Magnus Park Campground

Great location, right on the lake and awesome views. Also very convenient to North country Trail to ride or run up and down the Lakeshore on a paved path! Very close to town to walk in and see the sites. Stayed by the water treatment plant and I wouldn’t recommend the West End as you could smell the treatments. Bathrooms were clean and convenient location. Spaces were extremely close together! Many people stayed for the whole summer. It seemed like.

I booked 3 campsites for 23 July, 2023 for four nights, leaving 27 July, 2023. My plans have changed and I would like to sell my spots for what I paid for them to someone else. Message me on Facebook if you are interested. Sue Bovenkerk Slager

General: Nestled in between Lake Michigan, a waste-water treatment plant and a hospital is Magnus Park, a public city park and campground. 77 sites, 36 with full hookups, and the remainder with electric hookups. There is also one cabin. 

Site Quality/Facilities: The campground is laid out in typical RV park fashion with zero privacy between sites. Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring. Although some of the sites have somewhat of a gravel or dirt driveway, mostly it seems like areas where the grass has just worn away. IMO, if you are not able to get Sites 3-16 or Sites A-C which face Lake Michigan, then the best sites would be the ones that back up to the trees. When we reserved many months ago, we were lucky to get one of two available sites, and ours did back up to the trees. Be aware that sites 61-68 back up directly to the hospital. Other than it being imposing and detracting from the feeling of camping, the only thing I found objectionable was more frequent loud sirens of ambulances arriving. On the other end of the campground, there are nine lettered sites (A-I) that are larger but are on a grassy area with no driveways or defined separation. These sites (as well as 18,19, 20, 22) are close to the wastewater treatment plant. When I walked by, I did not notice any offending odor, but other reviewers have said they did. I did, however, hear a humming noise emanating from the plant. By luck of the draw, the site NEXT to ours (51) flooded significantly with heavy rains overnight. Ours did not puddle up too badly.

Bathhouse: Was generally clean considering it is part of a public-use city park. Rarely did I see anyone in there as most of the campers were in RVs and on our second day, it rained so no one was at the beach. The showers were warm with somewhat wimpy but adequate water pressure. They were on the small side, however, and are only available to campers with a code to access (although there was one shower in the restroom that could be used by all). 

Activities/Amenities: There is a centrally located playground. Easy access to the bike trail, however, it was closed just south of the campground due to erosion (north is not a problem and a short walk into the town of Petoskey). WiFi is available and you are given the access code upon check-in, although I did not use it so cannot comment on how reliable it was. 

Our first thought upon arrival was “yikes, why in the world did we decide to stay here?!” but the proximity to the town of Petoskey (less than a mile walk), and views of Lake Michigan outweigh some of the negatives.

The location makes this campground. Stayed 6 nights as it was so relaxing.

Pros:

• Right on Lake Michigan
• Only a 15 min walk from Petoskey downtown

Cons:

• The sites are quite close together
• The showers are pretty basic

Would stay here again.

Definitely a campground full of long term, retired RVers, but that being said everyone is very nice and the beach is right there! Downtown is also just a few minute walk away, but it's still quiet. We were only here to stay somewhere for one night real quick, and the bathrooms were clean, the wifi was great, and the guy in charge was lovely.

It is a municipal campground so we didn't expect much but the access to the Little Traverse Wheelway and views of Lake Michigan were awesome - and full hook ups for the price was great.  It has a small bathhouse and the sites are pull-though with back to back setup (so utilities are at the same post as one of your neighbors) but we scored that the 2 sites in front of us cancelled (it was wet, cold, windy and in general miserable weather but we lucked out day 2 and got a bike ride in to Petoskey State Park and a stop at Burnt Marshmallow Brewing before rain rolled back in) so we had a big open space for the kids to bike around on and allowed a view of the lake.

link on The Dyrt doesn't work - try this:

https://www.petoskey.us/departments/parks\_and\_recreation/campground.php

PROS: was really quiet, our neighbor is a regular and was extremely friendly and helpful.  The bike path to Petoskey State Park is right in front of the campground and takes you by the harbor and can branch off into town too.  Really close to downtown (which we did not explore but looks really nice).  We originally planned on staying at the state park but the campsite was half closed due to construction (so it will probably be really nice next year) but this worked out great.  Full hook ups on long pull thru sites for the price was great.  Firewood was available at the check-in kiosk and there is a playground on site.  Bathhouse with showers.  Less than 1 hour from Mackinac Island.  I read mentions of the hospital noise and while trucks unloading during the day was noticeable during the day, we didn't hear anything from there at night - the camp ground did have a transformer that was loud the first night but it was fixed by the next night.

CONS: it is no-frills and could be packed in during summer, but that should be acceptable for the price if you are looking for an easy base camp with access to everything in Petoskey.  The bathhouse was clean but dated.  The campsites look like they did not get a lot of cleanup - I filled a grocery bag full of trash from our site and the 3 open ones next to us.  

Ideal site would probably be as close to the lake as possible - the road in front is not travelled much since it dead ends at the campground.  There was a city facility at the end but it was not open on the weekend and we were told is pretty quiet when it is open.

