This campground is right on the waters of the Mississippi. There are several locations to launch boats, canoes, & kayaks. Plenty of areas to take a dip. There are a few playgrounds for kids to have fun at. Lots of areas for picnics and just to hang out, bring your hammock if you have one! There is a trail that winds around the back side of the park, but at times can be flooded. Make sure to bring bug spray because the campground can be overtaken by the pesky mosquitoes. If you're looking for time on the water this is your place to go and relax!

We spent a weekend back country camping in the Porcupine Mountains; this was our first time here. Friday we spent the day hiking all over the park with our day packs. We hiked Government Peak Trail to Union Spring and Trap Falls/ lost lake. Union Spring hike isn't the greatest but the spring is pretty cool to take a look (completely clear with white sand bottom, not accessible to swim wade, etc), trap falls was neat, great place to take a dip! We ventured over to Lake of the clouds just to take a gander, didn't do much hiking in this area. From there we parked our car at Pinkerton; threw on our full packs and headed to our 1st site, LS #6 = AMAZING view and it sits off the trail a bit!! It's about a 4 mile hike into the site; bear pole provided at site. This site sits right on the lake. Someone has done some kick butt work at this site. We had stone chairs to sit at around the fire pit, great wind break surrounding the fire pit, and stone chairs to sit out on the rocky shore to watch the sunset. Tent pad is big enough for 2 small tents but other areas would suffice for tent set up. The next morning we got up and hiked towards Big Carp/shining cloud falls, spent the morning hiking around this area. We came back, broke down camp, and headed for our next site LC #9. This site was nice but we were spoiled by our 1st site. The view was nice, much more open and sits really close to the trail. No bear pole at this site so you need to do your diligence to find decent trees to hang your stuff from. Their isn't much room for more than 2 tents at this site. Once camp was set we took our time and hiked more of the little carp trail towards Trapper & Greenstone Falls. The next day we broke down camp and headed back to the car. This park is huge, outside of Lake Of the Coulds, we ran into maybe a dozen people the whole weekend. If I was going to do it again I would have only reserved LS 6 and day hiked all around from there on Big & Little Carp or picked another site further away to backpack to. We were limited on time so that and wanted to experience different sites since it was our 1st trip. Their are plenty of opportunities to go swimming either in the lake or the numerous creeks you come across. No major issues with bugs, no bear sightings but we saw paw prints, lots of birds, squirrels, chipmunks, etc. Take your time on the trails and enjoy all that nature is throwing at you. It's a beautiful park.

My husband and I picked this park because of it's friendliness towards kids. We took our 2 9 year old nieces on their first tent camping adventure. We chose site 28 because it was a walk in site and on the water. When we arrived and checked in we grabbed one of their pre-loaded GPS units for Geocaching; It's something the park offers for free. They give you a bag, GPS and information book on all the Geocaching sites. We drove to the site and started loading up the cart to walk in. We walked past a very open campsite that was right next to ours, could be bad if you have loud neighbors but ours were great. There are 2 other sites in this location but far enough away and they don't walk past your site to get to them. The site was spacious and has a great fire pit for cooking. There is a small trail leading to the water with an extremely small beach front but it was enough to keep the girls entertained. Set up camp and started our geocaching fun. We hiked to the kids fishing pond & the tower. Trails are easy and well groomed. Following hiking we made our way to the beach; unfortunately, the algae was in bloom so the water was caked green! However, it doesn't do any harm so we made our way out into the more clear portion of the water and had a blast! The beach area has showers and a great area to have a picnic. The evening presented itself with an amazing sunset from our beach and lots of crickets chirping. It made for a peaceful night. In the morning we took the girls fishing off the dock and then over to the kids pond; the park also offers free poles and tackle. We ventured into the campground area for fresh water. From what we saw the sites were spacious and fairly private. The shower area was well maintained and is also accessible for anyone with disabilities. We will be coming back to this park; it was great! We didn't run into any issues with mosquitoes or other bugs while there.

We stayed at backpacking site B. In our opinion the best backpacking site in the island. It's secluded, tree covered but offers great views of Lake Michigan. The backpacking sites are only 1-2 miles from the dock. The park/island itself is only roughly 7 miles. There are a few trails to hike, a lighthouse to explore and the dock area. They do have a small building that contains outdoor equipment(balls, frisbees,bocce ball etc) to use. It's a nice relaxing little adventure. Ferries come a few times a day to pick up/drop off, approx 15 min ride from Washington island. Bugs and flies can be bad so be prepared :) as fare as the campground goes, sites 15 &16 supposed to be the best, again in our opinion.