Isle Royale Camping

[JBMasterAngler]

Anyone camp on the island before? I'm mostly interested in the campgrounds at rock harbor and at windigo (washington creek). The isle royale HSOforum really didn't give much info.

[OnAFly]

Some buddies went last year. They said for the price of it all, it wasn't worth it. They ended up having to camp with other groups and saw no wildlife. This is only one persons trip, but comparing what it cost them to what a BWCA trip costs, I would choose BWCA.

Again, this was one persons trip, so others could have had better experiences.

[JBMasterAngler]

I definitely wouldn't care for sharing campsites, so if I ever get out there I'm shooting for the slow season.

It'd be fun to hike a couple trails, but I'm more interested in fishing and canoeing along the lakeshore.

[Alagnak]

I've been up in the fall the last two years with some friends and it has been more than worthwhile (this coming from someone who has spent the last 13 summers in Alaska for comparison). If you go before or after the tourist season I'm sure you'd enjoy it as much if not more than BWCA because it's so unique.

Just like anything else. You need to get off the beaten path and NOT the campsites you read about. If you get off the dock at Windigo with dozens of other people from a ferry boat and walk 500' to the shelters yeah, you're going to be camping with strangers. No thanks. The trip will be what you make of it and might be work at times.

[JBMasterAngler]

My plan would be to spend the 1st night at windigo, then the remaining nights at rock harbor. I'd like to see the whole island from the boats' POV. Maybe a canoe trip around the windigo area. Then rent a boat at rock harbor, and/or go out on a charter. Like I said, fishing is the main interest, hiking secondary. Thanks for the input so far, every little bit of info is valuable.

[Transporter]

If you are looking for fishing, Windigo early in the season would be better. You can catch nice fish in Washington in early May from a small rowboat even from the dock. Rock Harbor is busy from mid June to late August and not really a good representation of what the island is, fishing near there is not so good, don't opt for a charter out of Rock Harbor. Rental boats on the island are not available early or late in the season, but the ferry boat may bring a small one for you if you have your own. There aren't many people out there in early May so camping in crowds would be very unusual.

[Drew]

What are you fishing for in windago? Are you fishing in the harbor or on the main lake out of Windago? When you say early, how early is early? I've seen videos from Washington (I think) of big pike and they were in a motorized boat so they were on a main body of water and not on an inland lake. It looked like a blast. Probably a little hairy going across the big lake?

[Greg Clusiau]

I've only been there once, a couple years ago, and thought that it was an extremely cheap trip for the world class fishing that can be had. We went specifically for fishing, no sight-seeing. We stayed in a three-sided lean-to that had a screened in front. It was a little cold at night. We weren't allowed a campfire of any sort where we camped. I'd go again.