DeTour - Lake Superior State Forest

As others have said, if you like a campground off the beaten path, this is it. We live in the UP and use this campground frequently for day and overnight use.

Most visitors will likely head east on m-134 stop in Cedarville to grab provisions, gas and a snack there are a couple cute stores a bakery and ice cream in town. 

The road to the campsites once you turn off m-134 is gravel/dirt and a bit windy, we usually tent camp so I am unsure how it feels to drive a trailer down it. Being so far off the road makes it a very quiet campground. 

Bring cash or check and fill out your self-serve registration and pay for the site and if needed your Recreation Passport which is required. 

Outer loop sites will keep you in the trees, sites closer to the water have trails that lead to the beach but access to the beach is reasonable for all sites at this campground. Plenty of sandy area to lay out and the water is clear and shallow. 

Vault toilets, dumpster and hand pump water along with fire rings and picnic tables are the extent of the amenities at this campground, but if you come prepared it is more than enough. 

On clear nights make sure to make your way our to the beach for some of the best stargazing!!

We arrived at this very remote campground on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend and stayed through Tuesday. The road into the campground is full of large potholes, and twist and turns, thus it is not easy for vehicles longer than 25 feet to make the tight corners. It wasn’t full, though close to it when we arrived. It’s first come, first served, but it appeared that some locals had come down early to “reserve” a spot. Not allowed, and not cool in our estimation. 

The campground wasn’t a party scene (thank goodness) and it completely cleared out on Sunday night. Even the squirrels were ready for the season to come to a close as they were dropping green spruce cones from the trees left and right, and defensively guarding their territories. It was quite a sight to behold! 

Lots of privacy between most of the wooded primitive sites, with a few that have direct trail access to the beach on Lake Huron. Pit toilets were really stinky (and we have somewhat low standards)! For some reason, Michigan simply struggles with decent smelling pit toilets. 

We hiked and biked around the area, and paddled around the coast and out to the nearby Detour Reef Lighthouse on a calm day. While this area is a paddler’s dream, be very careful boating around this area, as the nearby St. Mary’s River is a major shipping channel filled with huge freighters. There are also lots of OHV trails in the area if that’s your speed. 

The nearest grocery store and gas station is in Detour, less than 10 miles away. Not much to speak of other than that, but you can get a few needed supplies.

Drive-in first-come first-serve camping through the Department of Natural Resources, this was my favorite place in Michigan's upper peninsula so far to tent camp. It offers a variety of twenty or so spacious sites for different camping needs - groups, RVs, or private. Multiple paths through the woods reveal sandy beaches and crystal clear water on Lake Huron.

We showed up to near max capacity on a Thursday night  and were lucky to grab site 14. Plenty of dead trees were to be found in the surrounding woods for firewood. However, while our camp site was clear and covered in pine needles, the edge and woods were packed with poison sumac - which we were warned about on the information board. Standing water was to be found in the woods around each site, which made for pretty thick mosquitoes throughout the day and evening. With a good campfire and bug spray, I felt able to deal with them.

The sandy beach was beautiful and so peaceful! Small rocks in the shallow water make it slightly uncomfortable wading in, but once you get past the small grouping of rocks, it's very sandy lake bottom to swim and play on. You can hear the lake waves hit shore from your camp site in the morning and it's a wonderfully relaxing sound to wake up to.

Multiple vault toilets were well stocked with toilet paper. A large dumpster is available for trash. A pump is available for water, although I did not test the quality of it and used my own bottled water. 

In the town of DeTour Village, a 10 minute drive from camp, you can find ice, bottled water, a grocery and a couple of restaurants.

I loved my time here and would absolutely return.

This was our first camping vacation since COVID-19. Our intent was to find somewhere isolated, beautiful and allow travel without risk and DeTour State Forest met these expectations for us. Not once did we have a physical distance concern at the campground. We left home with a 6 hour drive to our location. It was easy to do in Michigan stopping only for bathroom breaks preferably at rest stops. Michigan proved to do a great job at keeping these cleans with many other travelers wearing masks. We arrived at the park to find a nice peaceful location. Despite part of our camping occurring on a weekend, the 21 sites were never full. The road coming in is twisty and single lane. This could be a concern given the amount of RV’s and large recreational boats that were staying at the campground. Of the 21 sites some were spacious and private, while a few were packed in groups. Chose the out ring of sites if seeking privacy. Many were deeply tucked back from the road and you could create privacy by positioning your site behind your car. The 2 pit toilets were large and clean. The back section of campsites on the outer ring back up to beach. The beach was what made this place incredible. No matter where you camped a virtually private beach to Lake Huron was less than a 5 minute walk. Of our 4 days camping and daily visits to the beach, only 2 times were there others on the beach and we were easily about 1/4 mile apart. As a mom, I was ecstatic to find a beautiful beach full of small dunes, cool rocks and beautiful geography with a shallow bay that my kids could explore pretty far away from the beach without going above their belly buttons. Waves were calm and the sun glistening on the lake was incredible. If you need to get supplies, I recommend heading East to Cedarsville. Here you will find a great fish market with a selection of locally caught fish and a distillery to fill your growler. You should also pick up your firewood here as you cannot get it bundled at the state forest. The Village of DeTour was tiny and I couldn’t find firewood, but there is a grocery. I was a bit disappointed by the amount of RV’s and overnight generator use. But the stars at night are beautiful and the amount of bird songs throughout the park are amazing