Best Cabin Camping near Alma, MI

Our site was averaged out to $82.71 a night with the weekly rate discount.

We were in Site# 306 (a deluxe plus RV site - be aware that some of these are back-ins and not clearly labeled on the site map - we had to change sites to a pull-thru). We had Full hook- up with a gravel pull-through.
We travel towing a 14 foot trailer and were able to fit both in our pull through site along with my jeep.
The site was easy to level.

Our site was not shaded with zero trees. We weren’t able to sit outside because of the direct sun until after 8:30pm.
This was a smaller lot with our neighbors fairly close.

The deluxe plus lot comes without a concrete patio but with a picnic table and fire ring. They do sell firewood and will deliver to your site.

There is free WiFi. They do not offer Cable TV but there are quite a few channel options.

There is not a community outdoor kitchen or community fire pit.

They do not provide garbage service at your site so you must walk to garbage dumpster.

You are allowed to ride personal golf carts. They also allow you to rent pedal bikes. They do not provide golf cart rentals.

They do have a heated indoor and heated outdoor Swimming pool and one hot tub.

There is a Playground. They also offer Gaga ball, basketball sport court, and volleyball courts. There is a Game room for kids. They have a Putt putt course and Jumping pad.

They have a great general store. There is a separate Activity Center for kids.
There are tons of scheduled activities for kids like wagon rides, arts & crafts, scavenger hunts, obstacle courses, etc. Activities are scheduled all day from 9am to 8pm.

There is a snack bar on site from 4pm-9:30pm where you can get hot dogs, brats, pretzels, nachos, ice cream, etc.

The streets are mostly paved and good for riding bikes.

This is an RV park with cabins to rent also. Tent camping is also allowed.

They have two shower houses. The shower house has the typical stalls. There is a great area to hang clothes and store your toiletries in the shower stall. These are kept very clean.

There is a laundry facility. It is a cash only facility, but they have a change machine in the arcade room. There are approximately 4washers and 4 dryers. It is approximately $2.75 to wash and $0.75 to dry a load.

They do not have a fenced in dog park. There are areas to walk dogs though.

Flies were an issue and bug spray was needed.

There were no trails to hike off of the campground.

Some fun things to do outside of the campground are Frankenmuth FunShips (chocolate & wine tasting), the Golden Ticket Trolley, the Bavarian Belle (popcorn & sodas) River Place Shops, wineries, and Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland store. This RV park is less than a mile to downtown/River Place Shops where there is tons of shopping.

Great campground ! Cabins, electric and bath houses!

The cabins are clean and nice, the view of the lake is beautiful. My 6 children had a great time here

Excellent owners! Super friendly that work hard to keep the place really clean. Its been in business since 1941 I believe. 

They have 20 sites. The ones by the river are where we stayed. (sites 4&5). They also have some little cabins. They also do kyak rentals, with drop off and you boat back to their own landing. Super convenient. 

We stayed the weekend and fully enjoyed it. We stayed in site 5 and had the river as our front yard. Electric is provided at each site, and they do have a dump station.

The ONLY downside I had, and I knew full well going into this and it didn't bother me, it is on M115, a fairly busy road. I know that might be a deal breaker for some, but was easily overlooked for the view we had, the kindness of the owners, and the cleanliness of the facilities and grounds. Most folks wont care, but some purists (Just know that I'm usually a boondock, REAL desolate camping kind of guy), wont like the traffic aspect. I didn't let it bother me.

I give 5 stars because they cant do anything a bout the location, obviously, so I rated on our experience.  We had an excellent time, and will come back again.

Campground Review:

There was a big mixup on Friday night that caused us not to be able to check-into our cabins and we had to scramble to find a new place to stay because the office unexpectedly closed at 9:00 pm instead of at 10:30 pm (the time posted on their website). However, we were able to get a hold of the staff the next day, we were refunded for our first night, and had a great second night at Wabasis Lake staying in the camper cabins. Each cabin had a living room, two bedrooms, kitchen work counter, dining table, microwave, and a small fridge. One of the rooms contains a queen size bed, and the other bedroom contains two sets of bunk beds. There is also a large couch in the living room, where you could sleep another person (or two if you laid the couch cushion/futon mattress on the floor.

The cabins are located just across the road and slightly up the hill from Lake Wabasis, and facing almost due east, which leads to wonderful early morning sunrises over the lake from the front porch of the cabins. There are two sets of bathrooms at Wabasis Lake, one set (toilets only) at the boat house near the lake, and a second set that has newly renovated showers and toilets as well.

Despite the mix up at the front desk, and a pretty frustrating Friday night, I would be happy to head back to Wabasis Lake for future trips.

Product Review:

In addition to camping, I also had the opportunity to review the Renogy Solar Backpack. In addition to the write-up below, check out my product videos on this post.

Renogy Solar Backpack: The backpack has an integrated solar panel on the rear outside of the pack, which can also be flipped over for added protection when not charging. The backpack has several pockets on the outside, including expandable pockets on both sides of the unit. The side pockets are large enough for about a 20 oz. water bottle, but nothing larger. I wish I could fit a full size Nalgene bottle in there. The pack charges when in direct sunlight only, so if you have a device to charge, you need to make sure you stay in the sun. I would recommend connecting a small battery to the solar panel to charge all day while you’re out hiking (or detach the solar panel and leave it to charge back at camp while you go out and adventure) and then use that stored power from the battery pack later that day.

I would like the pack to be a little more rugged, something more akin to a daypack for hiking rather than a standard issue backpack, but it made up for deficiencies in this area with plenty of extra pockets, including a hip pocket and laptop sleeve.

