This year will be my first winter camping trip to the BWCA. I’ve done plenty of winter camping trips in the past, but never way up north.

I’m looking for a short <3 mile trek to set up base camp. I would love to be near some cool cliffs or unique scenery.

Thus far I’ve narrowed it down between Duncan Lake (for its close proximity to Rose Falls) and Clearwater lake (for the cool cliffs).

What would you recommend?
Bonus for less trafficked locales.

North side of Clearwater lake has great smallmouth fishing. The south side has great views. Enjoy

Savage Voyageur: "North side of Clearwater lake has great smallmouth fishing. The south side has great views. Enjoy "

Thank you! Do you know if Clearwater gets very busy during the day? I’m looking for a little bit of a sense of isolation.

I’ve only been there 5 times in summer and fall. It was not too bad at all.

I just remembered that there is lake trout next to the palisades.

Also look on Google earth and you will see a sunken island on the east side of the lake. It is not marked on any maps but you can clearly see it. Write down the GPS coordinates and enter them into a GPS (Fish There).

Any of the points on the north side of the lake hold Smallmouth bass. I’ve had two hundred fish days there.

We went to Clearwater in March of 2017, and were the only ones near/across from the Palisades.

There are people with ice houses set up but once you get into the actual wilderness we didn't see anyone.

We camped at site 685 for easy access to the BRT if you feel so inclined to hike a bit and look over Rove Lake etc.

Here's my trip report.
Winter Camping, Take 3 (Clearwater Lake)

I've never been to Duncan, but I highly recommend Clearwater.

Re: Clearwater-from the EP parking lot its about a mile walk to the wilderness boundary. There's a good chance you will see/hear snowmobiles on this western end of the lake. But if you make your way down the lake (especially past the narrows) you should find solitude. We camped on the east end last year and I'm not sure if we saw another soul down there.

Re: Duncan and Daniels are also great options in this area. They're smaller lakes and see some skiing and fishing traffic (nonmotorized of course) especially on the weekends but I've never felt crowded on either. Nights are long and lonely. And winter BWCA users are a little different. So I've never minded seeing others out there-they're kindred spirits.

Duncan, Clearwater, and Daniels are all easy quick trips on the Gunflint side. You won’t be alone on any of them.

I am a huge fan of Duncan Lake. Rose Falls is an easy walk and there are beautiful cliff overlooks all along the hiking trail in either direction. If you take Hungry Jack Road (CR65) from the Gunflint Trail (the turn off is just before Trail Center), you can park closer to the Duncan Lake portage compared to parking at the east end of Bearskin Lake (off Clearwater Road). There is a small public landing past Hungry Jack Lodge. It will save a lot of hiking distance.

Last weekend we traveled from Clearwater to Mountain over to an exit on Daniels. All of the entry point lakes on the east side are popular with locals for ice fishing this time of year. The traffic thinned out on Clearwater at the wilderness line, and we saw no one on Daniels, but both can get real busy depending on the day. I haven't been on Duncan this winter yet, but I assume it sees similar traffic. That said, solitude this time of year involves getting just past the entry point lakes and off of good Lake trout fishing.