Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Port Huron, MI

Lakeport state park, is it fun? Is there things to do? How’s the beach? We’ll I tell ya. This park is kept super clean! The bathrooms were kept up well and the showers were squeaky clean with warm water running the whole shower. The beach was rocky so don’t forget to pack some water shoes but the rocky beach comes with finding cool rocks to either paint or just collect! (We left with a whole cooler filled) There is trails to ride your bike around and two playgrounds to keep the kids busy. It was my first camp at a state park and I was highly impressed. So if you’re in the port Huron area or only a couple hours away and want a nice relaxing get away in some good ole out doors but have electricity & bathrooms then I would highly recommend lakeport!

I have stayed at this park in the past, but feel my review could have been a little deeper. I have to start out by saying, I love this campground. I love that it is near the water and that it has paved pads in the south part of the campground. I love that it is near a town that has pretty much everything you need (restaurants, groceries, bars, lighthouses, etc). I can honestly say that this park is my top ten of campgrounds in the State of Michigan campgrounds that I have been to.

Here is the deeper review. There are two sections to this campground. The northern section seems to be the louder section and the southern section seems to be the more laid back quiet section. We have only ever stayed in the south section, but we always ride our bikes to the north second. The south section has more of a woodsy outdoor feel while the north section has more of an open space, smaller lots, crowded feel. It depends on what type of camper you are as to where you will want to camp. I have to say that if I were with a group of friends or family, I would probably book the northern part as it does have more of an upbeat party feel, but for the most part, there are just two of us that camp. Both sections have access to the beach, but the northern section is closer to the beach. The Northern section also has a camp store, which I have never seen at a state of Michigan campground. The store has absolutely everything! They have milk, eggs, bread, buns, bug spray, postcards, toys, and ice cream. I made several trips to the store and the ladies working were very friendly!

The first day that we rode our bikes to the store, there was a little tiff between a couple campers and one of the men came into the store and asked for the park ranger to come to their site. It appears that the man who was camped behind the man’s lot had several kids on their site and those kids kept cutting through the campsite to walk to the beach and the store. I did not stick around to see what happened, but when we rode our bikes back a few days later, they were still there.

I have to say that the northern side has TONS of children. If you have kids or do not mind kids running around everywhere, this is the side for you! If you want peace and quiet, stay in the south section!

Let’s talk about the dump station. This is one of the weirdest dump stations I have seen at a state park. When you pull into the park, the south campground is to the right, just beyond the check in building, but the north section is about half mile or so north, on the right. The dump station is at the north campground and to get to it, you have to enter the north campground and drive all the way through it, come back out, and then go to the dump station! It is the weirdest set up ever. I guess you could skip going through the north campground and just head to the dump station, but that means you would be cutting in line! There are two bays, but I feel like this is the only park that I have had to wait at! I am not sure if it is because the park is always full or if people here are just slow at dumping their tanks! LOL. If you are considering staying in the North Section, you may not want to stay in 83-110 as those are on the path that all the RV’s take to the dump station.

The bathhouse in the northern park is the typical State of MI campground, however the bathhouse in the southern campground is the older style.

This state park is right on Lake Huron and if you are interested in watching freighters, bring a chair and binoculars, and sit on the beach! This beach is mostly rocks and I have to say that I have found the most Petoskey stones (State of Michigan Stone) and pudding stones (a conglomerate of rocks with jasper sticking onto the rock).

If you like exploring, you can visit Port Huron and drove over to Canada on the Blue Water Bridge or just sit on the boardwalk in PH and watch the freighters drove by. I would definitely stay at this campground again, but I wanted to point out how different the north and south sections feel. Peace and quiet awaits in the south section while loud and cramped camping is at the northern section.

Side note, this campground is ALWAYS busy! When we were there last weekend, we asked at the front bldg. why the website said the campground was full, but there were several openings in the south section. The workers said that they have to upgrade the electrical system this fall on the southern side and they have closed some campsites in the south in order to help with the electricity issue. Apparently, some sites were losing power because there wasn’t enough energy to support all of the lots in the southern side. The northern side was already done.

