free national forest campground is off the charts! Most of the road in was paved. The last 5 miles were gravel and steep enough that we had to rest our transmission, but it was well worth it. As mentioned in other reviews, most of the sites are suitable for small rigs 20’ and under, but if you take the right fork as you come in, there are 4 sites that will accommodate up 26, maybe even 30’. The first site coming in on the left is also pretty roomy as well as 3-4 sites on the left fork. If you come Mon-Wed, there are lots of choices. It begins to fill up on TH in the summer. We arrived around noon on a FRI and only had two options for our 24’TT. However on Sunday afternoon many people left and we moved down to the best site on the right fork, large and on the lake and near the relatively clean vault toilets. Tables are tired but serviceable, fire rings vary throughout from just rocks, to metal grills. In the middle there had been a lot of tree clearing so there was an abundance of firewood available. The first couple of nights (a weekend) we had noisy neighbors who blasted music for noon to midnight each day. Once they let, it was completely quiet except for the fish splashing and the loons, ducks, and bald eagles. If you have a non-combustion engine boat, bring it! The fishing was great for people with kayaks, canoes, and pontoon floaters. To top it off we did have 2 bars LTE on Verizon most of the time, but that was only on the left fork site. Beautiful place. I’m writing this on our 7th day. We may stay the maximum stay limit of 14 days! Gorgeous!

Smaller campground, rustic. There has been some clearing & thinning work done but the work piles are left behind, detracting from beauty of the grounds. But nonetheless we thoroughly enjoyed the peace & quiet while there mid week. Loons, osprey, eagles & much more. Dry camping; there is a pit toilet. Pack it in/pack it out! Less than 30ft trailers. Definitely off the beaten track!
There are summer cabins around half the lake, but the campground sets in the trees for the most part, with lake access available.

This campground is 20 miles from the nearest town. The first 18 miles are on an okay paved road. The last 2 miles are washboard dirt. Guess that keeps out the crowds. We took a chance on a Saturday and found an open site. Very happy 😊

This is a lovely spot but I was unable to work due to poor service. One bar (Verizon) that came and went. With my booster, it showed 3 bars but wasn’t able to work or download anything. Very peaceful spot and would have stayed longer if I’d been able to work.

Beautiful setting. Very quiet. The road was somewhat rough getting there. It is one of our most favorite places.