Fun during the summer
Has a lake very wooded and private wooded trails
Site34
Month of VisitJune
Cute lake for kayaking
Nice small lake for swimming and kayaking Lots of nice hiking
Site9
Month of VisitJune
Great Primitive Camping
Lived in Michigan for most of my life and frequently visited and camped here as a youth. This is primarily a primitive campground with porto- pottys. Usually pretty clean. Located in the Allegan forest. Very quiet and nice that it has a lake for swimming in the summer.
Sitemany of them
Month of VisitJuly
Hidden gem
Been coming here since I was little, took a 25 year hiatus from camping. Went back there recently and loved it just like when I was a kid!
Site24
Month of VisitJune
Hidden gem
Been coming here since 1969 when I was 4 yrs. old. Nothing changed, just good ole wilderness camping! Try to up there a couple times a year. Love it.
Site64
Month of VisitMay
Off the grid camping
Drive to a place where you are truly, disconnected from society. No cell phone service, no internet, no electricity, and no showers. But who needs any of that when you're camping.
Site33
Month of VisitJune
Keyword: RUSTIC
This is our "home base" campground. It's familiar. We've been coming here for decades. Comfortable, and quiet(for the most part).
Caveat: no electric, no running water, no sewer/septic, no dump, no fill... Can run your generator(inverter type is best). Solar is a negative due to tree cover.
Vault toilets only, and pitcher pumps for water. There is a dumpster available in the busier parts of the season but this campground is open year round.
No playground. Just the beach and the trails.
Sites range from small tent sites to fairly large, but the "roads" inside the campground are tight so think twice before bringing the longer 5th wheels.
In short, if you want a quiet getaway from your usual then this is a great place to go. If you're expecting a pool, arcade, and dining hall... Look elsewhere.
Site37
Month of VisitApril
Words Can't Describe
This is always my go to campground! All natural camping with plenty of nice people! One word of advise is to bring your own tp though lol they seem to always run out on Sunday mornings lol but are back up and running by mid afternoon. No showers and just outhouses but that's REAL camping right!!!? No power motor lake but there is another lake close by that is. We take the canoe with a trolling motor and hit that as well. Pet friendly. They have horse campsites and trails. Walking trails around the lake that offer nature at it's purest! I have been coming to this lake to camp for over 40 years and I hope I have 40 more years left!!!
Love it here
Perfect u plugged campground with no electric, vault toilets. Beach front and small boat launch - no motors. We love it in the spring and fall. Bugs can be bad in busy season
Beautiful rustic sites with loud parties at night
Ely Lake Campground is a County campground in Allegan Michigan. All of the sites are rustic. Here are the bullet points:
- There are no bathrooms, just pit toilets.
- There is no electricity.
- There is a hand pump for water, although I would recommend bringing your own drinking water because the water from the hand pump is very discolored.
- Each site has a fire pit and a picnic table.
- They don't sell firewood, but you can by some in town on your way in.
- There is a beach.
- You can make reservations online ahead of time, or show up and find an empty site (but bring cash or check to pay because its a drop box).
- They have equestrian trails and sites.
First the positives: It is a beautiful rustic campground. We stayed on the side with sites 49-73 (specifically site 50) which has larger more secluded sites than the other side of the Lake. The Lake is for non-motorized recreational use so it is mostly used for kayaking and canoeing and fishing. There is about a 1 mile trail that you can walk around the exterior of the Lake, however it is ill defined in some places so just keep your eyes peeled for yellow markers on the trees (which are everywhere so you wont get lost).
This place also attracts a lot of equestrian campers and they have trails specifically for horseback riding. So if you have kids that love horses, you may see some on the weekends.
The negatives: It is a wonderful experience until about 10:30 PM on Friday and Saturday night. This place attracts a rowdy crowd and in the evenings (apparently there is no where else for the locals to have a rager). There is loud music , people yelling, fireworks going off and… not very much sleep. And I am not just talking about a few people with their music on -- it was someone blasting their sub-woofer with electronic dance music until 4:45 AM. It was really disappointing because otherwise the experience was positive. Luckily my kids are all deep sleepers so I was the only one who had to sit up all night.
They clean the bathrooms daily from what I can tell, but otherwise the campground is not maintained. There was trash around our site, and when you walk the trail about the lake you will see cigarette packets and beer bottles occasionally. Also along the trail were two massive hornet nests that really should have been removed by park management - but it's clear they don't ever maintain the trail.
If you're willing to overlook some garbage, and if the party people stay away you could have a wonderful camping trip. Allegan County has a beautiful natural resource here, but sadly it seems like it is being squandered, and wont last.
Site50
Month of VisitSeptember
very noisy not restful at all
I went here one holiday weekend, that was my 1st mistake,,,I ended up being kept awake by the drunks screaming at their kids. Never again,,,I left after one night and I paid for two that was my other mistake!
Month of VisitMay
Great Rustic Campground
I have been camping here a couple years. It is open year round. All rustic sites, horses welcomed, vault toilets, and water pumps. Pay for site by money drop in tube so bring your check book. The lake is great for kayaking. Miles of trails to wander and discover.