By:
Submission
Michigan Recreation Passport is required for vehicle entry into state parks and recreation areas, state boat launches, state forest campgrounds and state trail parking lots. The Michigan Recreation Passport does not cover local, county, municipal, or metropolitan parks or recreation areas. Learn more: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79134_79210---,00.html
Located 9 miles E of Frederic via Co. Rd 612.
Super awesome hidden gem! Clear water, kind of mucky in places but the sand at the "beaches" is compact enough to swim and not be grossed out.
*FIRST THE PROS..
-This campground is beautiful, and so is the lake. The sunsets are beautiful.
-A very nice clean beach, and good easy trails from the campsites to the lake.
-This is a "catch and release" fishing lake, so not many people fishing.
-At night it is quiet, with hardly any noise from the main road.
-We camped at it for the first time last week (after Labor Day) from Tuesday to Friday morning, so the campground was pretty empty. The fall colors were very nice.
*NOW FOR THE CONS...
**UPDATE: After contacting the DNR they confirmed that despite what the local management office says, GENERATORS ARE NOT ALLOWED AT STATE FOREST CAMPGROUNDS!!)**
-Lots of "no see-um" flies and mosquitoes. Bring your spray!
-It is close to the main road, so during the daytime you hear the large trucks changing gears when they are going down hill, but this isn't that loud.
-It is just south of "Range 41" that is part of an anti-tank bombing range for the Army. Around 10:00 am you will first hear this strange electronic "simulated bomb" sound - THEN you will hear the jet fly by that shot at a tank in the bombing area; which is just north of the campground. It isn't that bad once you understand what is going on, and they only do this for about 10 minutes, then they stop. At least this is what it was like when we were there.
-This campground allowed GENERATORS except from 10pm to 8 am during quiet hours. This is despite the DNR rules posted at the entrance that say NO GENERATORS - under sub-section (o)! ***(See Update at beginning of post).
-People tend to allow their dogs to roam and play on the beach, which is not allowed!
-We were the ONLY CAMPERS in the 47 site campground until these knuckleheads (newbie campers with their first big new RV unit) and their large dogs camped right next to us and turned on their generator to cook dinner in their Microwave? At a "dry camp" primitive campground? They had the WHOLE campground to choose a site well away from us, but they just HAD to camp right next to us! We were the ONLY campers in the whole campground, but they just had to park next to us. We think being Newbie campers they were scared to be on their own in the woods. Their dogs were technically "on a leash" but they were just dragging the leashes around with them while he roamed where ever he liked. This included jumping on us, etc. Fortunately, they only stayed one night and left. After that it was very quiet and very nice!
-After speaking with a family that came in on Friday for the weekend, they said they had camped here for many years, and that the "first loop" (campsites 1-7) is the "party loop" because it is close to the beach. This is during the regular summer camping season. After our noisy "newbie" neighbors left (with their generator) it was very quiet in site #4 of Loop 1.
In conclusion, this is a very nice campground, but if you are looking for a camp where there are no generators allowed - this isn't it - although it should be. (Again, refer to Update). We can't imagine what it would be like in the summer when the campground is full and several campers have their generators running! Hopefully, the use of generators will be curtailed in the future, at this and other State Forest Campgrounds.
Very nice place for rustic camping. Very quiet, beautiful lake. Amazing sunsets.
