Best Cabin Camping near Big Rapids, MI

It was a nice campground. Nestled in nature, quiet, clean, WiFi only at the clubhouse. Private beach with a steep paved walkway accessible across the street. Absolutely the best sunsets over Lake Michigan! Friendly staff, Pool was clean, refreshing, and hot tub as well. Game room for the kids. Various outdoor games-usual horseshoes, shuffleboard, basketball, small playground. Many, many, many speed bumps throughout. Firewood was wet. Other campers we talked to said it’s always wet, that they don’t buy it there. Spent $70 for weekend rate, I think it was $60? For weekday? Just for electric, water, no WiFi, 4 days. With all the campgrounds MI has to offer, this was a very nice campground, and would recommend it, but we personally look forward to exploring other options.

Grass lots could be a little more level for those of us that are not equipped. The numerous showers are large and clean. There are cabins for rent and a ton of things to do nearby like hike the dunes. Rental cars are available about 20 miles away but plan at least 2 weeks in advance.

Great campground ! Cabins, electric and bath houses!

Great site for first time campers or when you want to just get away quickly without having to take lots of equipment and supplies. Nice little camp store and pizza restaurant on site. Great playground, evening activities. Nice mix of electric hook up, R.V. and tent sites. Boat rentals, etc. Great place for a group of families to come camp together. Staff at the campground are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.

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.

The back 40 campground at the Double JJ has full hookup sites as well as cabins available for rent. There are 2 water parks on the ranch as well as horseback riding and a river to explore.

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!

We stay here at least once a year and do an annual river trip with a bunch friends. It's a nice campground with a small park, pond, full bathrooms, group sites, and even a couple small cabins. It's great for river trips since we got upstream and can float all the way into camp and no worry about driving. We make a run the next morning for coffee and to pick up the vehicles left at the launch.

I hate camping, but this campground I’ll go to. Water and electric hook up at all the sites, cabins available, their own little lake and boat launch, there’s Kid’s EVERYWHERE! 🥰 Its absolutely perfect for the entire camping spectrum. Nice clean bathrooms, a nice little store and restaurant right there and another little store right on the main road. First fish caught by my son at this campsite and we WILL BE BACK!

Campsite is located 2 miles from downtown Pentwater, adorable small town on the water. Mears state park is 2 miles from the campground as well, Lake Michigan beaches. The playground on the beach is perfect for younger kids. There is a pavilion that serves hot food and ice cream ( hot food ends at 5pm/ ice cream till sunset.) Our kids loved walking in town and heading to the beach.

With that said, there is plenty to do at the campground . Outdoor pool, AJs (putt- putt golf, arcade, playground, go-karts) extra fee for AJs but reasonable priced, basketball court, volleyball court, small baseball diamond, tennis table, general store, shower house by pool ( very clean), private bonfire pits ( most campsites).

Seasonal’s were very friendly and helpful with local things to do. RV camp, Tent camp, or tent cabin.

Dump station available, firewood for sale, ice for sale, general store has several camping items, 15 minutes away is meijer in ludington. 2 minutes away gas station 2 minutes to Lake Michigan beaches 2 minutes to Pentwater downtown shopping

A United Methodist Campground now open to the public instead of just for church camp, this is a nice location for families to enjoy some downtime, with access to Lake Michigan and plenty of activities available to pass the the time.

The sites vary in size but several can accommodate very large rigs. The whole place feels tucked away into the woods but you're only about a 10-minute drive from downtown Pentwater.

Short hike over the dunes (via stairway) takes you to Lake Michigan. (They have a great viewing platform for sunsets!)

Campground is getting regular updates each year, including a new 2-spot dump station (2 years ago), and new water and electric (50 amp) hookups at the sites continually being added.

They offer everything from RV and tent sites to platform tents and cabins. They have a great staff that cares about visitors enjoying their time there.

Cellular signals can vary greatly within the camp, but we found signals for Verizon and Google Fi (T-Mobile/Sprint) with decent service.

We found this campground online looking for a place to hold our annual family camp out.  Staff was very helpful in making reservations and holding sites for our group.  We called in March for the 3rd weekend in July and were able to get all the sites we needed together along with cabins for those without access to campers.  Nice large level sites very helpful staff.  Very pleasant long weekend.  Reasonable checkout and check in times.  In at 3 PM  out by 1 PM.

Whispering Surf has a private beach on Bass Lake--great fishing, sandy bottom, kayak and canoe rentals--plus 2 Lake Michigan beaches within walking distance. Perfect sand beaches, nice, quiet campground with friendly staff. There is a great old dance hall/lodge facility, with antique Foosball, ping pong, air hockey, pool table. We love it here!

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.