I have stayed at this park in the past, but feel my review could have been a little deeper. I have to start out by saying, I love this campground. I love that it is near the water and that it has paved pads in the south part of the campground. I love that it is near a town that has pretty much everything you need (restaurants, groceries, bars, lighthouses, etc). I can honestly say that this park is my top ten of campgrounds in the State of Michigan campgrounds that I have been to.
Here is the deeper review. There are two sections to this campground. The northern section seems to be the louder section and the southern section seems to be the more laid back quiet section. We have only ever stayed in the south section, but we always ride our bikes to the north second. The south section has more of a woodsy outdoor feel while the north section has more of an open space, smaller lots, crowded feel. It depends on what type of camper you are as to where you will want to camp. I have to say that if I were with a group of friends or family, I would probably book the northern part as it does have more of an upbeat party feel, but for the most part, there are just two of us that camp. Both sections have access to the beach, but the northern section is closer to the beach. The Northern section also has a camp store, which I have never seen at a state of Michigan campground. The store has absolutely everything! They have milk, eggs, bread, buns, bug spray, postcards, toys, and ice cream. I made several trips to the store and the ladies working were very friendly!
The first day that we rode our bikes to the store, there was a little tiff between a couple campers and one of the men came into the store and asked for the park ranger to come to their site. It appears that the man who was camped behind the man’s lot had several kids on their site and those kids kept cutting through the campsite to walk to the beach and the store. I did not stick around to see what happened, but when we rode our bikes back a few days later, they were still there.
I have to say that the northern side has TONS of children. If you have kids or do not mind kids running around everywhere, this is the side for you! If you want peace and quiet, stay in the south section!
Let’s talk about the dump station. This is one of the weirdest dump stations I have seen at a state park. When you pull into the park, the south campground is to the right, just beyond the check in building, but the north section is about half mile or so north, on the right. The dump station is at the north campground and to get to it, you have to enter the north campground and drive all the way through it, come back out, and then go to the dump station! It is the weirdest set up ever. I guess you could skip going through the north campground and just head to the dump station, but that means you would be cutting in line! There are two bays, but I feel like this is the only park that I have had to wait at! I am not sure if it is because the park is always full or if people here are just slow at dumping their tanks! LOL. If you are considering staying in the North Section, you may not want to stay in 83-110 as those are on the path that all the RV’s take to the dump station.
The bathhouse in the northern park is the typical State of MI campground, however the bathhouse in the southern campground is the older style.
This state park is right on Lake Huron and if you are interested in watching freighters, bring a chair and binoculars, and sit on the beach! This beach is mostly rocks and I have to say that I have found the most Petoskey stones (State of Michigan Stone) and pudding stones (a conglomerate of rocks with jasper sticking onto the rock).
If you like exploring, you can visit Port Huron and drove over to Canada on the Blue Water Bridge or just sit on the boardwalk in PH and watch the freighters drove by. I would definitely stay at this campground again, but I wanted to point out how different the north and south sections feel. Peace and quiet awaits in the south section while loud and cramped camping is at the northern section.
Side note, this campground is ALWAYS busy! When we were there last weekend, we asked at the front bldg. why the website said the campground was full, but there were several openings in the south section. The workers said that they have to upgrade the electrical system this fall on the southern side and they have closed some campsites in the south in order to help with the electricity issue. Apparently, some sites were losing power because there wasn’t enough energy to support all of the lots in the southern side. The northern side was already done.
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