If you like this type of camping then this theme park camping is for you. It's right in town with sparse trees and very small sites. Make sure to mark the max allowed occupancy to be camping because, if you don't, you will be charged extra cash for your child to spend the day with you while spending money on their amenities. They do have a little amusement park right next door so that can help entertain the young ones for a while and we did appreciate the dog park. It's not a horrible place as we did enjoy ourselves the first visit there. The campsite we had was in the back, between 2 cabins, and that one was actually a decent size. The 2nd trip was a bummer as we were reprimanded for having my girlfriends daughter show up and have breakfast with us. Which, by the way, we bought from the and she shopped in their souvenir store and purchased items. We had to pay another $5 so we could spend that extra money at their campground. Other than that, enjoy.

We stayed in one of the group sites and it was beautiful. Less tree cover than we would have liked, you're basically in a giant grassy field, but it was perfect for a large group. we did have to share a pavilion with a group of older campers (celebrating a 90th birthday. Our group was there to celebrate my 30th) but it turned out perfectly as they did early dinners and went to bed in their campers.

The beach is nice, a little small, but clean and fun (would be nice if your pets were allowed to swim also).

The only real negative I have is that for each group site there is a single fire pit. This made cooking, sitting around the fire, and many other things quite difficult. There IS a large charcoal grill that can be used, but if you're doing separate meals, it will be hard to coordinate.

We showed up fresh off the road from AZ starting a new life here in the great state of Michigan. Two gentlemen met us right at the entrance they seemed to be doing work around the area. The Manager was on the tractor and greeted us right away. I explained we were looking for a place to camp with our dogs. I told him I found him on this app "the dyrt". He explained it would cost $15.00 dollars a night and we paid for two nights. He sold us a great bundle of wood for 10$!!! You can NOT bring your own wood in.

The Manager informed us of updates that should be coming to the campground as well and I'm very excited for this place to get updates. It's perfect as is but a shower would be amazing to have.

Let’s start by being positive. This place has some amazing views along the St. Clair River. The freighter traffic did not disappoint. We saw at least 4 during our 2-night stay and the sunrise we witnessed from our site could have been a postcard.

The site was sizable with some care taken to abate some puddles, but unfortunately those who previously used our site tore it up significantly at the entrance. We drove around it, but had a hard time imagining the what kind of situation would have resulted in such a deep gaping hole that held about a foot of water!?!

Since this is well beyond normal camping season here in Michigan we understand staffing levels are going to be low but they still charge the same price regardless of that. The newer, cleaner, and nicer facilities were closed up for the season and they directed us to the old, out-dated, and less cared for facilities on the north end of the campground. Since staffing levels are low for off season I could understand that, but please take care to clean them. Cob webs, old dead insects, and dilapidated doors and decor showed severe signs of use and neglect.

Next, we were super excited to bring our brand new trailer to camp here but could not believe the disrepair of the campground roads. Sooo many ruts that I was deeply concerned for the undercarriage of both my truck and camper. Again, they are charging the same state fees as some of the nicer campgrounds we’ve stayed at, but the roads were inexcusable for a campground. People pay thousands for their camping equipment and gear and these roads put those investments at great risk.

We will go back but only for convenience (location to our home) and the gorgeous views…NOT for the accommodations.

This was one of my least favorite state parks. Like many Michigan State Parks, the facilities are old and the campgrounds are overcrowded in the summer with local campers. We stay here one night on the way Ontario. The border crossing at Sarnia is about 20 miles south of the campsite. The sites are on top of each other with no privacy. The beach on the east side of the camp borders Lake Huron. It’s not much to look at with limited views and just a thin rocky shoreline. The beach is just a few hundred yards from the camp through a line of trees. The restroom facilities were outdated and in need of repair. This may be ok for a one night stop but would not recommend beyond a short stay.