Au Sable Loop Campground
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 5All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – November 30Open May 1 through November 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
As visitors exit McKinley Road to enter the Au Sable Loop Scenic Overlook, they will first see a panoramic vista of the National Scenic portion of the Au Sable River. From the Au Sable Loop Scenic Overlook follow the unpaved road to reach the campground. The small five site campground is set amidst a mixed hardwood forest. The campground and day use areas are ideal for scenery viewing, wildlife viewing, and picnicking. Keep reading
Recreation
Water Activities: The Au Sable Loop Campground provides forest visitors with a variety of water activities. Access to the Au Sable River is afforded by a short path from the campground. Anglers can boat, wade, and fish from shore. Fish species found in the Au Sable River include bass, pike, brown trout, walleye, perch, sunfish, steelhead, and salmon. The water flows at a speed of 2 mph. The Au Sable River provides opportunities for non-motorized boating using watercraft such as canoes, kayaks, and rafts. Watercraft can be rented in Mio at Hinchman’s Acres Resort or at Alcona Canoe Rental in Glennie. Hiking: Along the north side of the river is the 0.5 mile Mio Nature Trail with a trailhead located in the Mio Ranger Station parking lot. Along the south side of the river is the 4.5 mile Wolf Creek Trail . The trailhead for Wolf Creek is on the lefthand side 1 mile west of Mio down South River road. Both trails provide views of the Au Sable River and are appropriate for a variety of skill levels.
Facilities
The Au Sable Loop Campground provides a handpump well for drinking water, a vault toilet, and trash collection services. Campsites provide users with picnic tables, campfire rings, and lantern posts.
Natural Features
Located near the banks of the National Scenic Au Sable River, this campground is a haven for water based recreation. An exemplary setting for wildlife viewing, visitors and campers will see a melding of habitats as the river turns to forest and then to field. The area is inhabited by bald eagles, deer, bear, bobcat, porcupine, various songbirds, and waterfowl. Please respect wildlife and observe from a distance. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (989) 826-3252.
Charges & Cancellations
All reservation changes, cancellations, and refunds are managed through Recreation.gov.
What the agency tells you
As a visitor to the National Forest, you are asked to follow certain rules designed to protect the Forest, natural resources and to provide for public safety of visitors. These rules are available to you online or at any office of the Huron-Manistee National Forests. Please take time to read and understand them. General Topic orders apply across the Forests. Applicable Orders: - Au Sable National Scenic River Corridor; R904-14-18 - Motorized Vehicle Use of Roads, Trails and Off-road Areas; R904-14-02 - Occupancy and Use; R904-14-03
Forest quiet hours apply.
Some sites are available on a first-come, first serve basis.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
You must occupy your site within 24 hours of the start of your reservation. Contact the Forest Service to request a late arrival or your site may be forfeited.
Do not tie or tack anything to standing trees, including but not limited to pets, laundry lines, or garbage bags.
You may use downed wood for firewood. Keep fires within the fire ring. Do not leave hot campfires unattended. Make sure your ashes are cool to the touch before you leave.
Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information
Fireworks and use of fireworks are not permitted.
ORVs may only be operated on roads and trails signed as open for their use. ORVs may not be used within campgrounds.
This site is not gated during the off season. It not maintained in winter. Access road and/or parking lot are not plowed. No toilet facilities are available.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 5
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 99 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…a handpump well for drinking water, a vault toilet, and trash collection services. Campsites provide…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Campground provides a handpump well for drinking water, a vault toilet, and trash collection services.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Kayaking
- Paddling
- Tubing
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 151st darkest of 192 in MI
- Bortle 3
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:33 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“All reservation changes, cancellations, and refunds are managed through Recreation.gov.” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:33 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 sites
All 5 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 5 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ausable River CampingHuron National Forest · 0.0 miRiver Dune CampgroundHuron National Forest · 0.1 miMeadow Springs CampgroundHuron National Forest · 1.4 miCathedral Pines CampgroundHuron National Forest · 4.7 mi
Mack Lake ORV CampgroundHuron National Forest · 5.3 mi
Wagner Lake (MI)Huron National Forest · 7.1 miFrom Grayling:
- Travel east on M-72 for 30 miles.
- Turn left and go north on M-72/M-33 for .5 miles.
- Turn right and go east on McKinley Rd. for 3 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mio, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 58°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical November night 28°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Au Sable Loop Campground is in Michigan’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Jack Bergman (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →