Isle Royale Forums

Have enjoyed reading and learning from a lot of great information posted here. It seems that individuals and small groups tend to flex which sites they camp at as the situation presents itself. Am going to the island in a couple weeks as part of a group of 10, so will be following the group camping rules. Is group camping more locked down to specific sites as planned, or is there there flexibility to change locations if needed?


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https://www.nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/ ... to-ten.htm
Groups over 6 must have advance reservations and camp at campgrounds they register for.

A park ranger once explained the rationale for group sites.

As I recall, she said:
- Groups must stay where they have a reservation because there may be another group coming in. Individuals can easily double up at a site, but a group site won't accommodate 20 people.
- During busy times when the entire campground is full, a ranger will sometimes direct individuals to an empty group site. I once saw that at 3mi.
- A group sites is sometimes kept open as an emergency staging area. I suppose, for example, that it may be the only place to do a helicopter rescue. So in that case, an empty group site can't be used for an extra group or individual overflow.

Having said all that, I know that they allow exceptions for safety reasons; they won't send kayakers out into a gale. But I'm told they will issue tickets to visitors who overstay their limit for no good reason. eg rain is not a reason because visitors are expected to plan for that.

I think the park does an excellent job of managing the resource with common sense.

Thanks for the NPS link and the insight behind why group camping is more controlled.


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