Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Crystal Falls, MI

We come up every year for the meteor shower, and every stay is a great one. New shower rooms, and huge dog park are awesome!

Beautiful & clean. Great site overlooking Lake Superior. Need to walk over highway to get to water. Very orderly and great Park Manager. Family & pet friendly with awesome playground.

We stayed at Van Riper State Park three times during June and July. The park is always clean and well-maintained. The bathrooms and showers and generally always nicely maintained as well, and there are plenty of both. The bathrooms do tend to run out of soap and toilet paper at busy times. Dogs are not allowed on the beach but also cannot be left unattended in your site. The rules are heavily enforced in this park. Park staff will ask you to move vehicles if you have more than two, and you will be asked to turn music completely off upon quiet hours. This is not the place to go if you want to party.

Sites 15 and 17, as well as several other sites along that side of that loop, now have a wooden fence at the back of them, so they are not as large as they appear in the photos online.

We have stayed in sites 14, 90 and 93. We travel with a 34’ trailer.

Site 14 is narrow but manageable. It is well-shaded by large pine trees on the site. Site is entirely dirt. There are trees to hang hammocks or clotheslines in.

Site 90 is on a corner by the propane tanks. It is a large site. It does have some roots and low spots. It is partial grass. It has nice shade and is adjacent to the bathrooms. There are trees to hang hammocks or clotheslines.

Site 93 is a large site that backs up to a small grass/tree buffer. It is across the road from the bathrooms. It has nice shade. There is a place to hang a clothesline but not hammocks.

Pros: Clean, well-maintained park

Quiet

Lots of playground equipment

Bike/scooter pump track

Excellent beach area

Lots of green space

Hiking trails

Wood and ice available for purchase at the entrance

Laundry is available; one washer and two dryers

Very kid and pet friendly

Cons: Park website has out of date information, specifically that there is no longer a store on the beach, nor are there kayaks/SUPs to rent

The Water Warrior Island is no longer in the lake

There are very few sites with buffers between

It is sort of far to the beach and laundry from the modern campsites

No non-reservable sites available

During our trip through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this was one of my favorite campgrounds. The only reason we didn't stay longer was fear of our rig not starting up again and leaving us stranded. This campground had LARGE campsites with 2 separate loops and plenty of room between campsites. There was only one other group at this campground on the second loop which we never saw. The road to this campground is gravel and is a very pretty drive winding through the woods. At night it is very surreal as the only sounds you hear are the ones you make and an empty night sky. The canopy tree cover makes it tough to see the night sky but there are openings where you can see the sky full of stars. The lake was very peaceful and calm. There were a couple of small docks at each of the campground loops. If you have dogs beware the lake bottom is heavy dark mud and can be troublesome getting off your dog if they decide to take a dip. They also have clean vaulted toilets which is always nice(just beware of large spiders). We would recommend staying at this campground for an extended stay!

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This is a state park with a host usually at camp. Games available for campers from the host site as well as dog poop supplies. Great waterfront improvement with a store, kayak and SUP rentals, and inflatable water feature to use for a fee.

This campground has it all! Rustic or modern you will enjoy the beach, hiking/biking trails (many right from your site), boating, fantastic fishing, kayaking and year round events! The sites are large and clean! Even a park for the kids! We love it and its dog friendly to boot!!

the campground is very nice and so are the campground hosts. its very close to 41 so you hear a lot of road noise (reason for my lower score). there are train tracks behind our site. we’ve only been here a few hours and havent had a train come by. it seems to be close to orv trails, lots of people here have sidexsides and quads. no one has been loud though. bathrooms are nice and clean and showers seem clean too (havent used them yet). no laundry here if youre looking for that. dogs are welcome.

The one lane dirt road that heads here is almost 5 miles long. With the road closed just after the campground, people only come out here on purpose. This means that the other campers are the only ones around. The area ranger station is close to the start of the dirt road. It wouldn’t hurt to check with them if you have a larger rig. The sites aren’t that big.

The small campground nestles sites in close but still gives some privacy on most of them. On this weekend, most of the sites were taken. It’s a nice place for a free campground. The dirt road provides a nice long walk for our dog too.

