Agency-listedWDNRFree
Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required)
Dispersed · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI · 45.86675, -92.72688
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →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.
Free special camp registration permit required, email forest HQ 7+ days ahead.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 912 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required)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 Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required) · 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
- WWater3 mi
- @Mail6 mi
- GGrocery7 mi
- ShShower9 mi
- FFuel12 mi
- EVEV fast charger13 mi
- +Urgent care17 mi
- RxPharmacy19 mi
- MMechanic19 mi
- HHardware20 mi
- LLaundry20 mi
- DDump22 mi
- PPropane40 mi
- AAir-up41 mi
- OOutfitter46 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 7 mi out.
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 — Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required)
Access
Dispersed
Land
Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources
Elevation
912 ft
Ground slope
8.7% · noticeable
State
WI
Coordinates
45.86675, -92.72688
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required) · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSaint Croix River · ~0.3 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townGrantsburg · ~6.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~3.0 mi
- FuelSpeedway · ~11.9 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~22.5 mi
- GroceriesBP · ~6.8 mi
- PharmacyThrifty White Pharmacy · ~19.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicBurnett General Hospital · ~6.6 mi
- HardwareLuck DO It Best Hardware · ~23.3 mi
EV charging — from Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required) · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger12.6 mi straight-line W — Nordic Star LLC-Evergreen Square (Pine City, MN) · Electrify America · CCS · 6 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach4 within 25 mi · 18 within 50 · 191 within 100 · 257 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)13.9 mi — Hinckley, MN - Tesla Supercharger, Hinckley
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO40.5 mi — MOOSE LAKE LEVEL 3, Moose Lake
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)17.4 mi — Northwest Passage Gallery, Webster, WI (at a parking lot) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-01-13 · 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 279493 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required) · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomMD Snake River Landing Vault Toilet · ~3.6 mi SW · NPS
- RestroomMD Nelson Landing Vault Toilet · ~3.6 mi NE · NPS
- RestroomMD SandRock Cliff Vault Toilet · ~5.4 mi S · NPS
- RestroomMD Norway Vault Toilet · ~5.7 mi NE · NPS
Coming out here — Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required) · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Saint Croix River as a perennial river, ~0.3 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 8.7% — noticeable. 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 Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required) elsewhere
Other camps near Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- St. Croix NSR - River Mile 99.4 Campsite (free, first-come)~1.8 mi
- St. Croix NSR - Nelsons Landing Campsites (free, first-come)~3.6 mi
- St. Croix NSR - Sandrock Cliffs Campsites (free, first-come)~5.4 mi
- St. Croix NSR - Norway Point Landing Campsites (free, first-come)~5.7 mi
Who holds the land at Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required)
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Governor Knowles State Forest, manager on record: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required)
Permit
Reservations are required and a free special camp registration permit can be obtained by emailing the forest headquarters at least 7 days prior to occupying the site.
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 BUT PERMITTED, per the Wisconsin DNR's own page for Governor Knowles State Forest, https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/StateForests/GovKnowles/recreation/camping read 2026-08-15: 'Governor Knowles State Forest offers nine primitive campsites along the hiking trails. Reservations are required and a free special camp registration permit can be obtained by emailing the forest headquarters at least 7 days prior to occupying the site.' Permit email: dnrgovknowlesbackpacksites@wisconsin.gov. There is NO camping fee -- the permit itself is free -- but you cannot show up unannounced; the DNR wants 7 days' notice. Forest HQ phone 715-463-2898. CAVEAT: the DNR names a COUNT (nine) but publishes no list of site names or coordinates I could read; the name here is OpenStreetMap's, transcribed by an OSM mapper who cited this same DNR page. Three of the nine are mapped; the other six were not found. The DNR page gives no stay limit and no seasonal closure for these sites -- I could not verify either, so do not state one. OSM capacity 6 people / 2 tents, access=permit, fee=no, picnic table yes, toilets=no, drinking_water=no, openfire=yes. Burnett County, WI (Town of West Marshland). 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. | 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 Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required)
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 — Governor Knowles State Forest - Brandt Pines Backpack Campsite (free, permit required)
Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →How to read this page →All field notes →