Best Equestrian Camping near Petoskey, MI

I love coming to Pigeon River not only because it is secluded and peaceful, but because there are so many things to do in the area. The Shingle Mill Pathway (a roughly 10 mile loop trail) runs right through the camgrounds which is ideal for hiking, backpacking, and mountain biking. The river is also great for fly fishing and floating down If you decide to bring a tube. The best place to camp is right on the river which is lovely to fall asleep to at night. Beware of the bugs! Also, there is no cell service.

The shingle mill pathway in Pigeon River State Forest was a nice, quiet trail. Went on a Thursday in June and saw 1 other person over 2 days. If you hike about 6 miles the first day, you’ll find a nice dispersed campsite on the west side of grass lake. The only problem with this hike was the insane amount of ticks.

Me and my son picked one of a few spots on the pigeon river. The river ran along the edge of our site. Highly recommend, but the current is strong so beware if you have little ones. I wouldn’t recommend for 6 and under.

Great campground. Small in overall size for more peaceful, enjoyable quietness. Sites along the River. Clean and well taken care of by DNR.

The sites are all great! Camp along the river if you can. Make sure you have all of your supplies before you arrive as the nearest town is 20+ minutes away. Bring a map/gps because there is not cell service.

I love this area so much! So much to explore and not heavily trafficked at all. NCT runs through the state forest, so dispersed camping all around. There are a few rustic campgrounds, but we usually just stay at one of the dispersed sites because most of them have a sweet set up. Lots of awesome sink holes to swim in, and even elk sightings. If you can manage to find this place, you will love it!

You can pick sites on the river or back by the woods. There are vault toilets and a well for water. The Shingle Mill Pathway runs through the campground. Each site comes with fire pit and picnic table. I've seen people tenting and I've seem people with large fifth wheels. Some sites are only big enough for tents but most sites can fit large rvs.

We have a 36 ft Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow and stayed in site 107 for 3 days in mid July. This is a relatively large CG, just under 100 wooded sites, which are reasonably spaced for a private CG. The CG is very clean and well maintained, but rather on the pricy side, even with all of the amenities. The roads and sites are gravel. Our site had a fair bit of slope side to side, which I mentioned to the person that led us to our site. He said they’d look into it. During the week, the CG was only about 1/3 full, but completely filled up on the weekend.  AT&T coverage fair, with 2 Bars of service that fluctuated between 5G and LTE, with speeds up to 4.3 MB/s. The CG is pretty heavily wooded, so access to satellite TV and/or Starlink is highly dependent on location. We had marginal views of the southern and northern skies, but we were able to get DISH coverage on all three western satellites at our site and Starlink was able to get speeds up to 6.5 MB/s. Unfortunately, the CG WiFi wasn’t very usable, less than 1 MB/s, even before the CG filled up.

Sites not paved and entrance roads not paved!!!

This is so great koa with no road noise. The trees are mature and beautiful. This is a great laid back, family campground. The sites are bigger than other campgrounds in the area.

Entire camp is rustic with well pumps throughout, also all restrooms are vault toilets. Sinkhole trails within walking distance, beautiful lake with some nice fish. I believe it is a no wake lake so it doesn’t get too wild.

Peaceful and quiet and close to the sinkhole pathway. Clean bathrooms and large mostly private sites. You can launch your boat and beach it near the campground and your campsite but no direct access that we saw.