Split Rock Lighthouse State Park

PROS:
Clean restrooms and showers, nice spacing between sites, access to bike trails
CONS:
NO WATER ACCESS FOR RV’s (10miles to Silver Bay for closest water access), no cell service for ATT, Road noise from Hwy 61, woods are cut over timber not scenic, and shower water turns cold quickly. Cannot view the lake from campground.

There are two campgrounds at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park: the cart-in campground along Lake Superior, and the relatively new Shipwreck Creek Campground which is inland. My comment is about Shipwreck Creek.

Shipwreck Creek is just okay. They did so much clearcutting of trees that there’s almost no natural shade in any of the campsites. Despite that, the natural terrain does provide some decent privacy in a few sites, but it’s very hit or miss. I stayed here two nights, and have no complaints. The shower building is nice. You can hear road noise from Highway 61, but it’s not too bad. The campground itself is not scenic at all, but it’s a good location as a basecamp for exploring the area. The roads are in good condition and it doesn't take too long to get to the highway.

If you are a cyclist, this is a dream basecamp location because the campground provides direct access to the Split Rock Wilds mountain bike trail system, and the more easy-going Gitchi-Gami State Trail.

The inner loop is a bit higher elevation if you need cell service. The area around 109/112/114 specifically seem to be one of the higher points in the campground, where in July 2022 I got: Verizon (1 bar LTE – slow but usable), T-Mobile (1 bar LTE and not great, but enough to stay connected), and AT&T (1 bar LTE but faded in and out, and sometimes showed no service).

This is for the drive-in Shipwreck Campground - As others have said you can tell this is a fairly new campground and sites are sunny since few trees which creates hardly any privacy at all - electric only and no water or dump available except for Silver Bay free dump which is about 10 miles away - sites are long and fairly spacious for big rigs and most have tent pads -we had to use blocks on one side due to slope of the site - some sites are much nicer than others - easy access to three State Parks nearby which is one reason we chose to stop in this area - was surprised of the lack of restaurants around but the area is very pretty and near Lake Superior - we used it for a couple of nights on our way to Voyageurs National Park - we had 3 bars of Verizon LTE and was able to use my phone as a hotspot but we were at a high point in the campground at site 111 which was the last site available when we booked it the same day of arrival

Nice campground. Plenty of toilets. Showers closed February in early afternoon when it’s hot and when we return from am adventures. Not a lot of shade. In 3-5 years it will be better for shade. Flys suck at the beach when it’s hot if your not from the area. My dog was covered when trying to enjoy theajet

The campground is new and overall we had a really nice experience. There were positive and challenges to the location:

Positives:
Close to the lighthouse and mountain biking trails
Very nice bathroom facilities
Large roomy sites
Easy in/out to the sites

Challenges:
No dump or water filling station on site - had to stop on the way there and back to get water and dump
Some sites are not well shaded/pretty exposed
Cell coverage - particularly AT&T was very spotty