Rugged and remote, Isle Royale National Park in Michigan is not a park to which you can drive. You’ll either be taking a ferry or seaplane ride or using your own (or a friend’s) personal boat. While it takes some planning to get to this national park, you won’t need to worry about where to overnight if you are a brick-and-mortar kind of person. The Rock Harbor Lodge – the only lodging in the park - offers condominium-style rooms, cottages, and a couple of camper cabins … but these are popular and there’s not many of them, so to snag a room, you must make your reservation far ahead of your stay.

An aerial view of Rock Harbor and Rock Harbor Lodge, Isle Royale National Park / Dave and Kay Scott

Managed by NPS-authorized concessioner Aramark Destinations, the Rock Harbor Lodge offers 60 lakeside lodge rooms with a range of bed sizes and at least one ADA-accessible room (1 Double). In addition to Lake Superior views, each room has a private bathroom and a coffee maker. Air mattresses are available upon request. Lodge rooms are $314 per night. The 2025 operating season is not yet listed, but for 2024 it was June 7 – September 10).

One of four lodge buildings at the Rock Harbor Lodge, Isle Royale National Park / Dave and Kay Scott

The 20 Housekeeping Cottages (including one ADA-accessible cottage) offer a little more seclusion, sitting above Tobin Harbor and located 1/8 mile (0.21 km) from the main lodge. Cottages are large studio units that come equipped with one double bed and a twin-sized bunk bed, a private bathroom, and a kitchenette.  Amenities include a dressing room, linens and towels, kitchenette with a stovetop, microwave, mini-fridge, coffee maker, limited silverware and cookware, and a kitchen table with chairs. Air mattresses are available upon request. Housekeeping Cottages are $245 per night. The 2025 operating season is not yet listed, but for 2024 it was May 24 – September 10).

The lodge also offers marinas at both Rock Harbor and Washington Harbor where you can dock your private boat or rent a boat, canoe, or kayak. These marina operations are subject to lake and weather conditions. Washington Harbor Marina also has shower and laundry facilities and a camp store. In addition to the marinas, the lodge offers a water taxi service.

Hungry? Rock Harbor Lodge offers three dining venues at Rock Harbor and a camp store at Washington Harbor. The Greenstone Grill serves pizza, burgers, sandwiches, fresh salads, late-night snacks, cappuccino, and a wide selection of regional beer and wine each evening. You can check out the menus by clicking on the link above.

Serving breakfast and dinner, the Lighthouse Restaurant at Rock Harbor Lodge participates in “Catch and Cook,” so the restaurant can cook your catch for you once you return! To view the breakfast and dinner menus, click on the link above. And located on the main dock in Rock Harbor is the Dockside Store, providing a selection of groceries, freeze dried camping meals, bagged ice, and more.

At the other end of Isle Royale are 2 camper cabins offered by the lodge.

According to Rock Harbor Lodge’s website:

Located in Washington Harbor in the Southwest end of the island, the Washington Harbor Camper Cabins [aka Windigo camper cabins] are a unique alternative to tent camping. Guests are surrounded by nature and various outdoor activities. All cabins do not have indoor plumbing, but guests have access to shared outdoor restroom facilities. Amenities include 2 Twin Bunk Beds and 1 Full-size Futon, a table with chairs, outdoor grill, outdoor picnic area, private deck.

The camper cabins are each $50 per night. The 2025 operating season is not yet listed, but for 2024 it was June 7 – September 7).

Rock Harbor Lodge Housekeeping Cottage, Isle Royale National Park / Rock Harbor Lodge

Traveler’s note: A visit to the lodge’s website and a check on availability seemed to indicate every single room, cottage, and cabin was already booked up for the entire season. Since they are still listing the 2024 season dates, this might just mean the lodge has not yet opened it’s 2025 reservation dates, although the website indicates reservations are accepted 366 days in advance. Prices you see here are from various Google searches on other websites.

If you are in one of those two camper cabins at Washington Harbor, the store there features a standard selection of groceries and freeze dried camping meals, in addition to fishing tackle, camping and hiking accessories, camping fuel, photo supplies, boating accessories, bagged ice, apparel, souvenirs, toiletries and sundries. Michigan DNR fishing licenses are available for purchase as well.

Featured in the Traveler is a 2016 article by Dave and Kay Scott, authors of the Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges, describing there stay at the lodge.

We recently returned for a stay of several nights in Isle Royale, one of America’s most lightly visited national parks. Based on our memory of the previous trip nine years ago, pretty much everything was unchanged, and that was fine with us. The park remains quiet and uncrowded with beautiful vistas, friendly people, and cool temperatures. Coming from our home in South Georgia, the latter was particularly welcome.

To read more about the Scott’s stay, head to this page. Note: the prices they list were for 2016.