McLain State Park Campground

Stayed Sept 28 to October 1st 2025 

Site#1, no water or electricity. Cellular, T-Mobile LTE to 5G Awesome view of Lake Superior as long as no one is on site 15. 

Shower/Bath, about 100-300 feet depending on how you walk. Newer facilities and clean, separate showers from the shitters. 

Staff, 5-stars. Firewood$5 cash only, did not burn well and I didn’t have my moisture meter to measure. 

Aurora was out every night after 10pm. Found a few Yooperlites on the beach area.

Lots of RV and tent sites. Maybe 10 non-reservable sites ($27). Pit toilets and water near camping. Modern bathhouse with amazing showers. I had to buy park admission to select my site ($11), but there's a lighthouse and a few trails.

Really nice and level site(62) just a short walk from the beach. Really clean and well kept state park. Hiking trails are plentiful. Centrally located on the Keweenaw Peninsula allows time for exploring many sites this location has to offer. Too bad the “Gitch” washed away some of the lakeside campsites, hopefully they rebuild soon! My family will definitely come back!

The bathrooms and showers were awesome and made for an easy experience even if tent camping. The view only 200 feet in front of the site was crazy and amazing. The pics are all from right out front of the site. Excellent campground!!

Great state park but campground does have a few downfalls. The best spots are tent only, and most of the “big rig” spots don’t have any privacy. We also had a really hard time finding a spot that we would plug in because the boxes were so far away, even though we have a 20ft extension cord. Aside from difficulty with a spot, it was a great stay. Not a lot of people there, beautiful views, greats waterfalls all around, clean bathrooms.

This place is awesome. Make reservations ahead of time. New modern bathrooms since our last visit in 2015. Beautiful night skies, if your lucky you will see northern lights.

The wife and I are about to return to McLain after stumbling across it 7 years ago. We stayed in one of the cabins last time, this year we will be in a tent. Campground has beautiful sunsets, the lake is a stones throw away from anywhere you camp here. Showers were clean. Lots to see on the Keweenaw.

I’ll do another review after my next trip end of August.

We knew we’d be happy near the lake, but wow… this place is stellar. Bathrooms are modern and clean. Park staff is very friendly. The beach is lovely. And our campsite is perfect.

Beautiful campground. Private site in the forest. Fine beach just down the road. Sparkling new restrooms and showers. Not overly crowded and very quiet.

Many spacious sites. Ours (113) was very sloped. Had to block rear tires and jacks. 50 amp at site. One water fill and dump site in park. We had cell service with Verizon using a truck antenna on top of the RV, otherwise no service at all. We have been told ATT is better in the UP.

We stayed on the west side of the campground, and we’re apprehensive at first because these were all newer sites (made from previous parking lot). We really loved it! The sites were close to level, spacious, and our back window had a great view of the sunsets and the lake. Electric only sites, but we filled up on water when arriving and our holding tanks made it through the weekend.

The campground was were well kept and clean. There was a very nice beach and a dog friendly beach. All sites had a very nice fire pit though there was no grate.

Small campground with spacious sites and updated bathroom facilities. Very dark, perfect for night sky viewing and beautiful sunsets over Lake Superior.

Great campground with secluded sites. I really enjoyed staying here. We stayed on campsite 75 and had a beautiful view of lake superior. There were no mosquitos when we were there. There is only one shower house for hundreds of campsites :(

The sites are overly spacious and well disbursed. Everything is super clean. Over a mile of beach gives every camper enough room to feel like the entire lake is there‘s to enjoy alone. I couldn’t be much happier with this campground. The best state campground I’ve been to in Michigan so far. It’s a gem.

Nice sites either blacktop, gravel or grass. Majority of sites have lake superior views. Has beachs. One for humans and one for canines. Great for bicycling, hiking, lazy days at the beach. Lake superior water is cold! Has jetty near beach with lighthouse. Great for fishing. Canal to Houghton/Hancock empties into lake next to beach. On western side of keeweenaw peninsula. Has very beautiful sunsets.

What a surprise! Some campsites are right on the lake shore with beautiful views of the lake. Fantastic sunsets, swimming in clear waters. Cabins are clean and well kept w electricity and AC. Woodsy sites are buggy.

Nice for a state park. Exactly what you would expect. Had a nice bath and shower building, firewood for sale, dump station and water fill.

I try to avoid state parks when I can, because they are just slightly too crowded and the sites are always a little small. This particular trip we kinda ended up with minimal options because everything was so busy. I will say, the swimming and sunset were amazing. The site we ended up with wasn’t 1/2 bad either. The bathrooms were clean the park has some really nice trails and views. Definitely not the worst place I have ever ended up having to stay at.

Ok so maybe I'm biased because I've been here so many times, but this park is a little slice of heaven.  Because the weather on the lake is extremely variable, you never really know what your experience will be like until just before you go.  If it's hot, no problem, you have an ice cold lake a few steps away!  Mosquitoes can be bad, so bring the spray.  

Access to Lake Superior can't be beat - there is plenty of room to spread out and avoid a crowd, if you're so inclined.  

There are cabins to rent, but they typically fill up with reservations pretty quickly.  There are a few campsites that are more private, but in many cases you might have neighbors close by.  There's a fantastic ice cream shop on the far end of the park - you can either hike nicely groomed trails to get to it, or take a car or bike on the paved road.  There's also a good sized playground, large field, picnic shelters, and a horseshoe pit.

Mclain State Park Campground is the first Campground that you will encounter upon entering the Keweenaw peninsula of Michigan. It is located directly on the shore of Lake Superior off of Highway 203, and is within quick driving distance of many food options, grocery stores, and gas stations, not to mention Walmart. McClain has campsites and cabins available, reservations are recommended as it does get busy in the summer. The cabins are available for year-round rental and make for a cozy place to come back to after hunting or snowmobiling.

Beautiful, relaxing place, beach to swim at is a decent distance from camp ground, huge park, features some hiking trails, great scenery and beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

Located in the heart of the Keweenaw with nice sites that have a great view of the lake if you get one of the sites near the shore. Big park area, beach with both sandy and rocky places, a ice shop, and not far from Houghton/Hancock.

It is being remodeled in september

This campground has phenomenal views of Lake Superior. Somehow you can watch sunrise and sunset from the campground. The sites are close together and lack privacy but the views really make up for it. When I was there, the bathhouse was kind of gross, but they are in the process of renovating it. This is a campground that really stuck with me. I can’t wait to go back and see how they’ve improved it.

The beach here is fabulous! It goes for a couple miles I think :) The sunrises and sunsets were so beautiful to behold as well as neat views of the lighthouse. The sites were nothing special, just a somewhat open area and some grassy dirt area to set up on. There were raised fire pits that were very nice. Our site was on the water which I always enjoy. It's a good place to stay when visiting various sites on the peninsula.