We camped at Countryside Campground & Cabins several times last year and are headed back again this year. Countryside is the cleanest, most impeccably maintained campground I have ever visited. There are activities for the kids, a playground, heated pool, hiking/bike trail, and even a baseball field. The owners are super friendly and are always willing to help!

We really enjoyed our stay. We brought our travel trailer and my brother and his family stayed in a cabin. Very well run campground with plenty for all of our kids to do. We were extremely impressed with the owners and all of their assistance and personal touches. We were told they just took over ownership of the campground last year and this is their 1st season as owners. We will definitely be back!

Rangers working the area are very friendly. Many options to choose from in terms of camping, from rustic, tent to fully functional cabin lodging. The park is very large, so it is always good to have a vehicle able to drive to the trails and beach. Campsites are decent sized, can fit probably 3 four person tents per site, which includes a concrete firepit and picnic table. In the north campsites there is a lot of tree covering, and there are a lot of walnut trees that were shedding a lot this time of the year. Bathrooms are well spaced between the campsites you, and have showers along with some vending machines outside of them. Spigots are scattered throughout and are very accessible. Be sure to bring at least 100 feet of extension chord if you want electricity, because the power ports are not as accessible from some areas. Overall very pleasant campground.

I stayed in a friend's camper with my son for several nights in late September. The campground is very nice! The sites were large enough that it could hold a large camper and two vehicles easily.  Some of the sites are a little uneven (the camper needed wood blocks underneath it so that the wheels weren't off the ground after leveling.

There are nice firepits and the firewood is cheap! 8 large pieces for $6, a wheelbarrow full of tinder for another $6. Bring a hatchet or axe because the wood pieces are huge!

There is a large beach with playground equipment, kayak and boat rentals (although those were closed due to COVID.

Modern bathrooms with showers, but honestly I never needed to use them (we had the trailer).

There are a few downsides:

1. Because it's so close to Grand Rapids and some other cities, it typically is full on the weekends. Booking a site can be troublesome. Our friends booked the site from Tuesday through Monday and it was totally full on Friday and Saturday night.

2. The lake is effectively a plate, so don't expect to do much fishing from shore. The water is incredibly shallow. (But that makes for a very nice beach!)

Overall, I wouldn't tent camp here simply because of the crowds on the weekend, but I'm glad I went. If you have a trailer and like the camping community, you would like this. If you're looking to get away from people for a while, keep looking. This isn't for you.

7 acre swimming and fishing pond. River borders the campground. Rentals of boats, paddle boards, fishing boats, paddle boats and banana bikes. Nice camp store. WiFi.

We loved spending time at CranHill! Kids loved the pony rides and we enjoyed trail rides.

Boat rentals are available

Sites are mostly dirt with pine needles but some are grassy.

Bathrooms were clean

Kids loved crafts they had available

We stayed on site 78. It's slightly sloped but leveling is easy. Biiiig sites here. The first 3 areas you pass on the way in are in sun all day, more or less. (Near the cabins) The rest are in pine stands and really is a nice place to be. As per the normal, pines bring sap, so expect that.

Day use is across the street. Playground, beach, etc. One pond near the camping area. Would like to see a big playground near the camping sites, vs a swing set behind the bathroom house. Probably yell less at the kids if they had one near your campers

One septic station, enter it from the pines side as the hole is on the East side.

We enjoyed our stay, except the inconsiderate, yelling people at site 67. They should have been booted out in my opinion. CONSTANTLY yelling.. seriously... Dog yapping while they just sit there, letting him. Once they piled into that old Winnie, it was a much more pleasant experience. I'm sure everyone in that pod was glad when they stopped the constant yelling.

Wish we had a canoe or kayaks to fart around on the ponds. In lieu of that, we fed the fish some bread. Not exciting, but relaxing.

Staff was great. They make rounds every hour or so, but the loud site clammed up when they heard the Gator coming down the road. Didn't bother us in the least.

They sell wood, $5/bundle on our visit, with delivery. Pretty standard price for this area, with the exception of the gas station nearby, which asks $10+ for the same size bundle (they don't sell much).

Overall, we liked it. Nice, small, fairly quiet campground. Power at the sites and a centrally located water spigot.

For the price ($80 for 3 nights) it's great. Slightly cheaper than Wilson State Park, at $67 (I think, total) for 2 nights. It's a happy mix between boondocking and full on state park.

This was our last stop on a trip where we camped in 6 different Michigan State Parks. This may be an older camp or the DNR was trying to save money when it was built. Most electrical posts are designed to accommodate at least 2 adjoining lots, and as many as 4. This in itself is not a concern until you realize the posts are way too far away to reach without an extension. We tried several lots and couldn’t reach any of the outlets. We finally met a couple who saId they had extensions at the office. So, we finally got set up with an extension cord from the camp office and decided to walk to the beach. Our site was adjacent to the path leading to the beach so we figured we could use a little walk. The path led to another path that led to a parking lot for the beach. After crossing the parking lot we still had to cross a large yard/park that finally opened onto the beach on this small lake. It was all very scenic, but we weren’t expecting a major hike to get to the beach. Showers are nice. They also have a neat ice cream vending machine that I had to check out for scientific purposes only. For a Michigan state park we were quite disappointed.

It was the prefect RV park. The staff is very accommodating and the amenities are amazing. You can bring a tent if you like, but you will hear the gentle hum of RV AC units all night (I thought it was generators, but the staff informed me generators are not permitted). The sites are a little cramped, but part of the fun of camping in a campground like this one is meeting the neighbors. Pretty nice RV park in the middle of Michigan.