Best Equestrian Camping near Mesick, MI

I only spent a night here while passing through, but it's a very nice campground that's specifically suited to equestrians. This established and well maintained campground is free, and you can stay up to two weeks. There's a well kept pit toilet, 21 established campsites w/ firerings, and even a water pump (meant for horses.) Only a few other campers on a Wednesday night, including some people with horses, and all have been friendly. The campsites are all flat and quite large, being that they are meant to accommodate people with a horse trailer, and there are numerous hitching posts throughout the campground. A great place overall.

There are 2 sections of Schecks Place. One is a campground with picnic tables and site numbers.

The other is the trail camp. You drop your money in the box pick a spot of as much space as you want (there is hardly ever a lot of people).

The last 2 times we went there was maybe one or two people with their horses or just passing thru.

There are bathrooms and a well for water. No showers No electric.

The river runs by and is awesome to go tubing down.

There are trails that go through so if you are an equestrian this spot is perfect.

I like the location; very secluded in the State Forest but only a half hour from downtown Traverse City. This facility meets the recreation need of a diverse cross section of Michigan residents. It’s a great home base or overnight camp for canoeists and kayakers (my particular interest). The camp is also used by mountain bikers & gravel riders, ATV riders, anglers, and equestrians (separate camp area). Large wooded sites. Primitive means vault toilets, no power and hand pump water. No reservations — FCFS.

Negatives: can be noisy at times with the ATVs and also large camping groups. But for the most part I’ve found ppl to be respectful. A couple of the sites flooded after an unusually heavy rain today, so I would avoid any site that looks low if rain is expected.

Site 16 is good. High and dry after the rain.

Family friendly, there is fishing and canoeing, fire pits and swimming in the lake. They have a camp for horses too.

Quiet, large sites, like new bath house, 7th nite free, rate$35, good location for northwestern Michigan sites Water on all outside sites. interior sites share water hookups

This campground is in some lower ground, with a beautiful river running though it. It's fairly wide open, with trees around, but this was great as it made stargazing easy. We were here for a night as we were traveling on the Michigan Shore to Shore Trail, the overall experience was excellent!

We thought this would be a good place for our first trip in our new to us 5th wheel! We have a 28.6ft 5th wheel and had not problem getting in and parked! Management did an awesome job of spreading out guests until they were full! Lots of things for the kids, basketball, volly ball, a beach area, pond with fishing….. so much more. Very clean, very kind and helpful staff!

Great campground, larger sites, pull thru sites available. Low rates even on holidays. Our first time there was 4th of July weekend, they have a large building for events....over the weekend they a concert! Live band and food truck....free to all campers and their friends! It was a great time and the owners and manager are very friendly. We will definitely be back there soon.

Awesome Campground! Not a parking lot, lots of trees! We had a family, socially distant reunion with 6 sites. We rented a extra site, so nobody could rent near us, sooo nice! Very close to Manistee River and canoe/raft liveries, very fun family togetherness activity.

Very clean bath houses and campground is maintained well.

Internet worked well using our hotspots, but, like all campgrounds, if you like being “in the woods;” internet is always a challenge. Most of our group had AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, the best service seemed to be Verizon in the morning and Sprint at night.

We will be going back

We stayed July 2021 for an RV rally. We had no building of shelter for community gatherings. But, weather cooperated and we had a great time.

Power 50/30 were fine. Water is a shared spigot on most sites, but some sites have water. There is a good dump station. Sites are level. No landscaping.

Lots of restaurants and attractions in Traverse City.

We would stay again.

Nice people. Some sites are electric only, some include water. Not busy and quiet. Did not use bathhouse.

Website to check is www.northwesternmichiganfair.net/campground-information/

Campground is closed July 28th - August 11th

They have electric on all sites, both water and electric on some sites and a dump station. There's a bathhouse with limited individual showers