Mack Lake ORV Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 4241 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mack Lake ORV Campground is the largest campground on the Mio Ranger District. Southeast of Mio, Mack Lake is 175-acres of shared private and federal ownership. An embedded day use area provides visitors with a picnic area as well as water access and a swimming area surrounded by buoys. With an ORV trailhead located within the campground, Mack Lake ORV Campground is a popular location for ORV trail riders. Keep reading
Recreation
Water Activities : A day use area inside the Beaver Loop of Mack Lake ORV Campground is designed for picnicing and water activities such as beach play, swimming, fishing, and boating. Carry-in boat access is available through the day use area. Anglers can hope to catch sunfish, perch, and walleye. ORV Riding : Mack Lake ORV Campground is a popular location with ORV riders. With the trailhead for the Mack Lake Trail System starting in the campground, ORV riders can enjoy the section near Maltby Hills for easier trail riding or head to Bull Gap Hill Climb for a challenge. The trail is mostly on a 0 - 10% grade, with some short sections at a 30% grade Facilities The campground provides handpump wells for drinking water, several vault toilets, and trash collection services. The embedded day use area also provides visitors with picnic tables and grills. Campsites at Mack Lake have picnic tables, campfire rings, and lantern posts.
Natural Features
The 175-acre lake is surrounded by rolling jack pine plains and is a good location for wildlife viewing.
Nearby Attractions
Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (989) 826-3252 for general information.
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: - Motorized Vehicle Use of Roads, Trails and Off-road Areas; R904-14-02 - Occupancy and Use - Developed Recreation Areas, Dispersed Areas, Being Publicly Nude, Marine Prohibitions, Parking and Sanitation; 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 gated during the off season.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 42
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 90 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…wells for drinking water, several vault toilets, and trash collection services. The embedded day…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…campground provides handpump wells for drinking water, several vault toilets, and trash collection…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Paddle Boating
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Water access
- Night sky · 135th darkest of 192 in MI
- Bortle 3
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:47 UTC
recreation.gov lists 41 of the 42 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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, $15 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 15:47 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
42 sites
All 42 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. 42 of the 42 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Beaver | 22 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 23 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 24 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 25 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 26 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 27 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 28 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 29 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 30 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 31 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 32 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 33 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 34 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 35 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 36 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 37 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 38 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 39 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 40 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 41 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Beaver | 42 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 |
| scan and pay | Standard | type not stated | $15 | |
| Warbler | 1 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 10 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 11 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 13 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 14 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 15 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 16 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 17 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 18 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 19 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 2 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 20 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 21 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 3 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 4 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 5 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 6 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 7 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 8 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 |
| Warbler | 9 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | $15 |
25 of 42 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Wagner Lake (MI)Huron National Forest · 4.4 mi
Chimney Loop CampgroundHuron National Forest · 4.9 miRiver Dune CampgroundHuron National Forest · 5.2 mi
Au Sable Loop CampgroundHuron National Forest · 5.3 mi
Ausable River CampingHuron National Forest · 5.3 miMeadow Springs CampgroundHuron National Forest · 5.4 miFrom Grayling:
- Travel east on M-72 for 30 miles.
- Turn right and travel south on M-33 for 6 miles.
- Turn left and travel east on County Rd. 604 for 4 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 month of the year: typical February night 10°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
Mack Lake ORV 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 →