Mapped · not agency-listedPublic land · dispersedFree
Stanley Lake Campsite
Drive-up · public land · MI · 46.49129, -86.15284
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 →A mapped lead, not an agency listing. Somebody marked this as a campsite; we could not match it to a land-manager record. Worth checking rather than counting on. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
What the record says about the site — Stanley Lake Campsite · public land · MI
- Informal, undeveloped site
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 Stanley Lake Campsite
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 856 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Stanley Lake CampsiteNIFC · 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 Stanley Lake Campsite · public land · MI
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater11 mi
- FFuel13 mi
- GGrocery13 mi
- @Mail14 mi
- EVEV fast charger14 mi
- DDump15 mi
- +Urgent care15 mi
- MMechanic18 mi
- HHardware28 mi
- ShShower34 mi
- LLaundry37 mi
- RxPharmacy37 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 — Stanley Lake Campsite
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
856 ft
Ground slope
9.8% · noticeable
State
MI
Coordinates
46.49129, -86.15284
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Stanley Lake Campsite · public land · MI (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureStanley Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Little Fox River (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townSunrise Landing · ~4.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~12.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~14.7 mi
- GroceriesMelstrand Store · ~12.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicBurt Township Medical Center · ~14.8 mi
- HardwareCurtus True Value Hardware · ~27.9 mi
EV charging — from Stanley Lake Campsite · public land · MI — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger14.1 mi straight-line SE — Andys Seney Bar (at a public site) · RED_E · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 2 within 50 · 25 within 100 · 82 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO24.4 mi — Munising City Hall, Munising
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)33.3 mi — Quality Inn and Suites, Newberry, MI (at a hotel) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-11-13 · 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 464964 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Stanley Lake Campsite · public land · MI — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomTM #4 W Campground Vault Toilet TO BE REMOVED · ~10.7 mi N · NPS
- RestroomTM #4 W Campground Vault Toilet · ~10.7 mi N · NPS
- RestroomTM #3 W Campground Vault Toilet · ~10.7 mi N · NPS
- RestroomTM #3 W Campground Vault Toilet TO BE REMOVED · ~10.7 mi N · NPS
Coming out here — Stanley Lake Campsite · public land · MI
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Stanley Lake as a perennial lake or pond, under 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 9.8% — 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.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- 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 Stanley Lake Campsite elsewhere
Other camps near Stanley Lake Campsite
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Ross Lake State Forest Campground~5.4 mi · fee
- Cusino Lake State Forest Campground~5.6 mi · fee
- Canoe Lake State Forest Campground~7.0 mi · fee
- South Gemini Lake State Forest Campground~7.2 mi · fee
Who holds the land at Stanley Lake Campsite
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Little Fox River / Stanley Lake Flooding State Willdlife Management Area, manager on record: MIDNR Wildlife Division (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Stanley Lake Campsite
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.
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
Contributed, not agency-listed. A mapper marked this as a campsite. We have not matched it to a land-manager record, so it stays at Likely.
What we don’t know about Stanley Lake 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 — Stanley Lake Campsite
Camping near a reservoir →Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Picking a spot →All field notes →