Raco Airfield Dispersed Camping

The road getting in is a little tight with trees nothing is going to hit the roof though. We have a 32 ft travel trailer and fit just fine , the concrete pad could definitely fit two more campers If needed. The area is really big and definitely can fit a lot of campers! We haven’t had anyone come out besides a couple of locals on side by sides and another camper.
Only bugs that are going to annoy you is the fly’s they don’t leave you alone , but other that it is a great area to boondock!
The road getting in is gravel it’s bumpy but manageable, once you get to the turn it’s a little worn from side by sides we just stuck to the high spots and did fine!

It was a little tricky at night but not bad. Follow Usfs 3536 to the end where the boulders block the road, there's a turnaround there. Was quiet except for a tractor mowing the airfield. Dark. Only about 30 minutes to Sault Ste Marie. See other reviews about using the western leg of 3536. Just before the boulders there is a road to the left and you can see a large concrete pad which looks good for a spot. Check out satellite view before going in. Verizon barely had signal but was useable with my booster.

Beautiful boondocking spot in the western UP. We used the westernmost entrance. The road is currently a little rough but passable. It’s about .3 miles off M-28 to the dispersed camping area. There’s a concrete pad surrounded by trees, but we parked next to the boulders so we could have a clear sky for solar and Starlink (75 down and 5 up with the RV plan). Verizon had two bars. T-Mobile struggled to get one bar even with a booster. Looks like this location may see heavy weekend use of OHVs but it’s very quiet during the week and we saw no one else while we were there. Plenty of firewood to be found. Beautiful flock of sandhill cranes on the airfield every evening. Plenty of room for our dog to run off leash. He loved it. Timber has been harvested since Google Earth last updated. The forest ends at the line of boulders. Google Maps somehow has a more current satellite view showing the rocks and deforestation. Lots of mosquitoes undeterred by spray but Thermacell works. Brimley is ten miles away and has a good hardware store and Family Dollar. Relatively clean but we did have to pick up some trash left by others.

We had no issue getting into this area with our 42' 5th wheel. There are two roads that are both labeled USFS3536. The best one to go down is the one that's perpendicular to US28 (the western most or furthest from Brimely/Raco). You go past the 4-way road, past a 90 degree corner, and down to a pad that is on the left. You can't go too far as there are large rocks preventing you from going through to the airfield. There was plenty of camping and we fit 3 rigs on the pad. We met some locals that said they have about 17 rigs down there for labor day weekend.

This spot was awesome! Aside from a few UTV's, it was pretty quiet. Every now and again you could hear a large truck on the highway, but you had to be paying attention. There was a very large fire pit, but we couldn't have a fire due to the fire ban. We had no issues walking out on the airfield and exploring all of the service roads. Our dogs loved the freedom they had to run around.

There was excellent ATT service with enough download/upload for video calls all day. There wasn't any Verizon or Sprint service even with a hug booster antena. You could get a little Verizon service if you walked out to the runway of the airfield, but it was 2 bars with 3G or 1 bar with 4G.

Overall, we would definitely come back!

We found this site on here and wanted to provide a review for other users. We stayed in our 43’ Allegro Bus. The road in is mostly packed dirt/gravel and one lane. It’s tight but we only brushed a couple branches. There’s a sharp left turn that is well banked and worn from OHV but we made the corner without any issues. Just past the 60’ x 60’ concrete pad, the road is blocked with big boulders, which you can’t see from satellite pictures. It was awesome to park surrounded by tall pines and be able to go outside without tracking dirt and pine needles everywhere. The concrete pad is not great for solar, because the height of the trees gives you a short window for full sun and a long “night”. There were biting flies and mosquitoes and plenty of wood to pick up in the forest for a campfire. A couple miles west is Soldier Lake FS campground where we dumped trash and refilled water containers. In July we were about 15 degrees warmer than the coast of Lake Superior to the North. We only saw one other rig in our 10 days here and they parked on the road by the boulders. Verizon has no usable signal without a booster but easily made calls once we hooked up our booster. However, the AT&T nighthawk got about 15-20 MBPS with no booster or external antenna. Great place. Very quiet. Fairly easy access to town amenities.