Lake Michigan at Manistee
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $40From, per site
- Sites
- 53All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lake Michigan Campground is perched on the shores of Lake Michigan, 15 miles south of Manistee. The area creates an incredible setting with a scenic overlook of the lake and a sandy swimming beach. This family campground provides an array of hiking and biking trails, plus swimming, fishing and kayaking. Keep reading
Recreation
A hardwood forest gives way to a beautiful sandy beach at the shores of the lake with a playground for younger campers. Trout fishing in Lake Michigan is another big draw. Bird watchers delight in seeing unique species like the piping plover and prairie warbler. The Arrowhead Trail, a short loop trail created by Boy Scouts, forms a loop between the campground and the beach. A trailhead for the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area is also within the recreation area.
Facilities
An amphitheater offers educational programs throughout the peak season. Other amenities include flush and vault toilets, beach access and an overlook deck. Campsites are equipped with picnic tables and pedestal grills. Group campsites can each accommodate a maximum of 50 guests.
Natural Features
The recreation area sits on the eastern banks of Lake Michigan along Porter Creek, due north of Hamlin Lake. As the second largest of the five Great Lakes, Lake Michigan provides stunning views and limitless options for water recreation. It covers a whopping 22,400 square miles and ranks as the fifth largest lake in the world. The Huron-Manistee National Forests encompass nearly a million acres of public protected land. Nearly 6,000 acres is wetlands that extend over the northern portion of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area has abundant trails for hiking and backpacking. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
What the agency tells you
Be sure to reserve a site that will accommodate your equipment. The site you reserve is your site. You may not move to another site.
This campground has first-come, first-serve sites
Group sites are for tent camping only
Everything else this campground posts · 7
No electric hookups available
Limit two vehicle per site; a fee will be charged for additional vehicles and have to be parked in the overflow area.
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.
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
Click here for more information on Huron-Manistee National Forests
Check in time is 2:00pm and Check out time is 11:00am It is imperative that you are clear from the site at 11:00am on your check out day so the host can come prepare the site for the next event. Please don't be the group that makes the incoming group have to wait.
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.Huron.Manistee@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 53 · 2 tent-only, 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 54 ft
- Paved pads
- 50 of 53
- Accessible sites
- 3
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Other amenities include flush and vault toilets, beach access and an overlook deck. Campsites are…”
- Playground
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 160th darkest of 192 in MI
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $40 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.
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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
53 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 51 mapped sitesAll 53 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. 50 of the 53 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| GROU | G01 | group standard nonelectric | 143 ft | 1,586 ft | |||
| GROU | G02 | group standard nonelectric | 122 ft | 1,507 ft | |||
| GROU | G03 | group standard nonelectric | 122 ft | 1,390 ft | |||
| OAK | 051 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 116 ft | 1,931 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 052 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 94 ft | 1,833 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 053 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 96 ft | 1,759 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 054 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 94 ft | 1,756 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 055 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 84 ft | 1,670 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 056 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | $40 | |||
| OAK | 057 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 104 ft | 1,552 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 058 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 63 ft | 1,586 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 059 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 104 ft | 1,464 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 060 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 63 ft | 1,530 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 061 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 107 ft | 1,382 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 062 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 84 ft | 1,473 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 063 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 112 ft | 1,365 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 064 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 77 ft | 1,515 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 065 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 107 ft | 1,428 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 066 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 109 ft | 1,525 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 067 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 77 ft | 1,586 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 068 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 109 ft | 1,629 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 069 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 96 ft | 1,720 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 070 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 111 ft | 1,730 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 071 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 96 ft | 1,806 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 072 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 108 ft | 1,829 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 073 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 108 ft | 1,937 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 074 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 124 ft | 2,023 ft | $40 | |
| OAK | 075 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 116 ft | 1,921 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 026 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 113 ft | 2,038 ftPorter Creek | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 98 ft | 2,061 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 028 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 98 ft | 1,994 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 029 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 99 ft | 1,975 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 030 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 84 ft | 1,886 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 031 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 109 ft | 1,892 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 032 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 74 ft | 1,802 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 033 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 73 ft | 1,735 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 034 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 98 ft | 1,775 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 035 | tent only nonelectric | 52 ft | 73 ft | 1,677 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 036 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 75 ft | 1,626 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 037 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 98 ft | 1,723 ft | $40 |
| ORCHID | 038 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 95 ft | 1,607 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 039 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 103 ft | 1,619 ft | $40 |
| ORCHID | 040 | standard nonelectric | $40 | ||||
| ORCHID | 041 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | yes | 113 ft | 1,770 ft | $40 |
| ORCHID | 042 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 113 ft | 1,733 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 043 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 104 ft | 1,860 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 044 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 119 ft | 1,885 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 045 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 1,956 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 046 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 74 ft | 2,004 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 047 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 111 ft | 1,951 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 048 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 103 ft | 2,045 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 049 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 111 ft | 1,970 ft | $40 | |
| ORCHID | 050 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 124 ft | 2,086 ft | $40 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 53 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Marzinski Horse CampgroundManistee National Forest · 15 miBear Track CampgroundManistee National Forest · 20 miPine Lake CampgroundManistee National Forest · 21 miElk Canoe CampgroundManistee National Forest · 24 miTimber Creek CampgroundManistee National Forest · 25 miFrom the north, take US-31 south 10 miles from its junction with M-55 in Manistee, then right on Forest Trail Road (FS 5629) for 8 miles to the site.
From the south, take US-31 north 11.5 miles from its junction with US-10 at Scottville, then left onto Forest Trail Road (FS 5629) for 8 miles the site.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Manistee, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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 more
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
Lake Michigan at Manistee is in Michigan’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, John Moolenaar (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →