Whether you're a tent camper, an RVer, or just passing through, Sand Lake, MI has a lot to offer. There are tons of hikes and other fun activities to partake in, as well as sights to see and explore. You're sure to find the perfect spot for your Michigan camping adventure.
Michigan Recreation Passport is required for vehicle entry into state parks and recreation areas, state boat launches, state forest campgrounds and state trail parking lots. The Michigan Recreation Passport does not cover local, county, municipal, or metropolitan parks or recreation areas. Learn more: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79134_79210---,00.html
$20 - $50 / night
Michigan Recreation Passport is required for vehicle entry into state parks and recreation areas, state boat launches, state forest campgrounds and state trail parking lots. The Michigan Recreation Passport does not cover local, county, municipal, or metropolitan parks or recreation areas. Learn more: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79134_79210---,00.html
Welcome to Old Orchard Park Campground located in beautiful Oscoda, Michigan! We have camping sites for all types and sizes of campers, tents and pop ups!We also have cabins, yurts and group camping areas. For your convenience, camping sites at Old Orchard Park are available by reservation. Campers are now able to make a reservation online by clicking the “reserve now” button below to check site availability and reserve a site. Join us for a outdoor experience to make memories that will last a lifetime!
We invite you to visit or stay in beautiful Old Orchard Campground, which is one of the largest campgrounds in Northeast Michigan. Located within the Huron-Manistee National Forest, along the River Road Scenic Byway, the park which is nearly four miles long, overlooks Foote Pond, which formed after the construction of Foote Dam in 1916, on the AuSable River. The park is open from March 15 thru November 30 each year, with plenty of outdoor recreation opportunities for all three seasons therein. This public recreation facility is part of a Consumers Energy Hydroelectric Dam Project licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and is operated under the authority of the Township of Oscoda.
Michigan Recreation Passport is required for vehicle entry into state parks and recreation areas, state boat launches, state forest campgrounds and state trail parking lots. The Michigan Recreation Passport does not cover local, county, municipal, or metropolitan parks or recreation areas. Learn more: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/buy-and-apply/rec-pp
Michigan Recreation Passport is required for vehicle entry into state parks and recreation areas, state boat launches, state forest campgrounds and state trail parking lots. The Michigan Recreation Passport does not cover local, county, municipal, or metropolitan parks or recreation areas. Learn more: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/buy-and-apply/rec-pp
Michigan Recreation Passport is required for vehicle entry into state parks and recreation areas, state boat launches, state forest campgrounds and state trail parking lots. The Michigan Recreation Passport does not cover local, county, municipal, or metropolitan parks or recreation areas. Learn more: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79134_79210---,00.html
Park Features
$40 - $50 / night
South Branch Trail Campground Group Site is ideal for equestrian camping. The group area impresses with its beautiful scenery and convenient access to horseback riding and hiking along the 240-mile Michigan Shore-to-Shore Horseback Riding and Hiking Trail. Priority will be given to campers with horses, however everyone is welcome. The spacious site holds up to 250 campers and features a day-use horse parking area.
Hike or horseback ride on the Michigan Shore-To-Shore Riding and Hiking Trail. The trail begins in the town of Empire near Lake Michigan, on the west side of Michigan and ends near Oscoda, Michigan on the Lake Huron eastern side of the state. The eastern part of the trail follows the historic AuSable River to its end in AuSable, just south of Oscoda.
Hike or horseback ride on the Michigan Shore-To-Shore Riding and Hiking Trail. The trail begins in the town of Empire near Lake Michigan, on the west side of Michigan and ends near Oscoda, Michigan on the Lake Huron eastern side of the state. The eastern part of the trail follows the historic AuSable River to its end in AuSable, just south of Oscoda.
Campsites are situated in a stand of oak and pine at an elevation of 880 feet. The campground is adjacent to the South Branch River and is also not too far from the AuSable River. The magnificent Lake Huron is only a short drive east of the campground.
$40 - $100 / night
Beach, trails and children's solace pad, just an easy walk across the road. Newer bathhouse. Shady sandy campsite. Be sure and visit downtown Bay City, lots of great restaurants, a Riverwalk on both sides of the river, concerts in the park. Great atmosphere.
Most sites are good, though some have slopes to them. Choose carefully. Great newer playscape and splash pad (!) for the kids, across State Park Rd from the main campground. Nice newly opened visitor/nature center. Campground usually clean and patrolled. Showers/restrooms are good, cleaned twice a day. Friendly staff.
Some of the best campground hosts are here.
Groceries, restaurants & laundromats are a short drive away.
TV reception was ok, and T-Mobile worked well enough.
Nice park. Can feel a little tight on some spaces, especially if your neighbor sprawls over the lines. Restrooms could use a little improvement (like replacing the crappy doors leading into the building) and some maintenance, but are clean. Being on a point between Lake Huron & Tawas Bay, there's almost always some breeze. There's beaches on both sides of the point. Staff friendly. Like most MI State Park sites, it's electric only. Tawas has no (as of this review) FHU sites. There's the Tawas Point Lighthouse here, which you can climb for a few bucks. Nice little gift shop next to it. It can get really packed here on weekends, and the day use gets closed because of being too full.
Big rigs, note that the roads can be tight, especially when inconsiderate campers crowd the road, cause you know... It's all about them.
All in all, it's one of our favorite state parks.
Hit Klenow's Market in town. They do great sandwiches!
Port Crescent is a really amazing campground to visit. The campground contains cabins, tent, and RV sites. Our site (95) was an electric only site but water was nearby.
Our site was on the sand but large enough to park the camper parallel to the campsite. we were well off the road there were no worries concerning passing vehicles.
The nature and wild life there are simply amazing and the sunsets on the beach were incredible. They were even more amazing because wildfire activity enhanced the fading rays of the sun.
We did buy the yearly MI recreation pass, not only for this but for some other stays we had planned in MI. The pass was $35 which was affordable.
For Astronomers this is a certified dark sky park the IDA. This is a Bortle 3 site with an SQM reading of 21.79 mag./arc sec2. I did not get to observe here due to smoke from wild fires.
Saginaw Bay is nearby and its a beautiful place to visit.
to Make sure you know where your gas stations are as they are a long way away from Each other. Also the water spigots in the park don't have hose connectors to either fill up with potable water at the dump station or bring water canisters with you.
Otherwise have a great time, we did!
We left Tawas Point campground and went here. The day use beach bathroom was our first stop...not the cleanest. But the beach was nice as were the trails. Once in the camp itself, we loved how much better it was than Tawas. It's more spread out and I didn't feel like people were staring at me. Our site was perfect. We had some shade, perfect to park under as we car camped. Spacious lot and a trail connected us to a grassy area, boathouse, and beach. PERFECT spot if you are a paddleboarder/kayaker/etc. No wake lake is awesome for paddle sports! Our bathhouse was very clean. We will DEFINITELY be coming back!
It is very nice and extremely clean. However it is kind of cramped. Sites feel close and everyone was very nosey. Pet beach is nice. Water is beautiful. Convenient location. People didn't listen to rules such as quiet hour and let their badly behaved dogs run loose. Bath house is extremely nice! All in all, I would camp here on an off day/season.
Since 1966 I visit, often just back packing. Clean enough & refreshing enough & still something pre-historic, particularly the beach, & the roads to it.
After following this campground's FB page for years we finally got to visit this summer. It sits along the Rifle River next to Rifle River Campground and Whites Campground.
The campground is huge and offers so much! The store up front had everything you probably forgot at home, plus more.
The bathrooms were always clean when we needed them. The showers were clean, some lacked hanging hooks on the walls. The water was warm immediately, but the push button timer for the shower water made showers kind of annoying (small issue though).
Everyone seemed to abide by the noise curfews around 11 pm and it seemed rather quiet through the night given the amount of campers around. The rustic sites along the river in section "N" were very large and spacious spots. Sections L and M seemed to be tightly packed in.
The Group camping side is considered the "Adult/Party" area. Nobody was crazy out of hand or anything to that nature, just louder music, drinking, etc.
