Newaygo State Park Campground

Pretty sweet spot, quiet and clean

Nicely designed campground w privacy between sites. To bad staffing cuts didn’t allow there to be any DNR employees to enforce the 10pm noise curfew. Two nights of brain damaging laughter and frivolity by campsite 21 ruined the whole experience. The cigar boats running full throttle all day was annoying. To bad the new Dragon trail will get less attention because of the negatives that go w this over crowded destination. I will not be back. Going to buy my own campground. Done w State Park System.

Our reason for choosing this park was that we had rented a Pop-up trailer to see how we'd like it, and this was the nearest campground. That said we found the pop-up to our liking, though it felt huge to us!
Campground was primitive, but that's what we go for anyway. Very little in the way of trails, thought the main one had Frisbee golf along the way, which was unexpected.
Hardy Dam Pond is actually a good-sized man-made lake, and as such, has no beaches to speak of. There's a small swimming area near the boat launch.
  We were there in July of 2020 and the "Trump navy" was out in force. Lots of motorboats overloaded with flags, some inconsiderate boaters almost swamped our little canoe. (This was shortly after a nationwide news story in which Trump boaters swamped and sank *each other* on a lake in Texas). 
Some of the campers partied late, and some boaters got an early start, so noise levels were unpredictable.
 Nearby, a great place to stock up on meats and Jerky in the area  is Galesburg Meats in Kalamazoo.  Also a must see is the Gilmore Auto Museum in Hickory Corners