Agency-listedUSFSFree
Ranger
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · MI · 43.94091, -84.75508
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 →U.S. Forest Service lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Ranger · U.S. Forest Service · MI
No MVUM road within 1 mi of the pin; access may be a county road or unmapped.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
What the record says about the site — Ranger · U.S. Forest Service · MI
- Permit needed to camp
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Ranger
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,020 ft.
Fire & smoke — around RangerNIFC · 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 Ranger · U.S. Forest Service · MI
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- ShShower0 mi
- FFuel2 mi
- GGrocery2 mi
- +Urgent care4 mi
- RxPharmacy5 mi
- OOutfitter6 mi
- @Mail6 mi
- LLaundry6 mi
- HHardware6 mi
- MMechanic7 mi
- EVEV fast charger7 mi
- DDump10 mi
- WWater14 mi
- PPropane34 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 2 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 — Ranger
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
1,020 ft
Ground slope
1.3% · flat
Nearest rail line
~8.1 mi · main line
Nearest highway
~1.3 mi · US Hwy 27
State
MI
Coordinates
43.94091, -84.75508
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Ranger · U.S. Forest Service · MI (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureBeebe Lake · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townHatton · ~3.4 mi
- Nearest rail line~8.1 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~1.3 mi · US Hwy 27
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelMarathon · ~1.5 mi
- Propane / LPGPropane · ~14.4 mi
- Dump station~10.1 mi
- GroceriesNorthern Stop And Shop · ~1.5 mi
- PharmacyPharmacy · ~5.2 mi
- Hospital / clinicMidMichigan Health Park - Harrison · ~4.3 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~13.7 mi
EV charging — from Ranger · U.S. Forest Service · MI — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger7.2 mi straight-line S — Clare, MI (at a public site) · RIVIAN_ADVENTURE · CCS · 6 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach13 within 25 mi · 44 within 50 · 216 within 100 · 514 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)8.3 mi — Clare, MI - Tesla Supercharger, Clare
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO7.2 mi — BLARNEY CASTLE EZ MART CLARE 2, Clare
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)6.6 mi — Consumers Energy Co, Clare, MI (at an utility) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-08-12 · 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 391163 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Ranger · U.S. Forest Service · MI — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 69 · ~6.3 mi S
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 50 · ~20.2 mi N
Coming out here — Ranger · U.S. Forest Service · MI
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Beebe Lake as a perennial lake or pond, ~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 1.3% — 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.
- Rail line mapped ~8.1 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- US Hwy 27 is mapped ~1.3 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- 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 Ranger elsewhere
Other camps near Ranger
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Mud Lake State Forest Campground~16.3 mi · fee
- Trout Lake State Forest Campground~16.3 mi · fee
- House Lake State Forest Campground~16.4 mi · fee
- Black Creek State Forest Campground~23.9 mi · fee
Who holds the land at Ranger
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Camp Rotary Foundation, manager on record: a private owner. Our own record names USFS as the manager. The two sources disagree, and we have not checked which is right. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Ranger
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
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
auto: drive (road/trail right there)
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
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 Ranger
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 — Ranger
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Cold-weather camping →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →