A white Tacoma with a camper shell parked on a rise above a broad, empty basin under building cloud.

Army Corps of Engineers campground

East Totten Trail Campground

Army Corps of Engineers campground in Sakakawea Lake, McLean County, North Dakota. 1,858 feet. 5.6 miles from Coleharbor.

Managed by
Army Corps of Engineers Sakakawea Lake
Elevation
1,858 ft USGS elevation model, at the mapped point
Sites
40 30 standard electric, 10 standard non-electric
Hookups
Electric
Reservations
Recreation.gov
County
McLean County

Overview

East Totten Trail Campground is located on the west banks of Lake Audubon. This is the only campground on the entire lake! This campground and day use area offers a wide variety of recreation activities, including boating, fishing, swimming, hiking, mountain biking, scuba diving, wildlife viewing, and bird watching. In the winter time the area offers excellent access for ice fishing and other outdoor recreational opportunites.

For more information, please visit the Lake Sakakawea / Garrison Project website here .

Recreation

Lake Audubon offers excellent boating, swimming, and fishing opportunities. Anglers fish for walleye, sauger, northern pike, muskie, white bass, small and large mouth bass, bluegill, crappie. Chinook salmon can be found in the neighboring lake of Lake Sakakawea only a stone's throw away across the hwy from Lake Audubon. The area offers a wide variety of outdoor recreational opportunities. The campground is next to the Audubon Wildlife Management Area and offers hunting opportunities.

Audubon Lake, a sister lake to Lake Sakakawea, was also formed with the construction of the Garrison Dam near Riverdale, N.D. The two lakes are separated by an embankment, which carries US Highway 83. Audubon Lake makes up most of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Audubon National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge and Audubon National Wildlife Complex are named in honor of John James Audubon, a naturalist and wildlife painter during the 19th century. Audubon spent the summer of 1843 collecting bird specimens and painting pictures of northern plains wildlife in the area.

Facilities

The campground consists of 30 campsites with electric hookups and developed concrete or gravel pads and 10 primitive campsites, each with a fire ring/grill. Amenities include new vault toilets, fish cleaning station, boat ramp, shoreline access area, fill and dump station, and paved roadways in the area.

Natural Features

The campground is situated in a nice grassy area with some trees with the beautiful lake view from almost every campsite.

Nearby Attractions

The Audubon National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center is located just 3 miles away on the south shore of Lake Audubon off Hwy. 83 The visitor center offers a variety of guided tours and environmental education programs.

The Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery is just a few minutes from the Campground near Riverdale, ND and is open to the public. It has a Visitor Center, complete with five 400-gallon aquariums, provides great opportunities to view the fish of North Dakota in their environment.

The Garrison Dam Power Plant does offer walking tours during the months of June, July, and the first part of August on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 2pm.

The description, directions and fees are the Army Corps of Engineers’s own words, from its record on Recreation.gov.

What people do here

  • biking
  • birding
  • boating
  • camping
  • canoeing
  • cross country skiing
  • day use area
  • fishing
  • hiking
  • hunting
  • ice fishing
  • ice skating
  • jet skiing
  • kayaking
  • motor boat
  • mountain biking
  • non-motorized boating
  • paddle boating
  • paddling
  • photography
  • picnicking
  • sailboarding
  • sailing
  • scenic drive
  • scuba diving
  • skiing
  • sledding
  • snorkeling
  • snowshoeing
  • swimming
  • tubing
  • water access
  • water skiing

The land around East Totten Trail Campground

The ringed pin is this campground; the others are its nearest neighbours. Switch on forest roads or BLM routes to see the way in.

Interactive map. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select any point to see which agency manages the land. Arrow keys pan and the plus and minus keys zoom when the map has focus. A list of every state with its share of federal land is on the Explore page.

Map layers

Layers
Base map
Legend

Federal land, by managing agency

  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
  • US Forest Service (USFS)
  • National Park Service (NPS)
  • US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
  • Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
  • Department Of Defense (DOD)
  • Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
  • Other Federal
  • State
  • Local
  • Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
  • Alaska Native Allotment

Federal campgrounds, by agency

  • Forest Service
  • Bureau of Land Management
  • National Park Service
  • Army Corps of Engineers
  • Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife and others

State and local land (USGS PAD-US)

  • State land
  • County and city land
  • Regional agency or district
  • Land trust or conservancy

Gaps with no tint inside public land are private parcels, often old mining claims and homesteads. They are not open to the public.

Dashed clay lines on the base map are unpaved tracks from OpenStreetMap. They show what exists on the ground, not what is legal to drive.

Select any point to see who manages the land.

Boundaries are approximate and land status changes. This map is a planning aid, not a survey or a statement of access. Confirm routes, closures and camping rules with the managing office.

Source: Recreation Information Database (Recreation.gov), record updated March 11, 2026. Elevation from the USGS 3D Elevation Program. Seasons, fees, water and fire rules change; the managing office has the final word.