Best Equestrian Camping near Brooklyn, MI

There are trail, beaches, boats, horses... so many things to do

Pokagon State Park has an excellent state park campground. Sites are in a well wooded area situated on 5 different loops (1 non-electric, 4 electric). Many sites are flat (good for tent camping) while others are slightly rolling hills (helps breakup the sites a bit). There is a lot to do in the park including many trails, horse riding (horse stable on site), and lake swimming on a nicely improved beach. Only cons are no full hook up and the fire rings/grills could be improved.

What started as a little get away turned into not wanting to leave! A swimming pool and playground with basketball court to keep my kids entertained and clean facilities convinced me I had made the right choice. As an added plus a horse barn (Heavenly Horse Stables) right on property offering riding lessons, trail rides and meet and greets with their houses and other barn animals, my daughter wanted to move here. Other perks to this campground: Openings to Pinckney State trails right on property and all sorts of lakes, parks and small town downtown areas for food and shopping nearby, H.C.R.C. was a hidden gem.

I have stayed in the Inn and the camp site. I highly recommend it. There are so many activities that people of all ages can enjoy! I Particularly like the horse back riding trails, and in the winter there are toboggan rides!

What a beautiful park. So much to do, beach, hike, bike, horse back ride. Campgrounds can be crowded, lots of families, lots of kids. Campground 3 was a little tight for our 38 ft Class A, but certainly doable. Choose your spot wisely. The park staff were very friendly, very helpful. We needed to move spots, and then had issues with the electric. Everyone we dealt with was very accommodating, helpful, friendly.

Pokagon State Park is one of the most manicured , well maintained parks I've been to. The Army Corp does some good work but Pokagon has them beat.

One of the differences is that it doesn't seem like I hardly ever see any of the Corp workers , but at Pokagon the staff was right there doing their thing, registering, guiding, informing, mowing and maintaining.

The campgrounds are well laid out with several different areas to choose from. There were several youth groups at the group campground but you could not hear them from the other campground. The sites are well spaced and provide privacy if you want it plus room for extra tents or shelters. The facilities are maintained and clean.

There is an extensive trail system to enjoy that connects with the nearby nature preserve. There are horse tours and a very nice Inn for the less "natural" crowd.

This is an extremely large campground. About seventy-five percent of the sites are electric. We stayed in Site 255, which was not electric (booked last minute). This site was fairly level but very close to other sites…wouldn’t recommend it. However, Site 269 (next to Site 277) afforded great privacy and was large; among the non-electric sites this was the best I saw. I did not survey the electric sites, but I’m sure the site matters a lot. Non-electric sites are $20.00, plus a $9.00 park entrance fee.

There are numerous walking trails, along with horse and bike trails. Additionally, there are boat rentals, horseback rides, pony rentals, swimming, nature center, and a restaurant at the inn.

This is a family oriented park. Extended family groupings are very common. Nevertheless, people and their children are well behaved.

I would recommend this campground for two days or more. A one day stay will mean you probably won’t see much of this wonderful park. The only reason I gave it a four was that even in mid-September it was packed.

We visited Pokagon for a long weekend with friends. We took over sites 502, 504, 506 and 508. One thing that was clear - the sites vary in size. Sites 504 and 506 are on the smaller side; 502 was moderate and 508 was enormous. We found the bathrooms to be clean and easy to use. Was shocked to find showers just turned on (no timers). The lake is not self-contained within the park - there are houses across the way and various access points. Within the park, the lake provides a small swimming area and much larger areas for boating. Lots of motor boats and wave runners; kayaks and canoes were limited to the shoreline areas. The beach is a nice size and wasn't terribly busy. There's also a playground and snack shack on the beach. There is horseback riding for the 52-inch and taller crowd ... anyone smaller is limited to a short donkey ride. There is a natural spring near the 500 loop where you can drink fresh (and cold!) water. There are plenty of options for hiking, biking and riding horses - all with separately marked trails. There's an amphitheater for outdoor productions and the Inn also has planned events. The park says only one vehicle per site, but we noticed many sites with multiple vehicles that stayed that way overnight. Overall, it's a nice park. The only downside is the variations in size of campsites and the risk you might end up on a small site without prior knowledge of what they look like.

We are heading to Colorado from Michigan so this was just a stopover, one night. Very much like this park and will be back when we have more time to enjoy it. Spacious sites, good shade.

Wow.. what a nice little getaway in Hell, Michigan area! Camp host, “Lightening” is a friendly and helpful guy who NEVER stopped working (except to chat with campers here and there). The big pool and bathrooms were immaculate, with surrounding patio furniture sanitized nightly (I watched from my RV window and was so impressed with Lightening’s genuine dedication). The site we had was very large and pretty level. The price we paid was W/E $30/night. Cannot beat that for a fun getaway on a budget! Neat area to find trails and lakes to enjoy as well. Highly recommended campground!

This was our first camping experience in Michigan, so we weren’t exactly prepared. My rating takes this into consideration.

First of all, if it’s rainy or muddy, you might want to think twice about entering the rustic camping area. We have a 4Runner, so it was no problem but a few little cars did slide around and have trouble on the hill by our site.

Our site wasn’t level, so we were rolling around a bit. If I went there again I’d try to find a spot towards the end of the loop by the exit. These sites were higher and some of them were private. I’d examine the map carefully because some of the sites were horrendously open and basically on the road. Maybe good for a vehicle with a rooftop tent or a trailer of some sort, but it would have been annoying for us. Site M22 was big and far enough away from other campers, but again not level. Probably a good location for a group of hammock campers.

All that aside, the biggest problem was mosquito activity. The camping area sits on an inaccessible lake with a marsh area.

When we rolled in the first thing we noticed was that everyone had screen houses set up.

We didn’t have anything but our tent and a hammock with a big net so everyone got bitten up while cooking and hanging out by the fire. It was pretty miserable. Yes, I realize this is mostly our fault.

I’ve since purchased a thermacell backpacker and some bug net hats and stuff. I’m looking into constructing an ultralight screen house that can be suspended from trees.

The last problem was drunk campers hooting and hollering all night but that isn’t the camping areas fault.

This place is super close to where we are living so I’ll probably schedule it next spring and come prepared. There are lots of nearby lakes and recreational trails so it’s a fun place to be with family.