Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Houghton, 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.

Very convenient to Houghton and rest of Keweenaw Peninsula. But spots are practically on top of one another. Great if you’re camping with kids and friends, but no so great if you’re looking for some quiet.

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Cons: Park website has out of date information, specifically that there is no longer a store on the beach, nor are there kayaks/SUPs to rent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

Nice camp site to stay at with great view of the bay. We drove to Houghton and took a hike. Restroom and showers not close however. The dump station was so easy since small campground. Very good price.

Campground east is pretty but a lot of the sites seem uneven. The fort is really interesting. Lots of mtn. bike / foot trails. Dog friendly campground and fort. Although dogs are not allowed in buildings. Showers are nice, great water preasure. Horseshoe bay is pretty, wouldnt take a low riding car there especially if it rained recently. Brockway mtn. drive is really pretty. get a really nice biew of all copper harbor.

This park is one of the best I have visited in the Nation! The scenery is unspeakable beauty. Situated on the very tip of Copper Country in Copper Harbor, Michigan and the beginning of U.S. HWY 41 that makes its way all the way to Florida! On one side of the park you have views of the vast Lake Superior and on the other is breathtaking views of Lake Fanny Hooe. This lake is beautiful especially on a clear day and seeing the reflection of trees that line the lake can take your breath away. The grounds are well kept and restrooms and showers are always clean. The park offers plenty of hiking but the area is known for it's mountain biking! This is a common sport here, you will lose count the number of mountain bikes you see, they take it seriously here. On the park grounds is an old Army fort from the Civil War era. The buildings of this fort are immaculate and very well kept. This is a self guided tour and should take an hour or more to complete depending on how much you want to learn. During the Summer months they do a reinactment of the era with a firing of the cannon every morning. For those familiar with Michigan, I would say it is similar to Fort Mackinaw on Mackinaw Island, except this is free and just as good if not a more personal experience. The only downside I have about this park is the size of the campsites are a little small for my liking and when full, campers are on top of each other and this is another mostly open campground with little if no trees sperating campers from one another. There are shops, lodging and restaurants down the road. I can say I have not been impressed with any of the restaurants but I don't rate my campgrounds based on what's available to eat, I just point it out to give a general review of the area. Copper Harbor also offers one of two shipping docks that give you a ride to Isle Royal National Park, the other is in the Houghton/Hancock area which you pass on the way into the Penninsula. Taking the trip from Copper Harbor saves about 2 hours to the Island. These trips should be booked well in advance! Enjoy riding up one side of the Peninsula and driving down the other side for a drive only made for movies! Stop for ice cream, shop for jam, and drive through the paved block downtown Calumet. While in Calumet check out some of the most historic bars for good drinks and food as well as stories from the bartenders as they do a excellent job explaining the history of the bar!

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.

Have been here since a little girl (now 72) I will always come back. We no longer tent, so I cannot give a review for the East Compound but the West campground is wonderful!!  They are spacious and with trees between sites. The center is blacktopped surrounded by grass and trees. Grass sites are around the perimeter- they are still great. There is nothing better than to walk on the pier at night and star gaze. When you've lived in the city, that's a treat. If you're lucky you can pick Thimbleberries for breakfast (July). The park is well kept/clean.  We walk across the road to Lake Superior to let our dogs swim freely. (Did you know Lake Superior is naturally "soft water?} We have camped in the summer and camped in the fall - both equally beautiful. Looking forward to being there middle July 2023. Reservations are hard to get for RV's wanting a premiere spot! If RV-ing you pretty much HAVE to have reservations.

The Keewanaw Peninsula is a really neat part of Michigan and definitely deserves a visit. The whole way up to Copper Harbor is full of history and worthy places to visit. Copper Harbor sits at the tip of the peninsula and if you want to camp here there are really only two choices – the state park and the privately-owned Lake Fanny Hooe Resort and Campground.  Fort Wilkins is a pretty cool campground because it’s set among the Fort Wilkins Historic Complex and a great place to explore (especially with kids and history buffs) and learn about the areas past without even leaving the park. The grounds are beautiful as this is a well-maintained nineteenth century military outpost. Many of the buildings have been lovingly restored and are now exhibits beckoning you to explore and learn about life and operations of the fort.  

The campground is sandwiched between Lakes Fanny Hooe and Superior so either way you choose you have water. Lake Fanny Hooe is a long, skinny (and deep) lake that’s great for paddling, fishing, or just gazing at. The sites are pretty close together so you may get to know your neighbor like it or not. The park is full on weekend in the summer and for holidays so book early and expect crowds. There are two loops the “east” and the “west.” The west loop seems to have more trees and a little more privacy and wifi. If you can score site #10 it’s the best. Some sites have 50 amp while others are 30/20 amp with fire pits and picnic tables. Water spigots are scattered throughout the campground and there is a dump station available.  Some really nice amenities are the fort for exploring and learning, a large playground for kids to play, pavilions for groups to gather, on-site laundry (not very common in state parks), and water access. Definitely bring a fishing pole and watercraft if you have them. 

This area is a launching point for those wanted to visit Isle Royale National Park and draws many outdoor enthusiasts with its mountain biking trails, water activities, and hiking. When it is summer, Copper Harbor comes alive with outdoor activities. Numerous outfitters will rent gear for you to explore the area and enjoy the summer months. We loved that there are numerous trails skirting the grounds that make a nice walk. Nothing strenuous but nice to be able to stretch our legs and give the dog some exercise.

This is a beautiful haven from the warmer temperatures with easy access to hiking and relaxation. We stayed in the west campground and extended our stay for a week+. The heat hit even just a few hours south. The northern point of Copper Harbor stayed in the 50/60s during the day with nights at 40. With 2-3 miles of hiking right from camp, we loved our stay. The campsites in the west have some trees between sites. Without reservations we took an open first come first served site. This let us extend the stay. 101 is an end spot which means less dog interaction for our reactive pup. However every vehicle drives by on their way in or out. We didn’t find this to be a problem at all. There were a few big groups - one very large group in the east campground and one on our side. This added in to the number of children riding bikes in a loop throughout camp. The historic fort provides some interesting history. 1.5 miles of hiking brings you to the small town. A country store has groceries. Anything more and it’s a drive back to Calumet. Don’t miss taking 26 so you can get some jams and baked goods from the monks at the Jampot - the sign says it’s only open on Fri/Sat but luckily two newlyweds tried the door and they were open. We will be coming back to this area in the future.

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

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.

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