Ninemile Lake Campground

Great place to stay, very quiet, clean, and campsites are well spaced apart. Friendly owners, would stay again!

Only downside was the bugs. We went end of may, very buggy.

Been coming to this campsite during my teen years in the late 70's and sporadic during the 80's. At that time, it was primitive.... limited number of sites, drinkable water from a hand pump (later a electric pumped water faucet) by the entrance, no level ground with occasional poison ivy to watch out, rocks to encircle for your fire pit, an outhouse for a toilet and worn cut-out to put your canoe in the lake if you were lucky to get a lakeside lot.... awe the good old days.

Located on a pretty shallow glacial lake (like most in MN) with 3 explorable islands. You can do boating (or canoe, paddle board) and fish ( bluegills, bass, walleye or northern). There is a deep hole between the 2 small islands that about 30' deep. Be careful going between the main land and the big island as there are large boulders left from the glaciers. If you are not careful, you can ground your boat or canoe.... or worse fall off your paddle board and get hurt landing on them.

It is a long 18 miles of scenic dirt road to get to this campsite. Cell service is spotty for Verizon (1 flickering bar) from one specific point on the campgrounds and nothing for AT&T.

So 30 years later I return to find changes, mostly for the better but with some disappointments.

For the better are improved pit toilets (2on either end of the campground) with hand sanitizers, more sites and semi-developed with level clear ground, lake-side trail between sites, easy access with stairs to the lake and a concessionaire to sell firewood and supposedly maintain the campground. Still has a faucet, but is now solar. The site has a picnic table, lamp post and a fire ring.

The disappointments was finding trash in the woods, tree cuts looking like punji sticks on site and sometime noise violations. The host is responsible to enforce the rules, but the most the host was good for was collecting your money and selling wood. I informed the host that the hand sanitizer was out in the men's restroom and never got filled for 3 days. The wood is also cheaper in Finland, so buy it before getting here.

Overall, if you want to get away from cell service and enjoy playing in the water (mostly sand bottom from shore), then this is the right place. I still like it and plan to make it an annual trip. I do suggest water shoes for safety (possible broken glass and crayfish) until you know it is clear to be barefoot.

This is also bear country, so follow good anti-bear techniques and use the bear-proof trash dumper across the Host station.