We stayed Aug 12-14, 2023, sleeping in a tent at site 21. We arrived after 6pm, but called ahead to let them know we would be late. We met Pam, who was kind and considerate, after trying to figure out how to make our phones work.
We have ATT cell service, which offered no coverage on site. We had to leave and drive about a mile before we had 1 bar on our phone. We learned that only Verizon offers service out there.
The out houses at the beginning of park are a lot cleaner than the set that is closer to the tents. The 2nd set was odorous so we did not even attempt the porta-pot near our site.
The "fresh drinking water" was not that fresh (see picture of gallon of water after it set overnight). I'm a hillbilly who grew up on drinking out of the water hose, so I could handle it, but others may not. The fire pits varied from rings, to one's with rocks around them. Ours was rocks and it probably should have been cleaned out prior to our arrival, but we were still able to cook on it.
They have a boat ramp where we put our kayaks in. The cement is broken, so I tripped taking my kayak out, which left me with bumps and bruises. No one's fault, but my own for not paying attention. Just wanted to warn others. We took kayaks to left, going under the bridge, and then to the right. Very shallow water at this time of year. Unfortunately Michigan had failed to take care of the water. Multiple trees we had to go around/under (see pictures). We kayaked until there was a huge tree that the stump blocks 99% of the water, I do believe if they were to take this out then the water would move a lot better. Most of the kayak trip the water was still, which made the trip back to the campground easier. The campground said no tubing, i wasnt sure why until we kayaked. The water doesnt move enough to move a tube, plus there are a ton of stumps under water, but cloae enough to the surface that it would make it unsafe. We seen a few rowboats, but nothing else where we were. Theree were a few pontoons at the bank, so im guessing they went to the right when they went out. We caught a few smaller small mouth and large mouth bass. Also, the water looks dirtier in the pictures than it actually is, when the sun hits it you can see the bottom a lot better. There was a ton of turtles, and a few cranes, but other than that not a lot of wildlife to look at.
I was hesitant to stay here after I read complaints about noise. As stated, we were at campsite 21. The very last one at the end. Site 20 was empty. Only one time we heard a bunch of laughter late at night, but that did not bother us. We were happy to know people were enjoying themselves.
I always ask myself, would you do it again? In this case, it's a two part answer. Yes, I would stay at campground again. Overall nice place. No, I would not kayak the maple river until after they cleaned it up.