Best Campgrounds near Lake, MI

Wow, what a great, quiet, beautiful rustic campground this was at one point and could be again. Unfortunately, a band of Deliverance locals has taken over this camp as their personal fifedom and runs it their way. That's a more and more common issue you'll unfortunately read about at many other State Forest Campgrounds. So the ruling group often trades prime sites from person to person, so sites never really open to the public for several weeks in a row. The boys have also decided they like having electricity available 24x7. Really, multiple large frame generators run all day and then all night -- ALL NIGHT. If one of the gang is anywhere near your site, you'll listen to gas engines 24 hours a day. If you mention to the boys that the posted quiet hours are 10 PM to 8 AM, they just laugh, tell you how many years they've been coming to this campground and camping this way, and who are you to tell them what to do? You get the idea. After the first night, we called the DNR and the field supervisor and new enforcement agent were genuine, caring, professional, responsive, fabulous people. The locals, however, know exactly how to game the system. The enforcement officer showed at 4 to tell one of the cabal boys to shut off his generator at 10. He ran it all night again and yelled to us while doing so, That loud enough for you, want to call the DNR on me again? They all know no officer is coming back after 10 and he can't write any tickets without witnessing the violation. All you can do is call 911 and tell the Sheriff your emergency is the guy at the next camp site won't shut off his generator. Good luck with that. It's sad this happens more and more across the state. I grew up camping at pretty much every state forest camp in the lower and upper peninsulas. There was always a spirt of cooperation, mutual respect, concern for others and humility that has mostly disappeared. If you want to run your own generator 24x7, listen to loud country or rock music after dark and drain a couple cases of Old Style with the boys, knock yourself out.

Got here around 1730 on a Sunday. Have the whole place to myself. Not bad getting into, signal is poor. Lots of wildlife.

Nice spot! I stayed here just passing through. Clean sites, very quiet when I was here. It’s right on Mud Lake great for canoe, kayak or boat. Lake access was literally 50 yards from my campsite. I will definitely be back!

This is my spot. Tents are welcome if you're in a jam. No outhouse yet but town is near. This is just down the road from Leverentz SpR.

We winter camped. Beautiful large spots. Gorgeous pines. Off a main road, quiet area.

Great place for families and friends. RV and Rustic Sites as well as Cabins.  

General store serving ice cream and pizza.  

Ice and Propane exchange. 

Beer,Liquor and tobacco products.

Play ground and covered picnic area.

Boat launch 

Pull up docking for store use

This campground is centrally located to everything that’s going on, on the west side of the state. Whether it’s trail riding, Traverse City Cherry festival or hanging in the town of Manton. There is always something going on. Spacious, super clean bath house and on Saturday nights listen to live music right at your campsite!

Access road is an unmarked two track that is not suitable for all vehicles. Campground is free and only six sites. Free and no registration attracts lowlifes who appear to have been there a significant amount of time or the whole season. If you have a leaky trailer that needs a tarp over the top, love having your pitbulls run wild, and firing up your generator, this may be the perfect spot for you. Not sure how the folks dragged the trailers into camp. Turned around and went elsewhere. Could have been a nice spot but...

We really enjoyed our stay. We brought our travel trailer and my brother and his family stayed in a cabin. Very well run campground with plenty for all of our kids to do. We were extremely impressed with the owners and all of their assistance and personal touches. We were told they just took over ownership of the campground last year and this is their 1st season as owners. We will definitely be back!

A great place for dispersed camping. Don't forget the bug spray! Only 20 minutes from town if you did! Great two weeks here!

Great campground.  Booked two nights and had to request a third it was so perfect.   We went up because it advertised orv access right from campsite.  It’s really handy to not have to trailer over to the trsilheads.  Quiet, bug spaces, huge bathhouse. We will be going back!

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They have a really nice area whether it’s fishing or swimming, playground or just plain camping, etc. the only negative thing is the tent camping spots DO NOT have PLUGS which was really irritating because tent camping you’re definitely gonna need an outlet.

Well, the campground is old. Everything works very well. The sites are decent size. They’re plenty of small playgrounds throughout the campground. The beach is amazing the views awesome however when it comes to booking, it’s impossible to get a spot somehow they’re already booked before they even allowed to be booked and it’s every good spot

This is a great little campground. Clean and well maintained. We used it as a base camp for canoeing on the Manistee River and it served us well. Plenty of pull-through sites and lots of grass.

The place was beautiful for Memorial Day weekend. The neighbors in the campers were loud they were playing loud. I did notice lots of ticks. Our dogs all had at least one on them and all of us campers had a few. It’s expected being in the backs wood like that I just didn’t realize how bad. We did some hiking while there and the trails were nice for the most part all the storms definitely did a number on the trees back there lots down in the trails. Overall it was a great weekend

Excellent owners! Super friendly that work hard to keep the place really clean. Its been in business since 1941 I believe. 

They have 20 sites. The ones by the river are where we stayed. (sites 4&5). They also have some little cabins. They also do kyak rentals, with drop off and you boat back to their own landing. Super convenient. 

We stayed the weekend and fully enjoyed it. We stayed in site 5 and had the river as our front yard. Electric is provided at each site, and they do have a dump station.

The ONLY downside I had, and I knew full well going into this and it didn't bother me, it is on M115, a fairly busy road. I know that might be a deal breaker for some, but was easily overlooked for the view we had, the kindness of the owners, and the cleanliness of the facilities and grounds. Most folks wont care, but some purists (Just know that I'm usually a boondock, REAL desolate camping kind of guy), wont like the traffic aspect. I didn't let it bother me.

I give 5 stars because they cant do anything a bout the location, obviously, so I rated on our experience.  We had an excellent time, and will come back again.