Herbster Campground

6/25-28/2023
This was our first time camping here & really enjoyed the area. Camp hosts were very attentive & friendly. Some of the highlights we enjoyed were the beautiful purple & pink Lupines along the roadsides, sitting along the shore of Lake Superior which was so relaxing, s’mores around the campfire & a gorgeous sunset. We like to check out & participate in the surrounding area.

We visited the neighboring town of Cornucopia where we enjoyed cheese curds & pizza at Little Nikki’s by the Lake” & picked up a couple souvenirs-keychain & sticker from Ehler’s Store. It also has Wisconsin’s Northernmost Post Office.

We also spent an afternoon & evening in Bayfield.
Self guided tour of the town, walked through the beautiful Dobson Garden where the peonies were in full bloom & gorgeous, fun outdoor lunch at the Pier Plaza’s “Pickled Herring”, went on the very informative “Grand Tour” on a catamaran around the Apostle Islands on which we saw 2 lighthouses, a brownstone quarry, an old fish camp & spectacular sea caves & lastly we returned to a concert in the park. A perfect unplanned day.💜

Sites are very close together with no privacy. We stayed in the front row across the road from Lake Superior so had a nice view. There were a lot of tent campers right along the lake so you saw them too. The campground and toilet are clean. We didn't use the shower facilities. There is good wifi and I was also able to use my Verizon mobile Hotspot. The best site is #6. It's a very quiet campground even though it was full. The beach is beautiful and you can walk for a couple of miles!

I wanted to like this place and there were things I did like about it, but I think some of the people here made it not as enjoyable as it should or could have been.

First the website - green dates have always meant available to me, but they show green on the checkout date. Example: site 6 (which is probably the nicest site - can face away from your neighbor) showed Wednesday & Thursday as green, which led me to believe both nights were available. No, that means you can get Wednesday night and must checkout Thursday. I had to call the camp host for explanation and to complete my reservation. Later I talked to two city reps - this is their first year taking reservations, so it’s a new system. I gave my suggestion. Lady on the phone said red on the checkout date was confusing to others. Me: 🤔🙄

The people - they park their trucks in the fairways which makes it very hard to get in to sites. We were supposed to move to site 17, but there were 5 trucks that would have made it rather difficult to move. Site 6 is a pull thru, but our immediate neighbor had driven his truck between our slide out and his trailer and then parked in front of where we would have to make our left turn. We had to back out.

The sites 13-18 are on one spur with a small turnaround. With two trucks literally parked in the turnaround, we cancelled our second night here. Best sites are 1-6.

Pros: water, power, the beach & view. The sunset over the lake was gorgeous and our Lab liked the water. Not too buggy.

Cons: website needs improvement and as the other city rep I spoke to (he just happened to be there when we were dumping and we started chatting - Jack
- nice guy!) said some of the people randomly parking have been coming here for so long they think they own the place.

As much as I liked the view, don’t think we would return (unless we could get site 6 for a few days).

First come first serve. Arrived in early afternoon on a Friday in mid-August and got one of the last RV spots. Popular spot with tenters, ATVers, motorcyclists and families. Campground mostly cleared out in Sunday morning.

RV parking area is a grassy field without much privacy between sites, but nice views of Lake Superior. Great sandy beach across road with lovely sunsets. Water was not too cold for swimming, but lots of rocks on lake bottom near shore. Tent sites are along beach or in a back wooded loop. Often lines to use the bathroom.

Our site had electric and water, ($35) but no sites had sewer hookups. Some RV sites are electric only ($25). There is a dump station.

Showers in a trailer were OK---had to pull chain to keep water running and water cycled between hot and cold. Trash dumpster available but flies were bad in our site. Bring a screen tent and fly swatters. Quiet nights, but fairly busy during day with many playing radios or music, and campfires all day and evening.

We had a little bit of data on Verizon with our Mimo booster, but quite slow at times. I think there was some free WiFi near the bathrooms, but we didn't try it.

Small Campground on the lake. Tent sites are on the water, with RV spots just across the road. Additional forested tent sites up the hill. Great lake views. Easy beach access.

Commercial shower trailer on site has three shower stalls each for men/women. Bathrooms very clean. Dump site is just outside of shower house. Fresh water spigot here as well. WiFi is provided, with decent speeds. Host was great, very pleasant and helpful.