This is one of my favorite LBL camping areas most of the time.
We visited Smith Bay for 4 days last week and plan on returning with our adult children next week.
Smith Bay is back to being a self-serve $10/night facility. (A little aggravating as we still have a few months left on our annual pass.) Nothing else has changed. It's a bit off the beaten path, on a gravel off-shoot from the Birmingham Ferry Campground drive. (Usually, we will check for a spot at BF 1st, and then head to SB if all the prime spots are taken. Both tend to be very quiet midweek but fill up on weekend. However, we may see a change this summer. Since the big campgrounds were closed until a little over a week ago, it was not surprising to find more campers at these smaller locations that had remained open. It's really too early to say with any certainty, but they appear to be staying busier than in the past.
Like BF, there are only a handful of camp sites. Some are spread apart and quite large, while others are smaller and close together. Some have lots of shade and others sun. All have fire rings and picnic tables. 2 sites on the water have wonderful pebble beaches. A short paddle away are some sandy beaches. (These can get quite busy on weekends!)
There is still a central pit toilet that is cleaned regularly but can still get smelly during the heat of the day. There's also a dumpster that tends to be overflowing after the weekend. There is a fairly primitive boat ramp but no dock of any kind. Raccoons and skunks visit the campsites nightly, so you must keep everything put away or risk a big mess like some we saw who had left there food out on a screened gazebo/tent.
Most campers here are in tents. I suspect this is because the sites are not very level. (Note: BF has much more level sites for RVs.)
Speaking of campers, generators are only allowed during the day. However, there is no one to enforce this. Thus, our visit last week was cut short by a rude RVer who fired up his extremely loud generator at 11 pm and left it sputtering away until 8 am. Ugh! We've run into similar issues at other LBL campgrounds but never a generator quite so loud or a camper so rude! This fellow was right on top of us despite other sites being available, and the generator was so loud that we couldn't get a bit of sleep. Here's hoping that he's gone by the time we return. There is a 14-day limit on stays - again, not enforced very often.