There were numerous playground areas, volleyball, horseshoes, and even an arcade area. Although we didn't stay in the Family area it looked very nice.
We had a great time at the campground and would 100% stay again.
We got lucky for a spur of the moment weekend get away and scored the perfect site at a campground we had never been to before. It's a busy campground.. but this site made us feel like we were in our own little world. The lake was only a few yards from our tent. There is also a dark sky preserve there which worked out perfectly for the meteor shower that was going on that weekend. One of my favorite camping trips ever... it was just gorgeous. I booked online through the michigan parks website. There must have been a cancelation that I got lucky and grabbed. It really was the perfect camp site.
If you get the right spot, you have essentially private access to the beautiful waters of Lake Huron. Clean beaches and large private lots.
Campground was perfect for tenting. Right by bathrooms and they were very clean. Short walk to the beach!
I stayed here a few times in September 2022. The weather was really rainy but the lake is pretty and Oscoda has a lot of hiking and places to hang up a hammock and relax. (The campsite is about 10 minutes from town.)
Labor Day weekend was crazy and my neighbors had a really difficult time staying in their designated site - one family next to me really liked to put their trash on a tree within my site. People just seemed a little unfriendly and territorial - it seemed like they didn’t know what to do with a younger solo woman camper. Unrelated, a guy was shouting a song about cocaine around 11pm, drinking with his buddies. Just kind of weird vibes even though there were a million kids. It didn’t really feel like homey, family vibes.
The second time I was there I was told I could not car camp. The lady who was working didn’t seem to care but my last night an older male worker waited at the entrance until I returned and loudly announced my site number and said I wasn’t allowed to car camp (I usually don’t get frustrated with older people when they yell because I assume they may be hard of hearing, but it seemed a little unsafe to announce where I would be sleeping.) I asked if hammock camping was ok and he became gruffer and told me his boss wanted to kick me off the campground - which seemed to imply a possible punishment if I kept asking questions. Ironically, I was asking these questions because I didn’t have a tent but was still trying to comply. I just felt uncomfortable after that and left, spending my last night somewhere else.
Showers are ok - they’re coin operated and cleaned every few days.
The scenery is pretty but it doesn’t work for me if I can’t car camp and if there’s no cell service to work. As mentioned, weird vibes as a solo female camper too. Adult activities - like a dance party or movies - take place after dark. I can’t imagine how being in a dark forest with strangers would feel safe, let alone fun, when there is alcohol and it seems likely there are other substances too. No really where my interests lie.
But if you have an RV you might have a different experience - or if you’re looking for a party during a holiday weekend. It might also be worth a try if you’re camping as a group.
Great for our “eastern” adventure up north. Sites require a reservation either at the office or Online. Not somewhere you can just pay for on spot because it’s in the rifle river recreation area. We had site 127 at Devoe lake and it was very pleasant. Quiet and lovely in late September.
This was our 2nd time here. We stayed on site 71 this time down by the beach. Good amount of space for our set up. Nice view of the lake from across the road.
We tented here. Our location was right behind the general store so at night the lights were very bright. This KOA has so many activities for kids and we enjoyed ourselves here!
First time here, our site is huge. Lot of people on Friday and Saturday so extra caution when driving through the park. The Tobico Marsh trails and observation towers wee great for watching birds. Lots of trails. TheDay use area has lots of beach, as well as picnic areas, pavilions, a fishing pond, more trails. As this is less than an hour from home, this will become a regular just get away for a weekend campground for us.
We stayed here on Labor day last year and loved it. We are going back again this year. We will be making this an annual plan.
Great location and our site had a nice shortcut through the woods that exited by the lake and bathrooms. The overlook tower is definitely worth the hike and there's a hidden surprise at the same location for those who know where to look. 😉
All in all it was good, no beach to mention it was a hill other than that good
You can climb a lighthouse and look out 30+ miles. Two swimming beaches. Dog beach. A few trails to walk on, not many to ride bikes.
