Best RV Parks & Resorts near Sleeping Bear Dunes

Great layout, nice level sites, super peaceful. We stayed on the RV Park side not the RV Resort, the sites were quite large, well shaded and spaced a good amount apart. Wonderful location to the dunes. And Glen Haven beach is just up the road, the beach is large, parking can be a pain but the water is AMAZING! We spent a whole day on the beach and playing in the water. Staff was also very nice and helpful with any questions we had. Another bonus If you’re doing long trips is they have a coin operated laundry room, this was our second stop on a 9 day trip and it was nice to get all our laundry caught up before we got home.

My goal is always to find campgrounds that are in state park or national forest settings, but with all the conveniences of a private campground. It’s a bonus if there are lots of things to do in the area. Indigo Bluffs delivers on all fronts. We had a lovely, shaded, level, spacious site which most of them seemed to be.

The campground was large - it’s actually two parts - an RV resort for large fifth wheels and Class As and another campground for everyone else. I really liked the regular campground as it had a lot more shade than the RV resort area.

Indigo Bluffs is close to Empire which has a beach and Joe’s Friendly Tavern. Joe’s has excellent hamburgers and plenty of beer variety. It is also close to a trailhead for the Sleeping Bear Dunes Heritage Bike Trail. The Sleeping Bear Dunes trail is wonderful, a bit hilly, but oh so scenic! It is also close to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and the infamous Dune Climb. We took a short drive to Sutton’s Bay and rode on the Leelanau Bike Trail to Traverse City. If you do this, be sure to stop at Farm Club on the way back. Excellent brewery and farm-to-table restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating and a farm market.

We will definitely return to Indigo Bluffs!

This is a great rustic state forest campground. It seems to be easier to get a site here when the neighboring sleeping bear dunes campgrounds are full.

It is first come first serve but we went on a beautiful summer weekend and could still get a site. We brought our kayaks and would recommend bringing two vehicles so you can put in higher up the river, if you try to kayak up the river from this campground to float back down you will feel like you are in an infinity pool, the flow is very strong in this part of the platte river.

If you stay it’s worth the drive 30 minutes north to visit Glen Arbor for the day!

pros

less crowded, sites have large spacing inbetween, great platte river viewing, feels like you are deep in the outdoors camping, $15 site fee is a great price, clean water pumps and vault toilets, 30 minutes from sleeping bear dunes and 15 minutes from the shores of Lake Michigan.

considerations

This campground is for tents and small trailers, it’s rustic so no electric hook up, no hand sanitizer in bathrooms,

This is a great location for a campground. Close to Sleeping Bear Dunes, hiking trails, biking trails, and canoeing/kayaking on the river. It’s back off the road a ways so it’s quite and it is well maintained and clean. There are 2 sides to this campground: one is your standard RV campground and the other is a luxury RV resort for class A motor homes and 5th wheels only. A couple of things that we really liked about the campground is they have daily trash pick up at your site and they have a food truck at the campground. The pool was very clean and well maintained. A couple of things we didn’t care for is outside of the pool and a small playground there wasn’t really much for kids to do. There were no planned activities or anything. I also found it odd that even though Covid restrictions have eased up they are still operating under a lockdown. There store was window service only. If you did want to go inside someone had to unlock the doors for you and you were required to wear a mask. Other than we had an enjoyable stay here.

We camped in a 40’ motor coach for a week. Site is gravel and dirt. It is a pull through site that required us to do quite a bit of leveling. The hookups are rather far away so we needed extensions. Our site required us to pull through in such a way that the hookups were on the opposite side of our coach. They only have 15 full hookup sites and none were available for our time frame. They have several long term tenants. Roads are narrow but most sites are ample. They have a pump out service twice a week for $10 each time. Bathrooms, showers and laundry available and are clean and nice. Staff is kind, helpful and knowledgeable. Pool is heated. Wifi is through a third party and very inexpensive at $2 a day. Very family friendly with lots of children. Campground is clean and well maintained.