Campground ideas for Ely area?

[Powerstroke]

I've gone up the Gunflint trail as long as I can remember and I was thinking about trying the Ely are this summer. My fiends and I usually spend 5-7 days tent camping or canoe camping. We're looking for a somewhat-secluded quiet campground on a lake that offers fishing opportunities and some canoe exploring. BWCA doesn't matter but fine since we have our own canoes.

Thanks for any ideas.

[Seabass77]

I would stay at the Kawishiwi state forest campground on 1. Nice site and good access to lots of fishing and exploring. It isn't really secluded though, but fits the rest of your requirements. Another option might be up the echo trail on Jeannette lake or echo lake.

[IFallsRon]

We've stayed in the Kawishiwi campgrounds several times. One trip the black flies were really bad. It it wasn't for the screen tent, we wouldn't have been able to stay outside. Another time, we arrived and set up in the dark. It rained that night and we found we had pitched the tent in a wash.

[russ]

I can let you know of one that has not been very good to us. I believe it was Birch Lake state forest campground, south of Ely on 1. Both times the campground was overrun by brain dead delinqents. Tore the place up with dune buggies, four wheelers and dirt bikes with no exhaust at 2 and 3 in the morning. We were just staying 1 nite on our way through on a motorcycle trip. Felt rather vulnerable in a small nylon tent. They made several rounds through the camp raisin' hell and then left and went to their campsite. They were actually stayin at the same campground. I went out to see what was goin' on and I couldn't believe no other campers were up and about to see what the commotion was. It was like noone wanted to come out. We packed up early and left. When we went out of the camp we checked out their site and it was a total mess, garbage all over, beer containers everywhere, vehicles looked like a junk yard. Looked the the Beverly Hillbillies moved in. Ever see the movie Deliverance? Remember the family where they asked for a ride up river and the guy hit his finger with the hammer? BINGO! This same scenario happened both times we stayed there. Found out later from relatives who live near there that it is common knowledge that that place can be trouble. Local party hangout. Good Luck.

[Fishing Junky]

That sucks Russ. Never stayed there, but did walk through it and it is a nice campground. Junky...............

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A fishing guide is just a fishing junky who takes others with him to support his habit.

[minndonn]

Try Fall lake. Nice sights, good campground hosts and nice lake. YOu are almost in the boundry waters and there is a nice portage to go to another lake where the fishing is better. I have not had the chance to try it though. Decent but small beach. Some electric sites. May need reservations.

[Guest]

Russ is correct. The locals hang out and party HARD at the Birch Lake campgrounds. They are super nice. They have nice facilities for going to the bathroom. The sites have picnic tables and firepits. I staye there once with no noise. Drove through once and it was a zoo. Kinda hit and miss. I'd try Big Lake on the Echo Trail about 20-30 miles north of Ely. We stayed on an island campsite once. AWESOME! There was a shallow inlet that was a solid slab of rock about 2-3 feet deep and super clear. Nice for wading or a shallow swim. The camping area was huge and had a really cool giant picnic table made of natural split tree logs. Nicely wooded and flat. Fishing wasn't good as it was very cold and rainy (nasty cold front). You need a permit I believe to stay there. Check with the DNR. If you want seclusion and a nice site, this is it. Have fun!

[RussDaBuss]

Has anyone been to Bearhead State Park south of Ely? I am thinking of going there in mid-summer. Looks like a nice place. Want to hike, canoe, etc.... Any goods or bads?
Thanks

[bdavid1157]

Was just at the Fall lake Campground east of Ely. Nice campground. Even caught some fish right from shore by our campsite. The problem right now is they are doing some construction so they have a lot of noisy heavy equipment running from 8am to 8pm the day we were there.

[IFallsRon]

Bearhead is a very nice campground. It's a little better experience than some state parks because you get real campers. Plus they've added some electrical sites.

[KB]

My wife and I used to stay at Bear Head every year for a week either late September or early October. Beautiful place to stay, and when you go late in the season, you only get the real campers. It's pretty rustic, but also has the amenities that the women sometimes like.

[RussDaBuss]

Great, I appreciate the info. We are going to try to get up there. Need to get that reservation in soon.....
Thanks

[RussDaBuss]

Made it up to Bear Head Lake State Park this past weekend. VERY nice park. Very nice area. Also we checked the Soudan Under Ground Mine tour (which is also another state park). WOW, was that something to see. If any of you get to the area, you definitely have to check it out. Well worth the 7 dollars. If you’re claustrophobic, you might not want to, the ride down 1/2 into earth is a little tight and dark. Very fun and informative though.... Have Fun!!!!!!!1

[bbock]

Glad you liked Bear Head Lake, that's one of my favorite places to camp as well. Having a canoe myself, I find the odd shape of the lake helps keep down the motorboat wakes, which is always a plus. I also love how the sites I like (the lowest-numbered ones) are relaly well spaced apart from each other.
It's relaxing just thinking about it.
(Glad you enjoyed the Soudan Underground Mine too, I get to work there in the physics lab from time to time.)

