We stayed at John Bryan so we hike the Clifton Gorge and we love the town of Yellow Springs. The campground was a pretty basic Ohio campground, but did boast a frisbee golf course and access to the trails right from the campground. The campground is surrounded by wood, but pretty bare otherwise. There was very little privacy and sites just seemed to be placed randomly in the field. The pit toilets were relatively clean, and the campground roads safe for kids to ride bikes. We stayed at site 64 which was probably about the most private site there. We did need to position are cars around us to get this. Once dusk hit the raccoons were unbelievable. They would come out of the wood and stare at us fearlessly. Despite packing up our food properly, they were all over our table and right up next to our tent scavenging for food as soon as we went in our tent. The camp host was out searching the woods because they stole some kids backpack during the night. The trails were cool, but very poorly marked. There were paper signs that had fallen off the trees and the maps proved difficult to use because there were so many unmarked side trails. Better trail markers would make a huge difference.

This was our first camping vacation since COVID-19. Our intent was to find somewhere isolated, beautiful and allow travel without risk and DeTour State Forest met these expectations for us. Not once did we have a physical distance concern at the campground. We left home with a 6 hour drive to our location. It was easy to do in Michigan stopping only for bathroom breaks preferably at rest stops. Michigan proved to do a great job at keeping these cleans with many other travelers wearing masks. We arrived at the park to find a nice peaceful location. Despite part of our camping occurring on a weekend, the 21 sites were never full. The road coming in is twisty and single lane. This could be a concern given the amount of RV’s and large recreational boats that were staying at the campground. Of the 21 sites some were spacious and private, while a few were packed in groups. Chose the out ring of sites if seeking privacy. Many were deeply tucked back from the road and you could create privacy by positioning your site behind your car. The 2 pit toilets were large and clean. The back section of campsites on the outer ring back up to beach. The beach was what made this place incredible. No matter where you camped a virtually private beach to Lake Huron was less than a 5 minute walk. Of our 4 days camping and daily visits to the beach, only 2 times were there others on the beach and we were easily about 1/4 mile apart. As a mom, I was ecstatic to find a beautiful beach full of small dunes, cool rocks and beautiful geography with a shallow bay that my kids could explore pretty far away from the beach without going above their belly buttons. Waves were calm and the sun glistening on the lake was incredible. If you need to get supplies, I recommend heading East to Cedarsville. Here you will find a great fish market with a selection of locally caught fish and a distillery to fill your growler. You should also pick up your firewood here as you cannot get it bundled at the state forest. The Village of DeTour was tiny and I couldn’t find firewood, but there is a grocery. I was a bit disappointed by the amount of RV’s and overnight generator use. But the stars at night are beautiful and the amount of bird songs throughout the park are amazing

We stayed an evening here for a last day of school celebration. Bathrooms were clean (and prepared to follow social distancing guideline). The park provides cut firewood for campers. The yellow scout trail which connects with the NCT is off the meadow with the group sites, or you can ride your bikes down the paved road to mallard lake where most of the parks trailheads and multi use trail access lies. Oak openings has everything from pine tree forests to sand dunes. The sites were nice for primitive camping. As a lifetime local I must applaud our metroparks for creating some beautiful primitive campsites. Prior to this initiative the only local campsites were loud party campgrounds filled with RVs.

We rented a yurt as a local weekend escape. Our kids loved the yurt. It was nice with a little mini fridge and 4 double beds. Campground showers and bathrooms are clean. It is one of the only state parks in northwest Ohio, a beautiful little spot nestled in farmland of Ohio. The lake is nice for swimming and there are bike rentals which was fun as well. We did not use it, but there is a dog beach as well. Sites are crowed and close together.

Wonderful place to camp. Large quiet campsites with an amphitheater and occasional nature based activities for kids. Smokey the bear came when we were camping. Walk to the beach was easy and nice. The beach access can be a little tricky to get to. The black flies were really bad on some evenings preventing us from watching the sunset on the beach, but their presence seemed to come when a storm was coming in. The bathrooms were kept as expected for a state campground managed by hosts. We were nicely isolated with no wireless service to distract us, but close if needed. We were also close enough to services we may need (had to find a Non emergent clinic for my daughter). Easy trip to Ludington to see the dunes and We also spent a quaint day in Manistee canoeing the beautiful river. We would definitely return.