Best Tent Camping near Dowling, MI

Many years ago tent camped here. Small camp store. Small lake. Mostly seasonal RVs here

no overnight stays or tent sites. 7 night minimum stay.

Went tent camped with electricity for 2 nights. Bathrooms and showers are nice. The park is safe enough for kids to bike around. The beach is clean and fun. We will definitely plan another visit!

Nice rustic campground with a beautiful lake view. Nice big fire rings. Vault toilet and water pump nearby. Some what level site but in the small side. Perfect for tent camping or a teardrop. Definitely nothing over 15'. Was able to park across from my site to maximize space.

Gorgeous little lake town just 8 miles away has a full grocery store and restaurants.

Campsites border the Deep Lake trail.

A nice little campground. Great location if staying in the Lansing Area. Has full hook ups, and electric water, also tent sites with nnothing. Great pool area. Softball diamond that has tournaments on weekends a little early start for the full hook up sites. A couple ponds for fishing. People are very friendly.

Hidden Ridge is a modern RV resort within 8 minutes of Gun Lake and sandwiched between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. There is no tent camping available at this location.

All sites include a concrete pad, fire ring and full hook-up. 120/150 amp

Lots of activities for the whole family. There is a pool, hot tub, bounce pillow, splash pad. Children’s activities are planned throughout the week and adult activities, as well.

Gun Lake is crystal clear meaning you can see the sand/pebble bottom. There is fun to be had on this nice-sized Lake.

Not far from Hidden Ridge is a race track that is busy each weekend with all manner of race cars.

This is a modern campground with full hook-ups and cement parking areas. It is a newer campground, so there is not an old-growth canopy shading the sites. Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring. Some sites are pull-throughs. Tent camping is allowed, but most campers have RVs.

There is a bath house with good showers.

The park also has a lake with a beach, although I have never been in it.

This campground has a great location for people who want to visit Kalamazoo. One downside is that there are train tracks that run near the campground and sometimes the engines idle for extended periods at night.

Although this campground has great amenities, a pool, clean showers, and good sites/cabins, it is hard to book. If you know you are going to come to this area and camp, you need to book it a while in advance. I have used a pop-up and there was good space between campers. When I tent camped, we had a great spot near the cafe, the showers are amazing over there, they are more secluded. Our tent spot had electric, water, picnic table and fire ring. We camped on the grass and there is gravel to park your car. This campground is a perfect place to stay when visiting surrounding towns and going to the beach.

Don’t forget to go to Sherman’s!!

There was a forecast or rain, don’t mind the tarp

If you want seclusion away from the parking lot atmosphere down the road at Yankee Springs this is your place. There is much more space at each campsite and lots of old growth trees. The sites over looking Deep Lake are wonderful if you can snag one. This is a rustic campground and they have NO electricity or water and many are smaller tent sites. But the peace and quiet is great. You are just a short drive away from Yankee Springs and Gun Lake with the huge beach, plus you are basically right on the NCT and have access to miles of hiking and biking trails. This is a great campground if you don’t mind “roughing it”.

This was a nice campground right on the Kal Haven Trail - about 4 miles from South Haven. The RV camping is in a circle in the center of the campground near the bathhouse with cabins and tent camping on the perimeter. There were some very nice woods with paths leading to the Kal Haven and around the campground. 

It was so convenient to be able to bike ride, hike, or run on the trail that I hesitate to offer any critique - but I will. The sites and the roads in the campground are all dirt so while we were there it was exceptionally dusty. I could imagine that when they have a lot of rain, it is exceptionally muddy. 

Check out the blue stairs beach at Lake Michigan (accessible in South Haven), Barden's Market for fresh baked goods and vegetables, the Depot for sandwiches, wine and beer, and 3 Blonds Brewery - good food and beer.  In addition to the Kal Haven, you can access the Van Buren State Park Trail in South Haven. It is a 4-mile paved trail running from South Haven to the Van Buren State Park.

This is a  membership campground.  It is a few miles from Kalamazoo MI and it a beautiful area.  Really does need to be updated.  Not all campsites are full hook ups.  If you are looking for a great tent area around the lake this is it.  You can fish, play and just enjoy yourself.  They have areas for the kids to play and for adults to relax.  