NOTE: This was our first MI campground as part of out trip from GA to MN via TN-KY-IN-MI-WI-northern MN before staying in MSP for a week, then return via MN-IA-MO-IL-KY-TN-Home.

As it was cold and windy , we didn’t have any noise from the hospital or smells from the waste treatment plant ! Park is good for a quick overnight but the rates were still $30 E/W $32 full hookups off season. Nice view of lake , grassy sites somewhat unlevel but blocks worked

Beautiful view Dump near by it can get smelly and hospital local can be noisy, neither bothered us. Right on the water, very close to town, good park in town but not super kid friendly.

One cabin

They view is worth it!

A well maintained campground managed by the City of Petoskey, Magnus Park is truly a gem. 

Open to a magnificent view of the sapphire and aqua blue water of Little Traverse Bay,  this park is tucked away below US-31.

Surrounded by trees, yet very few within the campground itself, this simple stop is worth your time.

With 36 Full Hookup sites and 39 Water/Electric sites, you also get a very clean bathhouse with additional showers, so there's no waiting for facilities. A small children's play area is also adjacent to the bathhouse. 

A short walk across the Little Traverse Wheelway bike trail that stretches 23.5 miles from Harbor Springs to Charlevoix, put you on a small sandy beach begging you to find a few of the elusive Petoskey stones. 

Breathtaking sunsets are a welcomed added bonus!

After looking for campgrounds in the area to visit the tunnel of trees we found this location. Not much to do but park and visit the city and surroundings. 

The campground is by the water and is set up mostly for campers. Id visit again but would also look for another campground with more to do.

Located down town Petoskey this small campground is perfect for those who also like being in the city. The sunsets are the only benefit to local campers

While not the most exciting campground, we thoroughly enjoyed the beach. We found Petoskey stones and other fossils and swam. It felt like being at the ocean! There were nice trails to walk and we could see a light house off in the distance. Our dog really enjoyed swimming. If we are ever in the area again we will be back. Clean bathrooms and friendly people.

My partner wanted a waterfront site. Check. Convenient. Check. Feeling like staying in a trailer park? Check.

So on that last item, as a tent camper, she wasn't very sold. Sitting between the town and the water, the backside of the camp area is the hospital with loud cooling fan towers running constantly. Not much of a campground feel to it. Particularly with the dominant number and sizes of the motorhomes and fifth wheels.

I stayed here several years ago in September (after Labor Day) and the campground was much more sparse and comfortable. The shower house is decently clean, and for the price and location, I'm fine with it. It's a different kind of place, so know that going into it.

The town has a great bikeway path for pedaling to Charlevoix in one direction and Harbor Springs to the other direction.

Sites large enough for our 42 ft motor home! Level, quiet, close to shopping and a nice walk/bike trail along the bay. Great area to relax and explore the area and perfect for our four legged camper. This is a city park, small but nice for a few night stay. No WiFi but our ATT had service and we have satellite TV with clear signal.

This park has some strong positives that outweigh the negatives so depending on what really annoys you about a campground determines whether you may or may not like this place. The park is run by the City of Petoskey and sits on 21 acres in downtown Petoskey overlooking Lake Michigan.  Petoskey has a really cool downtown with great restaurants (we liked Beard’s Brewery, Palette Bistro, and Grand Traverse Pie Company), shopping, a free art center (Crooked Tree), parks, and a pretty marina with a scenic breakwater lighthouse. If you have never been to this part of Michigan, you should definitely come for a visit. 

The campground is very popular because of the price and location with about 1/3 of the park occupied by seasonal or monthly rentals of people that have been coming for many years.  There are 71 sites which can be used for RVs or tents.  Roads are paved and sites are grass/sand. There are fire pits and picnic tables at each site and a nice large grassy area in the front of the park near Lake Michigan with multiple picnic tables in a common space. 

There are many positive attributes of this park. The location of this park could not be better and the price of $30/night (water, sewer, 30 amp electric; $28 for electric and water only) is a great deal. (Especially because other private campgrounds in the area are easily $60+/night in the summer season.) They have free wifi that worked well and we were able to get over-the-air antenna television channels. You are really in a prime location with Lake Michigan in front of you. Many of the sites in this park have a great view of the lake (especially sites 1-16). Running through the park is the Little Traverse Wheelway which is a paved bike path spanning from the cute towns of Charlevoix to Harbor Springs. (If you don’t have a bike with you there are plenty of rental places nearby.)  

Now for the negatives. The bathroom/shower houses are old and tired but were clean. The park sits between a hospital and water treatment plant, one of which can be smelly on warm days the other of which has a very loud HVAC system generating lots of noise. The park is located close to the busy road M-31 so there is a bit of road noise. The sites are very close together so there is not much privacy. The park is open to day-use and has a heavily used bike path running right through it so there are lots of people coming and going.

I have visited Magnus Park several times, it's a beautiful little campground in downtown Petoskey MI. The park as a full array of sites, but mostly caters to RV's, I paid the same rate to pitch a tent as it would have costed to park a large RV. The campground has a perfect location, along the Lake Michigan Shore, and about 4 blocks from downtown Petoskey.