Campground has some pretty great facilities.. flushing toilets and running water throughout the campground (although not potable when we visited this June). Also has a pretty great beach in the campground as well as one just a few minutes outside of the campground. Both beaches are sandy & great for swimming especially considering most of the lake is pretty rocky, especially in the campground area. Lake has quite a few crayfish in it, but the fishing is pretty good, too - catch-and-release only for the smallmouth bass to help keep the crayfish population in check, but it can be fun to catch the bigger smallies the lake produces. Very clear water in the lake, I was able to see down 20+ feet to see the bottom and scope for fish, etc. Sites and campground overall is clean and well-kept; we ended up switching sites this year due to other campers with loud dogs & generators running all night (against campground rules, but wasn’t enforced by the host), but it’s still a family favorite to go to. Decent cell reception as well, for those who need to stay connected. also, only about a 10-15 minute drive from town of Iron River which has a few nice stores & an ice cream shop :)

We are not a big state park fan as, in Michigan, there are very close sites and tons of noise. This one was relatively quiet. The site were the standard Michigan close but the campgeound was t full and there many options to choose from. The lake is real nice and the beach area is clean, spacious and it has a general store that has firewood for sale. We first reserved a rustic site, then changed to an electrical hook up site after arriving. The ranger was very accomodating.

The Michigan Recreation Passport Solar does not cover local, county, municipal, or metropolitan parks or recreation areas.

Van Riper State park has very unlevel sites with no water and 30 amp service. Unacceptable with today’s campers. Time to update Michigan

Nice flat dirt sites, clean water pumps, well maintained toilets and a shared sandy swimming beach. Nice hiking trail runs from Spectacle Lake Campground to Kentuck Lake Campground. Quiet area, close to Phelps, Eagle River and border of Upper Michigan. Boat launch in campground.

I did a lot of research for campgrounds near Iron Mountain Michigan and we were very happy with this campground. The sites were level, had shade trees, nice paved roads, clean, quiet and right on the river! We had full hook up with cable! That was a nice surprise! We were greeted as soon as we drove in, our site was very nice with a concrete pad.

We took a week long trip and toured Michigan. We spent 2 nights at Van Riper, the other campers were nice, the playset was large, and the beach was nice. The beach was steps down to the access (difficult with a wagon- we didn’t know), and the bathroom wasn’t the cleanest during our stay. The stars were gorgeous.

What you would expect of a Michigan SF campground: vault toilets, no hookups, hand pump, no reservations, $20/night. The outhouses are new and the sites are right on Beaufort Lake. There is a boat launch and small beach area. We did some kayaking and saw multiple Bald Eagles - they would fly over the sites from the lake to the beaver pond across the street. Local ducks were very welcoming and came right up to us. There was a beautiful sunset one night we stayed. Not too busy, only 3 or 4 campsites were filled over the weekend. We stayed connected by running Starlink off of a battery (very fast, no interruptions)

This is a well run,clean campground in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was easy to access and right off the main road, no four wheel drive necessary.

The campsites are large and there are a few sites near the lake (We recommend 113).There is a great playground, the summer of 2018 it hosted an inflatable water park which was a riot!

The water system is getting redone which will remove the orange color in the showers (which would otherwise be very nice). The water was not drinkable due to high arsenic but a large container of potable water was available. That is the only thing keeping this campground from being a 5.

The lake was a great temperature and very swimmable. Quiet hours are all the time so it was very peaceful and enjoyable. Ask the rangers for a listing of moose sightings outside of the campground.

Would definitely recommend for visitors in the U.P.

I will be totally transparent and say I definitely prefer rustic or dispersed campsites.. however, I always give state parks an honest chance.

Baraga State Park... I have tried. Ohh, have I tried to like you over the years.

However, this is the WORST example of what a Michigan DNR campground can be. They squeezed in WAY too many sites in this place. You can hear the campers next to you fart in their sleep.

Not even a stones throw from US-41 makes for constant road noise... and sites that have been submerged in water a day following rainfall. You always see campers here moving their tents, RV’s, etc... to drier portions of their sites.

The only reason I give this TWO stars is because of the well-kept and nice bathhouse.

I stop here solely to shower during my travels. I will stay on the side of the road before I set up camp here again.

I have been coming here for 5 years. Every Year there is improvements made to increase the wonderful experience of camping and just when you think it cannot get any better they add a event or service to make it all more relaxing experience. 

There are miles of ATV and Side x side trails down the road, We spend the whole day riding and never see it all and they are well groomed.

The fishing is great both from your kayak, boat or the shore line. 

There are very clean porta johns,  a large grassy area for play and volleyball court.

A large Children's play area .

The owners and fellow campers are always available to lend a hand and the area has much history especially across the border in and around Iron Mountain Michigan.

Swimming and the sound of children playing fills the air.

For those who want a more rustic experience there are tent sites that provide that.

I Highly recommend coming and enjoying the Tranquil Vista Experience and if your like me and my family and friends it will become your summer destination.