Where do I start. We are hardcore campers that prefer rustic campgrounds & Big Bear Lake ticked all of the boxes. It’s rated well, it’s in the area of the state we prefer, nice & clean lake, within an hour of Mackinaw, Lake Huron—etc. I booked 2 nights, a Monday & Tuesday and expected it to be kind of quiet. It was the exact opposite. This place was packed with RV’s, huge families with multiple cars coming and going all day, tons of kids and at least a dozen unleashed dogs running all over the place. I realized mid-way through our first day that we were smack dab in the middle of a huge family reunion/vacation. The same family had booked every single site along the lake except for ours. So all day & night they used our site as a highway to cut through to other sites as they mingled. At night they projected movies onto the side of a trailer & played them at movie theatre volumes—way past the 10pm curfew. And the camp host said nothing!!!!!!! Dogs wandered all over the place and again the host said nothing.
We stayed on site 32. It was next to the water pump & right on the lake. The lake has a wooden sea wall with a fence along the top and every 3-4 camp sites it has a ramp leading down into the lake. Our site was just next to one of these ramps—which was super convenient for our kids. And the fence/sea wall made a great clothes line to dry towels on or to tie rafts to.
Even with the added frustration of the noise & inconsiderate families surrounding us I would definitely camp here again. It just wouldn’t be in the month of July—to avoid this families annual camping outing. And I hope the host sees this review and realizes there are other paying patrons on any given night that deserve a peaceful camping experience!
Update 8/23
Just as terrible. We tried camping here again and left after 20 minutes. Didn’t even set up our tent. A group of 6 adults 2 sites down had TWO generators running, a dog that barked non-stop and very loud, terrible music playing while they all sat under a canopy smoking pot. That pretty much sums up this place now.