Best Cabin Camping near Paradise, MI

This beautiful state park is a stunner during the fall colors! Located just outside of the town of Paradise on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It has all the amenities of a state park such as: spacious camp sites with plenty of room for larger RV’s, fire rings, picnic tables, super clean bathrooms and showers, nature programs, a playground, and a camp store. The campsites vary from rustic to those equipped with electricity to camper cabins, depending on your needs.

There are miles of hiking trails, gorgeous waterfalls, fishing boat rentals, paddling/canoeing opportunities, large picnic areas for groups and more. In the winter, they offer snowmobiling and cross country skiing.

Camp site fees vary, but keep in mind that non-residents pay an additional $9 per day for use of Michigan State Parks.

We arrived on a Friday evening. We had a pull through site and a cabin booked. The pull-through sites are SMALL! (Cabins were basic.) If you happen to have a neighbor, you share campfire and picnic table space. Luckily enough, this place doesn’t seem like it’s ever THAT busy. There wasn’t much for the kids to do. They are all 11 and older and the playground was less than appealing to them. The pool was just recently opened and was SUPER warm. they also had a little game room and store. The first night we were there, a cabin-renter up the hill and his wife were arguing loudly and seem to be regulars at this place. While it provided entertainment in the otherwise quiet and boring campground- it was a little off putting when he started driving his truck through the pull through site next to us frequently like a mad-man. We eventually put stuff in the site to prevent this. The one staff member was friendly. We did venture out to see the falls, it was busy but worth the trip.

Despite being close to the road, Northland Outfitters is a quiet, peaceful little campground. With aonly 14 camping sites and 4 cabins, it is small. 

Our site (#6) was located right on the Manistique River. 

There is a horseshoe pit, volleyball court, canoe, and kayak rentals available. Inside the office, a game table for cards or board games is also available to those staying at the campground. 

The bathhouse and shower were clean. Additional outhouses were available near sites farther away from the bathhouse. 

There is a small camp store with basic supplies. 

The downside to this campground is many of the sites didn't have much privacy between them.

Northland Outfitters I stayed here overnight in mid-June to take a kayak trip down the beautiful Manistique River. We decided to come here last minute after seeing it pop up on a Google search. When I called the owner was very nice and told me he had availability for kayaking and camping. Since we have our own kayaks, he suggested we go upstream in our own vehicle and then kayak down to the outfitters, then they would take us back to get our car. It worked out great. The river was up and it was a beautiful ten mile trip which took about 2 hours. 

The campground is wooded and spacious. Maybe 14 or 15 sites. There is electric, but no water at individual campsites, which is typical of the U.P. There is a convenient spigot to fill the fresh water tank on our travel trailer on the way in. No dump on site. Our campsite#10 was only a few feet from the river and had a perfect view. There are fire rings, picnic tables, a BBQ grill and WiFi. There is a camp store with everything you need. There is also a cute restaurant that serves great comfort food just down the street. This was a fun place to stop and camp. I would definitely recommend if you need a spot for the night and/or want to kayak or canoe the river.

Due to Covid and the state parks getting shut down I started looking outside my usual campgrounds and found this gem. We had site 29 as it was the last available one online and it was a huge pull through site. We had electric and no water. It was very shaded which would be great heat but it was so cold I actually wished we had sun. It was across from the playground which my kids loved. I loved that it was close the the bathhouse which also had laundry. It was $1.50 to wash and another $1.50 to dry a load. The showers were hot but I hated that you had to push a little button and couldn’t control the temperature. It was so frustrating it almost knocked a star off because my kids could not push it and it was a pain while trying to get them both showered. Owners were friendly and present. Bathroom and laundry were clean. Site did not have a 20 amp plug just a 30 amp bit owner had an adapter he let me borrow. Close to the falls! Newberry also had two grocery stores, and some dollar stores. Campground sold firewood ($5) and ice ($2). Cell service with Verizon was barely one bar but I did get some service. Camp had WiFi but I couldn’t get it to work it was so slow.

We stayed in site 38, in the Lower Falls- Portage campground. It's an open area which is  shaded. We had 30 amp and access to drinking water on site. Verizon was able to bring in 3G, at best. Bathroom/Showers were about 200 feet from our site. They were extremely clean, even though it was rainy and muddy. As for the rain, our site didn't have standing water, but it was mainly dirt, which was a challenge not to track in our rig. Bring a rug or at least a mat! Nice big fire pits. There is a guy that drives through the park frequently, selling firewood for $5 a bundle. From our campground, it was a short hike, down to the lower falls, store and restaurant. if you make the loop around the lower falls, it's about 3 miles and half of it is through some amazing woods. You can also hike to the Upper falls, that's about a 4 mile hike, one way. But as a reward, there is a Brewery, restaurant, store, big deck with fireplace, at the entrance of the Upper falls. If you truly want to camp to get away from TV, Internet, phones and the daily grind, this place might be for you.

We're camped at Tahquamenon Falls State Park - Lower Falls - Hemlock. The sites are level and fairly large (site 187). If you have an RV and your neighbor has one too, the sites are fairly private but otherwise there's not much separating you from the next site. We are parked on dirt, not much grass on our site but there's the standard picnic table and fire ring and the site seems well groomed or the last folks did a good pick up before they left. No trash or cigarette butts.

The bugs aren't horrible but you have to make sure you get some deet/ThermaCELL/picaridin or shelter at dusk or risk exsanguination.

Pretty happy with the site.