Michigan's Best Campgrounds

Michigan's Best Campgrounds:
A Guide to the Best 150 Public Campgrounds in the Great Lakes State
by Jim DuFresne
2005

Like the author's other popular guidebooks, this guide offers descriptions, complete with maps and black & white photos, of outdoor opportunities throughout the state. This book's focus is on camping and it includes information on when each campground is likely to be full or closed. It also gives suggestions for nearby outdoor activities. Kalamazoo falls in the book's "Heartland" region and many campgrounds close to Kalamazoo are in the "Lake Michigan" region. Here are a selection from those two areas:

Best Campgrounds near Kalamazoo

1. Cold Brook
51 sites Modern/Rustic
"Coldbrook has both modern sites and a rustic loop, each on a small peninsula of their own on the southwest corner of Portage Lake."
Swimming, fishing, hiking.

Cold Brook County Park
14467 East "MN" Avenue
Climax, MI


2. Deep Lake
120 sites Rustic
"Deep Lake is a very scenic section of Yankee Springs."
Mountain biking, fishing, hiking.

Yankee Springs Recreation Area
2104 Gun Lake Rd
Middleville


3. Warren Dunes
185 sites Modern/Rustic
"This facility is two loops in a wooded area on the backside of the dunes, offering shade and surprisingly, for the number of sites in it, a small degree of privacy between campers."
Beach, hiking

Warren Dunes State Park
12032 Red Arrow Highway
Sawyer


4. Grand Haven
174 sites Modern
"Sites at Grand Haven State Park are little more than a cement slab with no trees, no vegetation to keep the blowing sand at bay and little privacy from your neighbor who is but four feet away."
Beach.

Grand Haven State Park
1001 Harbor Ave
Grand Haven, MI


5. Hoffmaster
293 sites Modern
"The loops are well forested in hardwoods and pines and being dune country the sites are in a sandy area covered with needles but little undergrowth."
Beach, hiking, interpretive center.

PJ Hoffmaster State Park
6585 Lake Harbor Road
Muskegon


6. Muskegon
110 sites Modern
"The Lake Michigan campground has 110 sites on a loop of several lanes. The pre-motorhome era facility is neither level nor is it easy to pull trailers into many of the sites and large RVs are sent down to Muskegon Lake campground at the south end of the park."
Beach, fishing, hiking.

Muskegon State Park
3560 Memorial Drive
North Muskegon


7. Pioneer
213 sites Modern
"The sites are close together but most of them are well shaded by red pines."
Beach.

Pioneer County Park
1563 N. Scenic Drive
Muskegon


8. Henning
60 sites Modern
"Henning Park has 60 modern sites that are situated close together in three loops in an open grassy field."
Canoeing, fishing.

Henning County Park
500 Croton Road
Newaygo


9. Newaygo
99 sites Rustic
"Newago is one of the few units of the state park system with a rustic campground and where there is actually a little space and privacy between sites."
Fishing.

Newaygo State Park
2793 Beech Street
Newaygo


10. White Cloud
104 sites Modern/Rustic
"If the White Cloud City Campground has the look of a state park to you that's because it used to be a state park."
Hiking, tubing.

White Cloud City Campground
620 E. Wilcox
White Cloud

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