[Redlantern]

Bbock, are you doing some work with the neutrino (sp) thing in the mine? Can you explain it to me what they are doing? I took a tour two years ago and was trying to explain it to my dad but I came off more like Tim Taylor repeating stuff from Wilson.
Thanks.

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Erik Torgerson

[PaulB]

I really like Bear Head Lake SP too. Eagles in the swimming area, can't go wrong. If you're looking for info on what's going on in the Soudan mine regarding the neutrino research, there's an article on City Pages HSOforum from last Nov. I just searched for Soudan and it came right up. Pretty interesting

[bbock]

Yeah, I do work with the neutrino thing in the mine. Personally, I mostly do techy type work, fixing stuff and troubleshooting other stuff. The detector there is complete, it has been for a while.
For those of you who don't know what neutrinos are, they are subatomic particles that are all around us. They are created in most nuclear reactions. (like those that take place in the sun, those that take place in nuclear reactors, and even just when some radioactive atoms decay.) There are 3 types of neutrinos. They are nearly massless, but they do have a very small mass. (when MINOS was first conceptualized, noone was sure that they had mass at all.) They only interact with normal matter if they actually run into a nucleus of an atom, (an atom is mostly empty space) so neutrinos don't affect our daily lives much. MINOS seeks to set limits on how large or small the mass is by measuring oscillations, aka changes in type.
Since they interact very rarely, we have to have gigantic detectors to have a good chance of detecting any neutrinos.

The whole experiment it is involved in has 2 parts. There is the part at Fermilab (particle accelerator lab in Chicago) that uses the accelerator to produce relatively high-energy neutrinos. The neutrino beam created then goes through the near detector, a detector similar to the one in Soudan but smaller. That is located at Fermilab. Then the beam travels through the earth under Wisconsin to arrive at Soudan, aka the Far detector, having had a brief time to oscillate.
Comparing ratios from near and far detector coupled with a bunch of fancy statistics gives us new information on the nature of neutrinos.

The detectors both work the same way: iron sheets and scintillator are stacked in layers. Neutrinos hit iron nuclei and that kicks out another particle (called a muon) that, when it gets into the scintillator, makes the scintillator produce a bit of light. (Scintillator is some plastic that has been doped up with some other chemical) That light is picked up by fancy phototubes and electronics.

That's a pretty complete overview.

The near detector will be completed this week, we are going to get particle accelerator time starting this winter. Before we get accelerator time, the detector is still running, it's just taking data on cosmic rays for the time being.

Isn't physics fun?

[SPIN DRY]

WOW!!!! What do you do with the data? What's it used for?

[bbock]

Ah, the classic question, "what's the point?" Well, it's a pure research project so it doesn't have any glamorous "point." The physicists working on the oscillation stuff will use the data to refine their knowledge about neutrinos. High-energy particle physics like this tends to be a "zeroing in" type game where not a lot of experiments find something totally new, but a lot of experiments spend a lot of time refining measurements, to make the window of possible values for something smaller. (In this case, they're trying to close the window on neutrino mass.)

The thing is, just because there's no immediate application, doesn't mean it's not worth doing. I think the classic example is the laser. The physicist who "figured it out" as it were, was just trying to study the phenomenon known as "stimulated emission of radiation" (the SER in LASER). He never foresaw his work leading to laser eye surgery, or cd players, or ultriprescise cutting tools, or those laser level things. He was just doing pure science. One can never predict the benefits of pure science, it's just something that has to happen.

[SPIN DRY]

Cool. I've been to the mine a few times and that lab always is the thing I remember most, that and the ride down. Thanks for the insight. Good luck

[RussDaBuss]

That sounds interesting. Next time I get up there I will have to do the "long" tour and see all that. Very neat place.....

[smallieobsession]

Hi all, heading up Sunday for 6 days to stay @ Bearhead lk State Park...I've seen some recent info on this post.... Curious if anyone can provide any recet reports or suggestions on how to fish Bearhead lake (or eagles nest nearby). Looking for walleye, crappies, maybe a few bass, etc....
Any help appreciated!!!!

[who are those guy]

What does the "LA" in laser stand for then?

[bbock]

LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
'Course it's a word all unto its own nowadays.

[Wiskers]

Hey there, any one been to Silver Rapids Lodge near Ely? We are going there for the 4th weekend. Just wondering how it rates for camping and fishing.

Thanks