Lower Falls Campground — Tahquamenon Falls State Park

Our first visit to this park and first stay at campground, and it was absolute bliss!  Absolutely worth the drive to enjoy all the peace, quiet, space, views, amenities, trails and of course the waterfalls.  Words cannot really explain the beauty all around.  The recent upgrades to this park can easily be seen and appreciated in the well kept grounds, available amenities, picnic areas, pavilions , fully functional accessible bathrooms and large personal shower rooms. Not a detail was missed!    And yes, the restaurant is a plus!  We enjoyed delicious bison burgers and beer.  The campground was full of guests but quiet, clean, clean restrooms, self serve firewood machine that accepts cards!  We were surprised to find out that you will need to pay for state park pass even with camping reservations. The $40 annual pass is the best value if visiting for longer than 3 days.  We stayed for 4 nights with 34’ camper on site 188, which is at the very beginning of loop but still very quiet, no road noise. Outer sites are very spacious, inner sites are much smaller.  Convenient trails connect Lower and upper falls, 4 miles.  One mile trail to reach lower falls from campground. the lower falls alone will give you plenty to explore.  We spent two days there, one kayaking around the lower falls and river where you can launch your own kayak from lower falls, next to picnic area and paddle up to the falls and down river. but be mindful, you will paddle upstream heading back. Some areas are low but doable. The park offers canoe rental but only to lower fall and back. We spent another full day just walking around taking everything in, and cooling off in the falls of course.  The upper fall area is just as lovely but you can only view from view points.  We enjoyed an evening walk to upper falls when hardly no one was there.  The park is roughly 30 mins to nearby lighthouses, 90 mins to western points like Munising and pictured rocks.  No need to second guess this place, just go and enjoy responsibly!  And please be respectful of this beautiful park.

We stayed at the Hemlock campground near the Lower Falls.  The campsites are so close to one another, with absolutely no privacy/buffer.  I am used to camping at parks in Wisconsin, where there is generally more brush and understory plants and sites are better spaced out.  We were there on Saturday and Sunday nights, and the campsite was packed with people; an army of kids riding bikes and scooters, and some teenagers driving an RC car all over.  Lots of dogs, but thankfully they all seemed well-behaved.  I was shocked with how quiet it was after sundown.  I was expecting there to be some loud and obnoxious people, but everyone seemed to be respectful volume-wise.  

Aside from the awkwardness of being so close to other campers, the site itself was nice; flat, pine needle/dirt base.

The bathrooms were alright.  Showers were limited to 3 and always busy.  Water fluctuated between warm and mostly cold.  I did read that the bathroom/shower building is going to be replaced next year, which will be wonderful for future campers.

We bought firewood from the park's dispenser near the entry building.  It seemed wet and did not burn very well.  The second night we purchased our firewood from Gene's Tahquamenon General Store, just down the road, and it seemed to be better quality.   The general store looked nice inside, with all kinds of useful items for sale.

While we stayed at Tahquamenon Falls SP, we visited both waterfalls, which were beautiful and easy to get to.  Bathrooms at both falls were large and clean.

We also made a day trip to Whitefish Bay to see the Shipwreck Museum and hang out at the beach.

We wanted to get dinner in Paradise our second night, but the two food trucks that we originally wanted to check out were closed.  (Sub shop in town was also closed when we tried to stop by at lunch time)  We considered eating at one of the two sit-down restaurants in Paradise or driving to the brewery by the Upper Falls, but we didn't want to wait very long or spend that much money.  We ended up going to Eddy's food truck across from the Wheelhouse.  Food was alright, prices were fair for a food truck, owner was super friendly, and there was a nice little seating area off to the side.

Overall our camping experience at this VERY popular park was good.  If I were to camp there in the future, I would be sure to make my reservations much further in advance in order to get a site on the outer edge (or try out the rustic campsites).

We stayed here towards the end of July. Our GPS wanted us to turn about 1/3 mile sooner on a closed gate rather than the actual Lower Tahquamenon Falls campground(CG) entrance. We got in line at the park checkpoint and paid the$36 for the annual MI State Park Pass as that was more economical for us than paying$10 per night. The ranger then told us to park in the area behind the gate and come in to register for our campsite. We were told that if we needed to fill with water there was potable water at the dump station. We then proceeded to Hemlock Loop, back-in site 182 that’s electric-only(50/30/20 AMP). As we entered our loop, we were a little worried as the sites coming in were either small or had some trees that would prevent an easy back-in. In addition, with our 39’ fifth wheel and F450 truck, we could not avoid brushing against trees on the side and top of our rig as we drove through. We went slow and there was no damage. When we got to site 182, we were relieved to see that the site was open and long enough for our rig and truck. We were also able to swing into the 90-degree back-in with no issues. If the campers in the site in front of us had parked on the front side, we probably would have asked them to move their truck while we got into the site. We got a bar, maybe two on Verizon and were able to get a usable signal very early in the morning. We didn’t get any OTA channels and with all the trees, a satellite would have been iffy, so we didn’t try. We took our showers at the shower house that had really good water pressure and hot water. This state park is a premier tourist attraction so the campground was full every day during our 6-day stay. There were hiking trails leading out of the CG at different locations, and we enjoyed walking our dogs both to the lower falls and other areas. If you go to the falls after 10:00 AM, expect crowds.

We spent 2 days at this park, mostly to see the falls and surrounding area (Whitefish Point).  One night would have been sufficient.  The bathrooms were clean, the park was gorgeous;  however, our biggest complaint was the sites were on top of each other.  It felt like tailgating.  Additionally, there was only 1 electric hookup box per 4 campsites, and it was on the wrong side for us (passenger side).  Our electric cable isn't infinitely long, so we had to park the camper far to the left (passenger side), and were more or less in our neighbor's campsite.  BE SURE to look where the electric hookup is located in photos when you choose a site, unless you have a really long plug.  For reference, we stayed at the Lower Falls Campground, Portage Loop, site 60.  Also to note, there was a monsoon of a rainstorm, and quite a few tent campers took on a few inches of water.  The pools were gone 24 hours later, but that didn't help the soaked tent people.

The trails and waterfalls were absolutely amazing, and the gift shop was A+.  I doubt we will go back there, but I'm glad we went for our first UP adventure.