Platte River Campground — Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Nicole D.
Reviewed Sep. 11, 2021

Hovering rangers... saved by the location

We went here with a somewhat large group of people, and reserved about 5 campsites together in anticipation of a trip tubing down the Platte River. We were applying sunscreen when another member of our group showed up. We set the closed bottle of sunscreen on the table next to our camper and went to great them 2 sites away. We were gone from our site about 10 minutes and when we returned, we had a "warning" notice that we couldn't leave sunscreen outside for fear of attracting bears. It seemed like overkill, since the park ranger waved as she drove past us at our friends site... why couldn't she have just mentioned something versus leaving a written ticket? Over the course of the weekend, our group got multiple "warnings" for equally ridiculous things (like the tire a truck that was partially on a paved part of our booked ADA campsite, not at all part of the public area, completely on the site, yet it was an offense to be parked on the "sidewalk") and felt like we had to tiptoe the whole weekend. It made it less than enjoyable.

The saving grace of this place was the location. I don't know how anybody would enjoy an experience with the way the rangers hovered. We have since found a campground nearby that we prefer.

Month of VisitAugust