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Michigan Recreation Passport is required for vehicle entry into state parks and recreation areas, state boat launches, state forest campgrounds and state trail parking lots. The Michigan Recreation Passport does not cover local, county, municipal, or metropolitan parks or recreation areas. Learn more: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/buy-and-apply/rec-pp
Michigan Recreation Passport is required for vehicle entry into state parks and recreation areas, state boat launches, state forest campgrounds and state trail parking lots. The Michigan Recreation Passport does not cover local, county, municipal, or metropolitan parks or recreation areas. Learn more: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79134_79210---,00.html
$20 - $50 / night
Beach, trails and children's solace pad, just an easy walk across the road. Newer bathhouse. Shady sandy campsite. Be sure and visit downtown Bay City, lots of great restaurants, a Riverwalk on both sides of the river, concerts in the park. Great atmosphere.
Most sites are good, though some have slopes to them. Choose carefully. Great newer playscape and splash pad (!) for the kids, across State Park Rd from the main campground. Nice newly opened visitor/nature center. Campground usually clean and patrolled. Showers/restrooms are good, cleaned twice a day. Friendly staff.
Some of the best campground hosts are here.
Groceries, restaurants & laundromats are a short drive away.
TV reception was ok, and T-Mobile worked well enough.
Nice park. Can feel a little tight on some spaces, especially if your neighbor sprawls over the lines. Restrooms could use a little improvement (like replacing the crappy doors leading into the building) and some maintenance, but are clean. Being on a point between Lake Huron & Tawas Bay, there's almost always some breeze. There's beaches on both sides of the point. Staff friendly. Like most MI State Park sites, it's electric only. Tawas has no (as of this review) FHU sites. There's the Tawas Point Lighthouse here, which you can climb for a few bucks. Nice little gift shop next to it. It can get really packed here on weekends, and the day use gets closed because of being too full.
Big rigs, note that the roads can be tight, especially when inconsiderate campers crowd the road, cause you know... It's all about them.
All in all, it's one of our favorite state parks.
Hit Klenow's Market in town. They do great sandwiches!
Very loud, lots of children, kids will be kids, but the loud music until very late and the dogs barking all hours not necessary! At least I know most of Tom Pettys songs now from listening to them all night!
We had a large group of families with varying ages and abilities. We used multiple different styles of cabins and a few RV sites, as well as various buildings for activities. All in all, it was an incredible time and I highly recommend it. Staff was helpful with activities such as archery but, seldom seen if not directly helping with things. It was nice to feel like we had the run of the place but, still know that help was available if we needed it. The location is pretty great, off the beaten path but, within 30 minutes of major stores and conveniences.
Laundry facilities would have been awesome since we were staying a full week but, there was a laundromat only about 15 minutes away.
The food selection was about what you'd expect in a public school cafeteria and resulted in health-minded guests needing to make their own meals in the cabins and meals were VERY rushed, only allowing 30 minutes for our large group to get their food, eat and be out of the building.
The grounds were well maintained for a rustic campground but, bathrooms and meeting buildings were adequately upgraded and offered pleasant amenities, such as a game room, large gym and decent air conditioning.
We had a great time here and look forward to returning one day!
We love this campground. It’s quiet and well maintained. The owners are friendly and willing to help. Wood bundles are available for purchase and they deliver to your site. No tents allowed but pop-up are welcome. The bathrooms are key for me and are very clean. There shower are private and are quarter operated. This is our go-to when in the area.
It is very nice and extremely clean. However it is kind of cramped. Sites feel close and everyone was very nosey. Pet beach is nice. Water is beautiful. Convenient location. People didn't listen to rules such as quiet hour and let their badly behaved dogs run loose. Bath house is extremely nice! All in all, I would camp here on an off day/season.
Since 1966 I visit, often just back packing. Clean enough & refreshing enough & still something pre-historic, particularly the beach, & the roads to it.
After following this campground's FB page for years we finally got to visit this summer. It sits along the Rifle River next to Rifle River Campground and Whites Campground.
The campground is huge and offers so much! The store up front had everything you probably forgot at home, plus more.
The bathrooms were always clean when we needed them. The showers were clean, some lacked hanging hooks on the walls. The water was warm immediately, but the push button timer for the shower water made showers kind of annoying (small issue though).
Everyone seemed to abide by the noise curfews around 11 pm and it seemed rather quiet through the night given the amount of campers around. The rustic sites along the river in section "N" were very large and spacious spots. Sections L and M seemed to be tightly packed in.
The Group camping side is considered the "Adult/Party" area. Nobody was crazy out of hand or anything to that nature, just louder music, drinking, etc.
There were numerous playground areas, volleyball, horseshoes, and even an arcade area. Although we didn't stay in the Family area it looked very nice.
We had a great time at the campground and would 100% stay again.
Campground was perfect for tenting. Right by bathrooms and they were very clean. Short walk to the beach!
