Agency-listedUSFSFreeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Sawdust Hole River Access
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · MI · 44.26864, -85.95146
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 — Sawdust Hole River Access · Huron-Manistee National Forest · MI
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 8799 (Sawdust Hole River Access), 10 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as crushed aggregate or gravel surface and maintenance level 3 – suitable for passenger cars.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 8799 (Sawdust Hole River Access), 10 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 8799 (Sawdust Hole River Access): “01/01-12/31” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
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 — Sawdust Hole River Access · Huron-Manistee National Forest · MI
- First come, first served
- Room for 8 parties
- Tent camping
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 Sawdust Hole River Access
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 717 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Sawdust Hole River AccessNIFC · 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 Sawdust Hole River Access · Huron-Manistee National Forest · MI
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel3 mi
- GGrocery3 mi
- WWater4 mi
- @Mail4 mi
- OOutfitter4 mi
- DDump4 mi
- +Urgent care4 mi
- HHardware6 mi
- EVEV fast charger8 mi
- MMechanic12 mi
- LLaundry14 mi
- ShShower14 mi
- RxPharmacy18 mi
- AAir-up19 mi
- PPropane36 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 3 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 — Sawdust Hole River Access
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
717 ft
Ground slope
0.6% · flat
State
MI
Coordinates
44.26864, -85.95146
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Sawdust Hole River Access · Huron-Manistee National Forest · MI (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLeitch Bayou · ~0.1 mi · USGS: swamp or marsh, no flow class
- Also mapped (OSM)Manistee River (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townWellston · ~3.6 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~3.6 mi
- FuelMarathon · ~3.0 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~3.9 mi
- GroceriesWhitetail Party Mart · ~3.0 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~18.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicWellston Medical Center · ~4.1 mi
- HardwareBenjamin Hardware · ~21.3 mi
EV charging — from Sawdust Hole River Access · Huron-Manistee National Forest · MI — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger7.9 mi straight-line SE — CORNER EXPRESS Wellston MI (at a public site) · RED_E · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach4 within 25 mi · 39 within 50 · 144 within 100 · 367 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)14.2 mi — Saddle Up - Bear Lake, Bear Lake
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO16.4 mi — BLARNEY CASTLE MANISTERY 1, Manistee
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)14.8 mi — CBS Solar, Copemish, MI (at an office building) · Non-Networked · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-07-03 · 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 351314 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Sawdust Hole River Access · Huron-Manistee National Forest · MI — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletSawdust Hole Angler Access · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletTunkhole Access · ~0.5 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletHighbridge Access · ~3.2 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletGovernment Landing Access · ~3.3 mi E · USFS
Coming out here — Sawdust Hole River Access · Huron-Manistee National Forest · MI
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Leitch Bayou as a swamp or marsh (no flow class in the record), ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). The record carries no flow class for it. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 0.6% — 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 Sawdust Hole River Access elsewhere
Other camps near Sawdust Hole River Access
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Government Landing~3.2 mi
- Government Landing~3.2 mi
- Government Landing Sites~3.3 mi
- Government Landing~3.3 mi
The unit that manages Sawdust Hole River Access
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Sawdust Hole River Access are set by Huron-Manistee National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Sawdust Hole River Access
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 Sawdust Hole River Access
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.
- Whether that MVUM road is the way in, and the last stretch beyond it
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Sawdust Hole River Access
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →