Nick S.

Indianapolis, IN

Joined July 2016

Good campground, bad weather :(

Campsites had paved parking pads, picnic table, fire-ring, and electrical hookups. Restrooms and showers were clean. Lot's of open space and nothing really separating you and your neighbors. This SRA is right on Patoka Lake, so there's plenty to do on the water - boating, fishing, floating cabins, beaches. There's also a disc golf course, archery range, and plenty of paved & dirt trails. It also has a great nature center. Unfortunately our trip got cut short due to very high winds, but we will definitely be back!

Short but fun stay

Campsites have a gravel parking pad, picnic table, fire-ring, electrical hookups, and thick health grass which is awesome if you're staying in a tent! The have public wifi that isn't really working that often. There was a truck delivering firewood making rounds through the campground which was very convenient. Stuff to do - disc golf, beach, beach volleyball, hiking & biking trails, boating/fishing. Unfortunately we didn't get to stay here for long, so we're planning on coming back soon.

Paynetown State Recreation Area

Paynetown SRA is right on Lake Monroe about 10 minutes from Bloomington, IN. Campsites have a gravel parking pad, picnic table, fire-ring, and electrical hookups. Restrooms & showers were about average… not great/not bad. A private company rents kayaks, jet skis, boats, and paddleboards from the camp-store in the SRA. There are beaches, a nature center, & playgrounds, so it seems very family friendly. There's a cool little pizza place right down the road too. This is the perfect place to camp for a weekend of fun on Lake Monroe. It's also only about 20 minutes from Lake Lemon.

Great Campground, lots to do, great location

We camped here for the 4th of July in 2015 and had a great time. We stayed at the south campground, and the sites were pretty big and there was plenty of shade during the day. Sites had picnic table, fire-ring, electrical, and no parking pad. Restrooms & showers were clean and well maintained.

The campground is right on Duck Lake, and there was a canoe/kayak launch in the campground in addition to the main ramp in the center of the park.

Be sure to check out Bud's for coffee and the Hofbrau for a good beer selection. Both are just a 5-10 minute bike-ride from the park.

The Interlochen Center for the Arts is literally right across the street. It is a fine arts boarding high school during the school year, and a fine arts camp each summer. Many of the world's top young artists study here, and there were free nightly performances by the extremely talented students & faculty.

This is also a great campground to use as a "home-base" for taking day-trips to other attractions in Northern Michigan - Platte River paddle trips, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Traverse City's many shops, wineries, restaurants, and breweries, and even the National Cherry Festival if you time your trip right! They're all about 30-45 minutes away. Also, be sure to check out Paddle for Pints in Traverse City during the summer. It's basically a paddle-brewery-crawl, and it sells out fast!

We will definitely be coming back to this park. We were there for a week and still weren't able to do everything we wanted!

Great for the ORV trails

Campsites were pretty standard - fire-ring, picnic table, electrical hookups, but I don't think there was a parking pad. Restrooms & showers were clean. There's a boat ramp in the campground, and a little general store a short walk away. The off-roading was a blast, and there are places to rent jeeps if you don't own a vehicle that can handle it.

The engine revving on the main road and the partying at the campground consistently went pretty late into the night. Even with it being a little noisier than we were expecting, we had a good time. We probably won't be making it back to this campground though.

Muskegon State Park - Lake Michigan Campground

This was our second time Camping at Muskegon State Park. The first time we camped at the Channel Campground (not so great), and this time we camped at the Lake Michigan Campground. This campground was easily the better of the two. Tons of tall trees, HUGE campsites with electrical hookups, picnic tables, and fire-rings. I believe you're allowed to have up to 6 people per-site, and you would have no problem fitting everyone. There were clean restrooms and private showers. There are steps that lead straight from the campground to a small beach right on Lake Michigan. Firewood & ice are sold at the campground office, and there's also a small privately owned ice-cream shop at the north end of the campground that sells wood & ice.

There's a boat ramp right down the road at Snug Harbor, and the fishing is great. It's also just a short drive to a canoe/kayak launch on the Muskegon river. The downtown area is about a 20-25 minute drive around the lake, but it has some cool military museums including a WW2 submarine and a transport ship that was used in D-Day. Also, two pretty solid breweries.

Although we were there in the summer, this campground is right across the street from Muskegon's Winter Sports Park. The park has cross-country skiing trails, a permanent luge track, a roller-luge track, and i think an ice skating track through the woods. We're looking forward to taking a winter trip up here to give everything a try!

Close to the beach, but very very cramped

There are two campgrounds in the park - The Channel Campground & the Lake Michigan campground. We stayed at the Channel Campground two years ago. It's right on the channel from Muskegon Lake to Lake Michigan, so you have walking access to both lakes. The campsites were VERY close together. It was actually the first thing we noticed as soon as we pulled through the gate. Campsites have a paved parking pad, fire ring, electrical hookup, and picnic table. Restroom & shower facilities were relatively clean & well maintained. You'll probably have to wait for the showers, but that's pretty typical.

Overall, the campground was just average. If you don't like being close to your neighbors, I'd recommend staying at the Lake Michigan campground in the same park. Larger sites & tons of shade.

GREAT campground near the beach

We camped at Holland State Park for the 4th of July. This was our second time camping here. There are two campgrounds - Lake Macatawa & Beach. We were at the Lake Macatawa Campground. It's right across the street from Macatawa and about a 10 minute walk from a great Lake Michigan beach. Most sites were plenty big enough to fit two vehicles, two tents, and still have room to cook & play yard games. There are campsites along the main campground road that are wooded and have some privacy. The rest are pretty wide open, so you won't have anything separating you from your neighbors. I'm pretty sure all campsites had electrical hookup - Ours had 50A… not sure about the others.

The restrooms & showers were clean and functioning properly, and even though the campground was completely booked, we never had to wait for either. Ice & firewood is sold at the campground office for a reasonable price.

Alcohol is prohibited at the campground, but there's a great local restaurant & bar about 100 feet from the entrance with a good beer selection & GREAT lake perch. Right across the street is a little beach area on Lake Macatawa with parking & easy access to launch a canoe or kayak. The Lake Michigan beach is a short bike ride or walk away. This is where the park's Beach Campground is, and it is only about 100 yards from the beach.

There's a paved bike trail that goes all the way from the beach to downtown Holland. It's about 15 minutes in a car, so be prepared if you plan on biking it.

Overall a great campground for the summer months, and I know for sure we will be returning in the future.

Great non-electric sites

Great sites that offer decent privacy with brush & trees as a barrier between sites. Paved parking pad, steel fire-ring with steel grid to cook on. Restroom/showers are fully plumbed and have electrical outlets, but they're not really the cleanest I've seen. Plenty to do - good trails, right on Sugar Creek, 15 min from Turkey Run, about 2 miles from a private canoe/kayak outfitter that offers a variety of trips & rentals. I would definitely recommend staying here!