The Facilities need to be updated, no laundry and no internet.  The campsites are a good size but those we found are not very level.  I love the option of walking around the campground as there are up and down and one really big huge hill.  They need to fix there entry parking lot or you will get lost in the huge pot hole.  I would go back as it is a Coast to Coast and it is OK for $10 a night. 

The area the campsite is located is a great country area and is very wooded.  

If you have a family and like to fish it is a great place for you.  If you like tent camping go for it.  If you like amenties like laundry and level sites find another one.

A group of us bike from Kalamazoo to South Haven every year using the Kal-Haven trail. We usually tent camp but tried a cabin here this year. It was the perfect option as the campground is right off the trail. They provide linens and have basic supplies (including firewood that they will deliver to your cabin) right at the general store. We also met a group that had hiked in to the primative sites and were using the trail to train for the Appalachian Trail. Everything is well-made and maintained, and the staff is friendly and helpful (they even let us check-in early when we biked in ahead of schedule). Highly recommend for those looking for a place close to the trail and to South Haven. The cabins have three queen beds and a sofa sleeper so they can comfortably hold up to eight people (we had five in our group and I never felt crowded). There's a large table inside and two chairs on the porch. There's also a large picnic table outside, a fire pit, and a grill. They are hoping to expand and add cabins sized for couples in the near future.

The Allendale KOA is a perfect spot for GR residents looking to have a nice camping getaway without having to drive out too far. The owner and his family are wonderful, and they’ve got a decent shop set up for anything you need while there.

Office hours have a split between open times so the family can have dinner together, but we had no issue checking in late while they were temporarily closed(I’d just recommend calling ahead so they’re aware).

We do not have kids, but we noticed a ton of activities for them so parents will love this place!

Tent sites are perfectly spacious and it’s a nice wooded area to just sit and look at the stars at night. Firewood is available for purchase at a reasonable price.

My singular complaint (and it isn’t even a huge gripe) is the bathrooms. The women’s stalls have no locks on them (not a huge deal as they aren’t typically busy), and the toilet paper is so thin it tears as soon as you grab a piece. I assume this is likely to keep it septic friendly, but I definitely recommend bringing some wipes and a trash bag instead for your own comfort.

Overall we love it here and plan on being frequent visitors!

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.

I would not recommend camping here. While the campground was nice, with quite a few nice activities for kids, the area was clean and quiet while we stayed there and our location was nice in a wooded area. There were a few permanent campers or people living at the KOA which didn't take away from our experience. The bathrooms were nice but could use some small updates. 

I wouldn't recommend people stay here unless they can avoid one member of staff, who we were informed is the owner's mother. We had an easy check-in and set up, upon arriving back at the campsite late Friday evening we noticed we could not find our parking placard and decided to get a new one once the office opened in the morning. Unfortunately, when my partner took our car to use the bathroom facilities next to the main office before going into the main office. The owner's mother was next to our vehicle began berating and accusing him of "coming off the street to use their bathrooms". He apologized for the placard not being up and repeatedly explained to her that we were staying at the campground until Sunday and were coming in to get a replacement. This woman continued to accuse him of lying and followed him extremely close to the main office and then re-issued our placard. This location is rural and I find it surprising that anyone would go out of their way to use their bathrooms or that this would be such a contentious issue. 

We have never been treated so poorly or made to feel like criminals trespassing at a campground. It made the rest of our stay very uncomfortable especially every time this woman would drive by on her golf cart and her home was very close to the tent sites. If we were not leaving the next morning we would have left this campground immediately. After reading other Google reviews this seems to be a reoccurring issue with this individual and I would recommend reading those reviews as well before choosing to stay here. The other staff was kind and professional however this woman seems to be a continual issue.

Grest family run campground. Friendly staff, nice sites, tent and RV. Dog friendly, kid friendly, quite relaxing fun tim.. cant wait to go back

Lots of sites to choose from, lake had some good fishing. The tent worms were terrible where our site was. Ranger patrols a lot, which is nice if you need them. Lots were a good size. Bathrooms were pretty clean too. Overall it was quite and we enjoyed our time.