Agency-listedWDNRFree

Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)

Dispersed · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI · 45.76945, -90.75477

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Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.

Paddle-in only. One night. No fee. Sawyer/Price County, WI.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)

Weather outlook — at Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,337 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)NIFC · AirNow

Checking active fires & air quality…

Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.

Everything you need — measured from Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite) · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI

▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.

Nearest of each

@Mail13 mi
FFuel13 mi
GGrocery13 mi
HHardware17 mi
AAir-up17 mi
+Urgent care17 mi
MMechanic18 mi
OOutfitter18 mi
EVEV fast charger18 mi
RxPharmacy19 mi
WWater20 mi
DDump20 mi
ShShower34 mi
LLaundry34 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 13 mi out.

Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.

One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗

The site — Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)

Access

Dispersed

Land

Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources

Elevation

1,337 ft

Ground slope

2.2% · flat

State

Coordinates

45.76945, -90.75477

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite) · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureFlambeau River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
Drinking waternone within 10 mi
FuelPhillips 66 · ~12.9 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump station~20.0 mi
GroceriesGrocery · ~12.9 mi
PharmacyPark Pharmacy · ~18.7 mi
Hospital / clinicMarshfield Clinic Phillps Center · ~16.9 mi
HardwarePhillips Lumber and Hardware · ~16.8 mi
Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi

EV charging — from Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite) · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger18.0 mi straight-line E — Bay Area Rural Transit, Phillips · EVGATEWAY · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 3 within 50 · 45 within 100 · 247 within 150
Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)50.4 mi — Minocqua, WI - Tesla Supercharger, Minocqua
Nearest listing CHAdeMO47.5 mi — Wheelers Chevrolet of Medford, Medford
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)19.3 mi — Price Electric Co-op, Phillips, WI (at an utility) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2023-11-09 · hours: 24 hours daily
Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 376581 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite) · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Vault / pit toiletBlack Lake Bl · ~17.2 mi NW · USFS
Vault / pit toiletBlack Lake Cg · ~17.2 mi NW · USFS
Vault / pit toiletStock Farm Bridge Bl · ~18.6 mi N · USFS
Vault / pit toiletStock Farm Bridge Cg · ~18.7 mi N · USFS

Coming out here — Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite) · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI

Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Flambeau River as a perennial river, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
Ground slope around the pin: about 2.2% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.

Open Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite) elsewhere

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Other camps near Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

How we know this — Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)

Stay limit

1 night (one night)

Source

public land records

Confidence

Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.

How it was placed

FREE, per the Wisconsin DNR's own page for Flambeau River State Forest, https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/StateForests/flambeauriver/recreation/camping read 2026-08-15: 'There are 14 primitive canoe campsites along the Flambeau River. Each landing provides room for one to three individual campsites and includes a picnic table, fire ring and pit toilet. These campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis and are limited to a one-night stay. There is no fee required.' STAY LIMIT: one night. ACCESS: DNR publication PUB-FR-737 2025 ('River Camping -- Flambeau River State Forest'), read 2026-08-15, states 'Use of river campsites is restricted to arrival by watercraft only. River camping is allowed only in designated campsites and is strictly enforced.' Do not plan to drive in. The same brochure: sites are 'first-come first-served paddle up sites, and are located right on the river's edge'; group sites hold up to 15 campers, semi-primitive and primitive sites up to six. 'No glass containers allowed.' CAVEAT -- the DNR names a COUNT (14) but publishes no machine-readable list of campsite names; the name here is OpenStreetMap's. Treat the name as unverified against the agency and confirm with forest HQ (W1613 County W, Winter, WI 54896, 715-332-5271) before publishing it. Nearest town: Winter, WI (DNR's own HQ address). The DNR page lists no seasonal closure and no site-specific fire restriction for the river campsites; I did not find one and did not check the statewide burn-restriction feed. COORDINATE PROVENANCE: OpenStreetMap, queried via Overpass 2026-08-15. It is NOT an agency coordinate and NOT a field visit. The agency page cited above is the authority for the site's existence, fee status and rules; OSM supplies only the position. Confirmed to fall in Wisconsin by Nominatim reverse geocode 2026-08-15. OSM element: node, tourism=camp_site, fee=no, backcountry=yes | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.

EV chargers

US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.

Field check

On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.

What we don’t know about Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)

A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.

Road surface & last-mile access
How many rigs actually fit
Cell coverage by carrier
Seasonal & winter access
Current fire restrictions
Whether any water here is drinkable
Shade & wind exposure
Noise and who else shows up
Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it

Before you go — Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)

Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →Picking a spot →All field notes →

Is this page wrong about Flambeau River State Forest - Babb's Island Camp (free canoe campsite)?

This page was built from a public land record, not from a visit. If you have actually pulled in here and it does not match, that is worth more than anything we can read off a map. Tell Dave what is off — it goes to him, not onto the page.

Anything else, in your own words (optional)Your email — optional, and only so Dave can ask you a follow-up. It does not go on a list, and nobody is promising you a reply.

A reader report is not a fact, and this one will not change a word of this page by itself. Dave reads it and checks it against the agency’s own record, because that record is what this site says. If reader reports are ever shown here they are labelled “reader report, unverified” with the date, and they are never merged into the agency fields.