I picked this campground based on its proximity to the Crystal Lake trailhead, hoping that it would be quieter than Washington Lake since it didn't have RV hookups, and it did not disappoint! There were only a few other occupied sites at the time that I went (midweek, before Labor Day), many of the sites were along the creek in a beautiful alpine meadow. The pit toilet was clean, and since I had a water filter, I could pull straight from the creek at my campsite rather than going to the spigot at the entrance. 

There is a dirt parking lot for lake access just across from the campground entrance, and the campground is a short <2 mile drive to the Crystal Lake trailhead where there are many options for day hikes. I would 100% stay here again!

If you are able to manage the same-day reservation, this campground is a great option for Custer. I planned my trip too late to stay at Sylvan Lake campground, but wanted to be near the Needles Highway since that was the reason this park was on my itinerary. There was plenty of vacancy on a late August weeknight. My site was next to the creek, which provided nice white noise at night. The showers were a short distance away, and even had hot water. The lake is a no-wake lake, and had I stayed for longer, I would have loved to paddle on it.

On the drive in and out to Sage Creek, I saw all the major mammals of the park (bison, prairie dogs, deer, bighorn sheep, pronghorn), and there was even two bison grazing at the equestrian site in the morning. 

The campground is nice and dark and had a great view of the Milky Way. There is no water at camp, which was made very clear on the park website and map. Sage Creek did have some water flow when I went, so I could have filtered some if I needed more. 

My main criticism is that only a handful of the sites had shades for the picnic tables. When I arrived, the campground was less than half full, but none of the remaining sites had a shade. For a park that gets this hot and doesn't really have trees or other shade, I think this should be provided at each site.

I hiked the length of the park over 5 nights on two different trips. The eastern side of the park is definitely quieter and less populated than the western half, but even the western half is pretty quiet except near Chapel. Despite not seeing many other hikers, it was clear that the trails were well-traveled by inexperienced hikers unfamiliar (or apathetic) about Leave No Trace - there was SO MUCH toilet paper along the trails and perimeters of campsites, even at Mosquito River where there is a pit toilet. 

My site at Lowney Creek (#4) was wooded and had way more mosquitoes than the other sites at that campground. There was an abundance of raspberry bushes around camp, which were a nice addition to my morning oatmeal. 

Mosquito River was the busiest of the campgrounds I stayed at, but the ability to go sit on the sandstone in Lake Superior at the end of a long hike was well worth it. 

Cliffs has no water source at camp, but did have some small (possibly seasonal) streams closer to camp than the Miner's Castle visitor center. Had I known that these existed, I probably would not have carried so much water from Miners and instead filtered from these sources.

We did a quick one-night trip to Rock Island and stayed at one of the backpacking sites. It was fun to take the two ferries in to the island, and the campsite was a very short hike from the dock. We did a day hike around the whole island that afternoon/evening and departed the next day. I would not have wanted to stay for longer than the one night since the island is too small to permit much in the way of day hiking, but it was a fun destination for the short trip.

Visited in May 2022.

Loon was a lovely campsite - separated from the others, nice view of the lake, and a short, straightforward walk from the trailhead. 

Fox 2 was a different story - despite the site description saying that it had easy access to trails, we were not able to find a trail leading to the site on the way in, or on the way out of camp. We ended up walking up towards where the trail goes between Crooked and Mountain Lakes and bushwhacked along the shore until we saw the posts for the sites on the water. Even exploring around camp and searching for a trail on the way out, we were unable to find a path to the campsite. 

The park itself was nice and quiet, though that could have been partially due to rain. I probably would not backpack this park again, but would consider a canoe or kayak trip.

I was fortunately on the outer side of the loop at a site that didn't immediately abut a sister site, but as a whole the sites were shoulder-to-shoulder with no privacy. Even with a small car, there wasn't a ton of space to pitch a tent at the site, which was very shallow and up against a hill, leaving no option but to pitch it within about 6 feet of the road. Campers at neighboring sites were surprisingly quiet, given the sheer number of RVs and kids on bicycles. Easy access to hiking trails, including a short ~0.5 mile hike to Lake Michigan.

The dull roar of I-94 traffic was constant at all hours, and the louder/closer traffic of cars speeding down Red Arrow Highway directly behind the campground made even earplugs insufficient to get much sleep. A few sites seemed to have a bit more grass coverage, but the one I stayed at and the majority of others in the Hildebrandt loop were basically just dusty dirt lots. Sites are directly next to each other, no privacy between sites. Trees were scarce at my site, and there was nowhere to hang a hammock.

Pros: Designated dish-washing sink, as well as shower/bathroom building for walk-in sites specifically. Short 0.8 mile hike from camp to Lake Michigan. Bear boxes are shared between only two adjacent campsites, and are large. 

Cons: Walk-in sites have essentially no privacy and are much less secluded than other walk-in sites where I have stayed at other parks. I was at site A003, which abutted adjacent A-loop sites as well as B-loop sites. The other sites were visible, and folks at a neighboring site were playing music late into the night.

I did a 3 day/2 night hike during peak color, starting at the Lake Superior Trailhead. I was warned the Lake Superior trail was muddy when I checked in, and the ranger was not joking - I was grateful to have trekking poles to help balance on logs, branches, roots and rocks to try to keep my boots as dry as possible in the parts of the trail that were submerged. 

Campsite LS-14 had a lovely location on the lake, but was very muddy/previously submerged with water. It immediately abuts site LS-13. There was a wooden platform to put my tent on, but I had to bolster the corners so that it was big enough for my tent poles to have something to rest on. If I had gotten in before dark, I might have seen the small area near the trail side of the site that had higher, dryer ground. There is supposed to be a bear pole for these sites, but the group at the other site said there wasn't one. In hindsight, I think there probably was, away from the campsites, but since I had a canister, I didn't go looking for it after dark. The Lake Superior trail continued to be muddy until you got close to the Big Carp River mouth.

Campsite BC-8 was a big upgrade - very large site, a little patch of open sky over the fire pit, easy access to the river for water. The big trees provided good shelter from a minor storm and high winds overnight. This site is right alongside the trail, but separated from the cabin and next site by a good distance. The hike out from here up the Big Carp River trail to Lake of the Clouds is a somewhat longer trek with a bit of elevation gain, but nothing too intense in my opinion.

I've stayed here twice, both times in August (of different years), both times in Loop 1 which is the quiet loop (no pets, no radios or other noise, 24 hours a day). There are a few walk-in sites (site 16 isn't a very far walk), but most are drive-in. Most sites have hammock-able trees and are quite shady. Pit toilets are available in loop 1, otherwise you can walk to the other loop to have running water. 

Note that check-in is at Ottawa Lake - I arrived too late for check-in to be open this year (not sure if it ever was due to the pandemic), but had no issues just going to the site I'd reserved online.

We booked this for a coronavirus-safe camping trip, and it did not disappoint. Water is usually available, but more limited during the pandemic (spigot turned off by our campsite, but available near the parking lot at the entrance - a longer walk). Restrooms with pit toilets are available in a few places around the loop. The nine sites are visually separated, but not far enough away from each other to block louder noise - we could hear loud music from the site 4 late into the night. We had six tents, but the site could easily have accommodated more.

This was a nice, quiet campground - only two other sites out of the 5 were occupied when I was there. There is a communal fire ring (previous group hadn't extinguished properly when I arrived - it was still smoking) and communal bear locker. The beach is very close, down a steep sandy slope, but was a lot more secluded and quiet than by Beaver Creek or Coves since it's farther to access for the day hikers. I made a fairly last-minute reservation (~2 weeks ahead of time) and there weren't many backcountry campgrounds that had vacancy by that point, but even for being less popular, this was a nice site.

This was a nice spot - very close to the lighthouse to catch the sunset. Au Sable East has a group campsite and another nearby area with six individual sites. These are pretty close together (not much/any visual barrier between), share a few fire rings and a bear box between them.

I don't recommend the inside sites in the north loop - sites are super duper close together with only sparse trees in between. It was a noisy night with dogs from a couple different sites barking back and forth at each other into the wee hours, and my campsite neighbors getting in late and bickering as they set up their tent, their headlights facing my tent. 

The map was misleading as to the location of the toilets. I don't like to be immediately adjacent to the bathrooms, and I picked site 97 with this in mind. Unfortunately, there were two buildings with vault toilets (only one indicated on map), one of which I'd estimate was under 50 feet from my tent pad. Luckily, smell wasn't an issue, but it did mean a lot of foot traffic nearby.

The park itself was nice - lovely view of the water from the trails, maps at most trail intersections and the trails were not too busy.

Note: This review is intended for the Lost Creek Campground at Crater Lake NP, not sure how it got filed here, and not sure why that campground doesn't even appear on the map.

We had to wait over an hour for a site to be vacated at this campground (I suspect this was partially related to a lot of Mazama being closed), but our persistence paid off and we were able to put our tag on site 3 as the previous occupant was packing up. 

Upsides: inside the park, convenient starting point to go on a boat tour the next morning, good hammock trees at site, quiet (we hardly heard or saw any of the other campers), cheap!!

Downsides: not a lot of shade, no water at the campground unless you filter from the creek, bathroom building is closed (but the Porta-Potties were clean), lots of mosquitos

We had a reservation for the night at Mazama, which NPS cancelled <24 hours prior to our arrival so we were left scrambling for another place to stay. This campground was on the list of outside-of-the-park alternatives, and we were able to grab a site (one of several that were available) when we arrived around 6pm. The campsite was nice and right along the creek, the water tasted great, and it's relatively close to Crater Lake.

This is a really nice park and I love that all the campsites were backcountry sites so it was nice and quiet and secluded. I took the slightly longer way to my campsite, but going the shortest route would have been under 2 miles. There are lots of trails in the park, which is mostly flat - I hiked ~15 miles the second day I was there. It was a bit cold in May to hang out on the beach, and I did build a fire each night for warmth. Highly recommend visiting during a new moon if possible - there are SO many stars. There was shore access from my campsite so I could filter water for cooking, etc. There is also potable water at the ranger station as well as flush toilets that are open even when the ranger office is closed.

I backpacked the IAT with a group and we camped for the night at Mauthe Lake at the beginning of April. There are lots of downed trees at the campground, which sort of detracted from the landscape (tornado damage, I'm told). Pit toilets were open, but water had not yet been turned on so be prepared to filter if you go this early in the season. We perused different sites/loops for a while to find adjacent non-electric sites large enough for multiple tents at each and were able to fit 8-9 (small backpacking) tents between 314 and 313.

Each site at the cart-in campground was secluded from view from the others. Mine was right along the water with a path down to a small beach and rock outcrop, nice for sitting and watching the water. The one downside was that the road is so close you can hear cars going by at night. Traffic is fairly light in the evening so it's not too bad, but it did detract some from the ambience. This campground did not connect directly to the rest of the trails - it was a 10 minute walk or so to get to the main trails.