Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Lake, MI

W.O.W. This is the CLEANEST campground I have ever been to. Seriously not 1 cigarette but or candy wrapper on my site when I arrived. Picnic tables are freshly washed. Sites around#40 are spacious and shaded all day which was awesome. No mats allowed but it was great as the grass is green and lush. Store has apparel, camping tools, and ice cream. Kids ran there every day and it is affordable and friendly. Pool is super clean as well as the bathrooms. Loved the online check in process so there was no delays and we just pulled right into our site. If you have pets there is a fenced in dog park with pick up bags and mowed trails for daily walking or biking. We will be back!!!  WIFI too!

Small but sweet campground. If given the choice get a site in the pine loops. It's more of a walk from the lake but the other loops have no shade and seem more crowded together. We had site #24 and it was fairly ideal and very roomy. There is the Pier- Marquette Rail trail about 1.5 miles from the campground, great for biking, running etc. Electric hook up was fine. Bathrooms are cleaned 3 x a day. Showers were warm and clean. This is Amish country and the campground has horse hitching posts near the fishing lakes. We saw a horse and buggy hitched up there. But I imagine anyone could ride their horse there then hitch up while they fish or wade in the water. Beach is across the road from the park and no pets/dogs allowed in that side of the park. Other campers there were courteous and respectful of quite hours. I would stay there again if I had another event bring me to this area.

They were very organized at this campground. Every weekend they have a theme. We stayed when they had the country western weekend. They had all kinds of stuff going on for kids. Pony rides, wagon rides, petting zoo, games and activities. They also had a country music concert in the park one evening. The pool was very nice, but we found at times it was extremely busy. It would of been nice if they had a swimming area on the lake but they didn’t. This is a Christian campground so they are very strict on alcohol consumption. On your site only, but not allowed anywhere else in the park. Overall we had an enjoyable stay.

This is a rustic state forest campground with only 8 non-reservable sites. The sites have decent distance between them and vary from tucked into the trees (away from the lake) or more open (near the lake). Several sites have views of the lake, and a couple have direct access to it down small paths. The sites are large enough for most rigs, even though the DNR recommends smaller trailers. 

Big Mud Lake is a decent size and is nice and calm for kayaking, etc. There is a boat ramp near the campground, although Site #6 has a small path down to the lake with a shallow spot to use for putting a kayak or canoe in and out of the water. 

There is a 2.5-mile-long connector from this campground to the Green Pine Lake Pathway -- it's a total of about 9 miles of trails that connects you to three different lakes. 

Mosquitoes came out a bit at night, but weren't bad overall and didn't bother us during the day in the campground. (Can't speak to what might happen on the trail.) 

Cellular service for Verizon is awesome, service for Google Fi was decent. 

If you can snag a spot here, you're in for a nice peaceful time but can still stay connected if you need to get some work done in between your forays into the woods or out onto the lake.

Nice little county campground, under the canopy of trimmed pine trees. Lots were large, no issues with backing in our 36’ TT with 2 slides (make sure to clean your slides from the pine needles before you go). Fire pits were small And installed in ground, electrical was up to 30amp, and sites were all dirt for most part. They do have sites in front of the park (outside the loops) that is grass but in full sun. It is pet friendly. They have a few spots for fishing, but if you would Luke to swim, you will have to go across the street to the day use (still included with your stay) beach. Only real issues we had (just me) was starting around 9:30-10, the rangers would drive around the loops every 10-15 minutes until midnight (probably longer, but that’s when we turned in) and their lights from the pickup would blind us. In the back end of the park there was 4-5 loops and the loops are the size of a roundabout. So every time the truck would go into any of the loops it would constantly shine in your eyes when you are trying to enjoy the fire.