Nice pull through sites, some are tight, but none are impossible. Knowledgeable and friendly staff. There’s private land on either side and a dirt bike track that the neighbor owns on the north end, so if you’ve got a light afternoon napper, stay away from that end. Clean facilities, close to attractions and highway. Overall a good spot to stay
First time here, our site is huge. Lot of people on Friday and Saturday so extra caution when driving through the park. The Tobico Marsh trails and observation towers wee great for watching birds. Lots of trails. TheDay use area has lots of beach, as well as picnic areas, pavilions, a fishing pond, more trails. As this is less than an hour from home, this will become a regular just get away for a weekend campground for us.
We enjoyed this very quiet campground. It is not a family “resort” style campground. There is a playground, no pool. Each site has full hook-ups and are a good size. Nice shade trees At Most sites
You can climb a lighthouse and look out 30+ miles. Two swimming beaches. Dog beach. A few trails to walk on, not many to ride bikes.
Location is excellent. This is a well maintained park, fantastic beaches and nice trails. I arrived on a Thursday and left Sunday. The sites are on the small side without any barriers, which was fine midweek. On the weekend, overcrowding was the norm. This was my first experience at a Michigan state park, and I do not know if others have designated spaces based on the size of the RV or tent. This would make a more pleasant experience for campers. My guess is the park was designed long before people hauled around a 30 foot camper. No park rangers facilitated parking that I could see, and clearly you should book your spot as early as possible.
Midweek 5 stars, Weekend 1
We came in late for just a place to rest before heading further north. Drop box available after 10pm(summer). Between 8p-10p there is a yellow phone to check in with. Can book day of until 8pm online. Easy to get into late at night. Big lots. Fire pit. Sites are electric only. Recommend to have extension cord for some sites, as plug in can be far. Website has pictures for sites and will advise if lot gets wet. Staff was very friendly the next morning. Updated our rec pass at the park before leaving. Lots of trails and swimming beach near park.
Park is very well kept, quiet, staff is friendly and plenty of things to do on site
Lovely tent and more
Large sites, all full hookup. Plenty of onsight activities on the weekend. Large play areas, dog run, basketball court, lots of walking trails, and family friendly.
Great campground to stop in for the night. We paid 25 for a camp spot plus 9 for a passport to put in our window. The beach is right across from the campground but the water is extremely polluted so we didn’t swim but the sand is really nice and clean so we did catch some sun rays. They have showers and bathrooms here. Firewood is 6 dollars a small bundle.
It was a short stay but we had a great site that had a little path to a fairly private beach which made it so much fun! It was a very packed campground due to the great location, which made backing in and then hooking up a little tricky so bring your patience during that time. Very nice staff. Super long lines for the dump station on a Sunday (we opted to just wait it out until our next campground)
I paid for a lakefront site for $120 per night that came with a dock and boat. What I got was a swamp front site with no dock and no boat and was told they don’t do refunds by the cashier in the camp store. There was no manager to be found. It was clear that all of the lakefront sites are seasonal site…in fact most of the campground were seasonal sites. Don’t be one of the poor suckers that fell for this false advertising.
We stayed for two nights, and enjoyed our stay for the most part. But our main reason to be there was to visit nearby Pictured rocks national lakeshore.
Otter lake itself is nice, and picturesque, i wish we'd had time to use our canoe to explore it, or even to take advantage of the beach. The grounds are full of trees and the sites are all shady.
the owners are friendly, and it is very family oriented, kids everywhere. Although it's miles out of town, there is a nearby restaurant at Buckhorn resort. The camp store is rather minimal, and you can't get ice after it closes, so watch your cooler ( we didn't).
All in all, it's a very pretty getaway and I'd normally give it 4 stars except that we were staying in the rustic sites, and the is only one restroom. it's large and clean, but it's like 3 city blocks away. There's really no excuse not to have a couple porta-johns near those sites, especially since half of them have a view of a large shipping container in the overflow parking anyway.
We rented for 120 a night a lake front campsite with a boat. We were given a rock and dirt pad that over looked a swamp area. Our campsite had goose poop everywhere and did not have a boat. We were told we could leave our ID at the office and take one of the rental boats back to our site temporarily. We were not allowed to keep the boat at our site though because they didn't have enough boats for everyone. If you are looking to stay here, all of the decent waterfront sites have seasonal campers in them. Honorable mention -bathrooms were dirty and extremely outdated -they also charged me $20 to have my kayaks
This is a nice big campground within a short walk of lake huron and a beautiful light house. Camp sites are all very close together providing very little privacy. Bathrooms were clean with private individual shower stalls and hot water. Lots of big RVs and family campers here. Overall nice place.
Nice place to stay,it’s sitting just off of the river,and the lake is next to it,if you like fishing you’re going to love it.the site is a little tight but you can pull through,overall it’s really quiet and close to town. I will be back next time through
Nice and clean. I’m in the inner loop though and the sites are very close together. If I came back I would definitely try to stay out the outer loop. Electric, fire pit, and picnic table on site. No grate. Showers and bathrooms available.
Frequently Asked Questions
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According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Kawkawlin, MI is Bay City State Park Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 20 reviews.
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