Marion Lake Group Site
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 28 mi
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 17 – September 30Open May 17 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
The sparkling Marion Lake offers breathtaking and exciting camping for your next family trip. Live it up on the water with your jet skis or wake board, or tone down the pace with a full day of fishing. The Marion Lake Group Site is an ideal way to spend time with friends and family for all the water activities you can imagine. Marion Lake is in the Ottawa National Forest, a protected area in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It stretches from the Lake Superior shoreline to the Wisconsin border, and attracts deer and many types of migrating birds. Keep reading
Recreation
A swim beach is adjacent to the group site.
Facilities
A convenient path leads to the lake and boat launch. Water is not available on-site, but is a short walk away.
Natural Features
The campground is in a large, grassy field surrounded by hemlock and hardwood trees with an opening to Marion Lake. The altitude is 1,627 feet, with lightly rolling hills stretched between the many other lakes in the area.
Nearby Attractions
Hiking enthusiasts will find scenic trails throughout the Sylvania Wilderness area, a region to the west with old-growth forests and 34 named lakes. On the way, stop by the Ottawa Visitor Center in Watersmeet for some interesting exhibits. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (906) 661-8870.
What the agency tells you
There are no electric or sewer site hookups at this facility.
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.
This campground is operated by Camp Host, LLC under a special use permit with the Ottawa National Forest.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…path leads to the lake and boat launch. Water is not available on-site, but is a short walk away. Natural Features…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
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 · 18
What you actually pay
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
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| MARION LAKE GROUP SITE | marion group | group standard area nonelectric | 319 ft | $100 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Imp Lake CampgroundOttawa National Forest · 3.6 mi
Lac Vieux Desert CampgroundNicolet National Forest · 9.6 mi
Sylvania (Clark Lake) CampgroundOttawa National Forest · 11 mi
Sylvania Wilderness Backcountry CampingOttawa National Forest · 11 mi
Golden Lake CampgroundOttawa National Forest · 12 mi
Spectacle Lake Campground (Wisconsin)Nicolet National Forest · 18 miMarion Lake Group Camping site is accessed most easily from U.S. Highway 2. Turn north from US-2 onto Marion Lake Road, also known as Forest Road 3980. Travel approximately 1.5 miles north and then turn right onto Forest Road 3985. Travel until road makes a Y, where a location map is located there to show you the layout of the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Watersmeet, MI
Typical weather
Typical May night 39°F, day 65°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 39°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Marion Lake Group Site 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 →