This was my first solo camping experience - I went up on a Thursday and the area was empty. It was super clean and the spots were large. I wish I would have picked a different spot as I was right next to the bathroom but it was fine. Plenty of fire wood around the collect with access to trials and the river.
Location is excellent. This is a well maintained park, fantastic beaches and nice trails. I arrived on a Thursday and left Sunday. The sites are on the small side without any barriers, which was fine midweek. On the weekend, overcrowding was the norm. This was my first experience at a Michigan state park, and I do not know if others have designated spaces based on the size of the RV or tent. This would make a more pleasant experience for campers. My guess is the park was designed long before people hauled around a 30 foot camper. No park rangers facilitated parking that I could see, and clearly you should book your spot as early as possible.
Midweek 5 stars, Weekend 1
We came in late for just a place to rest before heading further north. Drop box available after 10pm(summer). Between 8p-10p there is a yellow phone to check in with. Can book day of until 8pm online. Easy to get into late at night. Big lots. Fire pit. Sites are electric only. Recommend to have extension cord for some sites, as plug in can be far. Website has pictures for sites and will advise if lot gets wet. Staff was very friendly the next morning. Updated our rec pass at the park before leaving. Lots of trails and swimming beach near park.
We loved this campground. The proximity to the beach was phenomenal. Our site, 95A was along the old river channel which made for nice views of water fowl. I will say though, the Canada Geese were extremely active…even at late hours of the night and early morning (expected). Lake Huron did not disappoint. We enjoyed some sunsets, weathered driftwood, more geese, sea gulls, and sand pipers.
The weather started out decent and very fall like, but come late Friday night, sustained 20 mph winds and unrelenting downpours ensued. Did I mention we were in a tent?! Fortunately, I truly did “batten down the hatches” so to speak. This is not a tent review, but the Sam’s Club 9’ x 14’ tent never leaked, never ripped, and held its own!
Flies out did mosquitoes, and bees were in full pollination mode. We did fog our site and used Thermacells which helped within Mosquitoes. Chipmunks ruled the campground. They were busy everywhere. Also a local woodpecker was going to town at a site next to us. We didn’t see any raccoons or deer…did I mention geese?!?
Site had 120v and 30 amp service, a picnic table, and fire ring. It was directly across the street from the restrooms and showers.
Site Size was approx 33’ x 50’
Shower facilities were a bit dated but functional. Restrooms were clean with nice hot water and high powered hand driers.
We’re planning another trip and hoping to make it to the sites closer to the lake.
Great little sites within the trees and near the Devoe Lake, which has a small beach. Lots of trails, lakes and the Rifle River which was awesome to float down. Pit toilets were clean. They have wood for sale at the entrance of the park.
We were greeted at the gate by an extremely helpful and knowledgeable gentleman. He provided good directions, and helped us with our Rec Pass.
The site was easy to find, spacious, and had adequate distancing from other campers. It included a fire pit and picnic table too.
The lake was serene in the early mornings and evenings. Listen for the woeful call of the loons. What a treat!
Word of caution, the raccoons start partying as soon as you bed down. Make sure your food and trash is adequately covered/contained.
Campground has vault toilets. We never used them but good to know they have them.
Small, rustic, remote, clean and quiet. Large and level campsites that are well spaced. Although only one of the sites has a river view this campground Ideal for trout anglers. There's a access point to Gamble Creek between sites 171 and 173. I got my 20' trailer back there no problem.
Camping near Sand Lake, Michigan, offers a mix of beautiful scenery and outdoor fun. Whether you're looking for a peaceful retreat or an adventure-filled getaway, there are plenty of campgrounds to choose from.
Camping near Sand Lake, Michigan, has something for everyone, from families to RV enthusiasts. Just remember to plan ahead and enjoy the great outdoors!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Sand Lake, MI?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Sand Lake, MI is Tawas Point State Park Campground with a 4-star rating from 23 reviews.
What is the best site to find glamping camping near Sand Lake, MI?
TheDyrt.com has all 20 glamping camping locations near Sand Lake, MI, with real photos and reviews from campers.
